Jerry Lukiiko Ekandjo (born 17 March 1947) is a Namibian politician, former anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. He is one of the founding members of the SWAPO Youth League and has been one of the most active internal leading members of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) during the liberation struggle. He spent eight years in prison on Robben Island after being charged for inciting violence in 1973. Ekandjo has been a member of the cabinet of Namibia from independence in 1990 until 2018, serving the SWAPO government in various ministerial positions. His last appointment was Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, from which he was recalled in early 2018. In 2012 he was a candidate for the vice-president of SWAPO and came second to Hage Geingob who eventually became the president of Namibia in 2015. In 2017 Ekandjo was nominated as a candidate for the president of SWAPO and came second again to Hage Geingob. Political career Ekandjo was born on 17 March 1947 in Windhoek, South-West Africa. He was a member of the SWAPO Party Youth League from 1969 to 1973 and served as chairman of its Windhoek branch. In August 1973 he was arrested, and in November 1973 he was put on trial for incitement of violence. He was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison, which he spent on Robben Island in South Africa. Following his release in 1981, he was a teacher from 1982 to 1987, and in 1989, he was the deputy head of SWAPO voter registration. Immediately prior to independence, he was a SWAPO member of the Constituent Assembly, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990, and since independence in 1990 he has served as a member of the National Assembly of Namibia. He also became deputy Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing in 1990, serving in that position until 1995. He was deputy Minister of Home Affairs from March 1995 until being promoted to the post of Minister of Home Affairs in September 1995. After nearly ten years as Minister of Home Affairs, Ekandjo was moved to the post of Minister of Lands and Resettlement on March 21, 2005. He received the highest number of votes, 395 (tied with Nahas Angula), in the election to the central committee of SWAPO at the party's August 2002 congress. It was reported that at the time