Legal Assistance Centre-Namibia

TRUSTEES

The Trustees of the Legal Assistance Trust (LAT) oversee the work of the Legal Assistance Centre. Most of the trustees have served on the LAT for several years. It is comprised of:

Adv. Dave Smuts, LAT Chair & Founding Director of LAC (bio)

Tangeni Amupadhi

Elize Angula

Hosea Angula (bio)

Clement Daniels (bio)

Esi Schimming-Chase

Norman Tjombe (bio)

Bisey Uirab

Biographies

Adv. Dave Smuts
LAT Chair
Adv. Dave Smuts is the founding Director of the LAC and the present Chairperson of the Legal Assistance Trust. He started his articles in 1980 and practiced as an attorney until 1987 at Lorentz and Bone. He obtained a LLM degree from Harvard University in 1982. In 1988 he completed his pupilage at the Windhoek Bar and together with interested organizations and individuals established the LAC in July 1988. He stepped down as Director in 1992 to practice full time as an advocate at the Windhoek Bar. He remained a trustee, and took over as chairperson in 1996 following the death of Justice Kenneth Bethune who had chaired the trust since 1988. Advocate Smuts, SC is highly respected for his integrity and commitment to the protection of human rights and received local and international recognition for his role in defending victims of human rights abuses during the apartheid colonial period. In 1990 he was awarded the Human Rights Watch award as a human rights defender. He also regularly serves as an acting Judge of the High Court of Namibia.

Mr. Hosea Angula
Mr. Angula has served on the Board of the Legal Assistance Trust since 1989. He is a legal practitioner and partner with a prominent Windhoek law firm, LorentzAngula Inc. He is one of the first black legal practitioners to practice in Namibia and was involved in numerous human rights cases during the struggle for Namibia's independence. He regularly serves as an acting judge on the Namibian High Court bench.

Mr. Clement Daniels
Mr. Daniels served as the director from 2000 until May 2004 when he stepped down as director. He was immediately appointed as Trustee to the Board of the Legal Assistance Trust in May 2004. He joined the organization in 1988 as a paralegal and in 1991 temporarily left the LAC to complete his post-graduate studies at the University of Western Cape. He returned to the LAC in 1993 for his articles and was admitted as a legal practitioner in 1996. He focused primarily on human rights and labour cases while practicing at the LAC. Due to his interest in management and his leadership skills he was appointed as Director of the LAC with effect from 1 January 2000. After Clement stepped down as the director of the LAC, he opened his own law firm specializing in labour law, but was later appointed as a Magistrate for the labour courts.

Mr. Norman Tjombe
Mr Tjombe is the current Director of the LAC. He was appointed in June 2004. Before then, Norman was the Coordinator and lawyer for the LAC's Land, Environment and Development Project (LEAD). Norman studied law at the University of the Western Cape with an LAC Scholarship, and used to work as a student volunteer at the LAC during university holidays. He completed his law studies in November 1996 when he graduated with B.Juris and LL.B degrees. He immediately started working at the LAC as a candidate lawyer and was admitted as a lawyer in 1999.