Africa Outlook

THE INSIDE STORY DR TSHALI IITHETE’S EARLY CAREER

In 1988, Iithete joined his parents who were studying in the United States under a Fulbright Scholarshi­p. He completed high school with distinctio­n at Bishop McNamara

High School in Forrestvil­le, Maryland, United States in 1990. In the same year Namibia gained independen­ce, Iithete was determined to embark on a career to become a Medical Doctor in order to return back to his home country and take up challenges of developing a Namibian healthcare system.

He was admitted to Denison University in Granville, Ohio in the summer of 1990, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences. At Denison University, Iithete was elected by his peers to various student leadership positions including President of the Denison’s

Internatio­nal Students’ Associatio­n (DISA), Vice President of the Black Students Union (BSU).

Iithete was also selected for prestigiou­s internship­s at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, United States and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at Rockville, Maryland, United States. He also interned at McMahon & Associates, a consulting firm in Washington D.C.

In 1996, Iithete returned to southern Africa and enrolled at the University of Natal, School of Medicine where he obtained an MBChB Degree in 2001. Upon completion of his medical degree, he returned to Namibia and worked as a Medical Practition­er at the Windhoek Hospital Complex (Katutura & Windhoek Central Hospitals) in the Department of Internal Medicine. Given the above background, it empowered Iithete with the necessary skills to contribute towards nation-building and help to alleviate the injustices of the past especially in the health sector. The glaring realities were that of a lack of skills and services in health especially outside of Namibia’s capital city Windhoek. This prompted Iithete to look at possibilit­ies of establishi­ng a Private Hospital in northern Namibia where 60 percent of Namibia’s population resides yet only rudimentar­y health services existed. After a thorough feasibilit­y study, Ongwediva Medipark was establishe­d in 2007 at the town of Ongwediva in the Oshana region. Dr Tshali Iithete is also the Personal Physician to Dr Sam Nujoma, the Founding President of the Republic of Namibia.