Niko Bessinger

Nicholas Bessinger ( born June 12, 1948 in Walvis Bay, † March 25, 2008 in Windhoek ) was a Namibian architect, politician and Namibia's first Minister of Environment and Tourism.

Life

Niko Bessinger was born in 1948 as son of the contractor, Hendrik Bessinger ( 1929-2012 ) in the then members of the Union of South Africa enclave of Walvis Bay. He attended the Roman Catholic St. Boniface Elementary School in Windhoek, the Augustineum in Parow, and earned his high school diploma in 1966 at the Athlone High School in Cape Town. In 1969 he began to study architecture at the University of Cape Town; he brook his studies, however, and went back to South West Africa in 1972 and joined the South West Africa People 's Organization (SWAPO ). In 1976 he was an active member of SWAPO and treasurer. In 1978 he continued his studies using a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Detroit continues, and obtained in the United States until 1981, a bachelor's degree ( B.Arch. ).

Back in Namiba 1981 where he was SWAPO's Secretary for Foreign Affairs and from 1983 was a member of the Namibian Chamber of Architects (NIA ). Niko Bessinger 1989 Member of the Constituent Assembly of Namibia and with the independence of Namibia 1990 Member of the National Assembly and Namibia's first Minister of Environment and Tourism. In the parliamentary elections in December 1994 he was again elected to the National Assembly, was, however, based on 1996. By 2007, he remained on the Central Committee of SWAPO.

Bessinger was married to Hermine Bessinger (born Bertolini ). They had four children. Bessinger died in 2008 at his home in Windhoek district Khomasdal to a heart attack.