| Bernadus Swartbooi | |
| Birth Date: | 11 October 1977 |
| Alma Mater: | University of Namibia |
| Office: | Leader of the Landless People's Movement |
| Term Start: | 16 June 2018 |
| Term Start1: | 21 September 2015 |
| Term End1: | 4 December 2016 |
| President1: | Hage Geingob |
| Primeminister1: | Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila |
| Successor1: | Priscilla Merjam Boois |
| Office2: | Governor of ǁKaras Region |
| Term Start2: | 2010 |
| Term End2: | 2015 |
| President2: | Hifikepunye Pohamba |
| Primeminister2: | Hage Geingob |
| Successor2: | Lucia Basson |
| Party: | LPM (since 2017) SWAPO (until 2017) |
| Spouse: | Moetie Swartbooi |
Bernadus Clinton Swartbooi was born on 11 October 1977 in Tses, a village in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. He is a Namibian politician.[1]
Swartbooi was governor of ǁKaras Region before being appointed as Namibia's deputy Minister of Land Reform in 2015 by the late President Dr. Hage Geingob, a position he subsequently was forced to resign from in January 2017.[2] [3] On 27 July 2017, Swartbooi was removed from Parliament and resigned from SWAPO. In 2016 he formed the Landless People's Movement.
Swartbooi attended secondary school at Suiderlig Senior Secondary School in Keetmanshoop. While at studying at the University of Namibia, he served as the secretary-general of Namibia National Students Organisation and later became its president.
Swartbooi worked as a prosecutor in Tsumeb and Khorixas and served as a special assistant at the office of the Prime Minister. Swartbooi holds a Basic Education Teaching Diploma from Windhoek College of Education (now University of Namibia Khomasdal Campus) and B juris as well as Bachelor of Laws from University of Namibia in 2001.[4] Swartbooi obtained a PG Diploma in Land and Agrarian Reform from the University of Western Cape.[5]
In 2017, after being fired by the late president Hage Geingob from his ministerial position, Swartbooi formed the Landless People's Movement (LPM), which is a new political party that aims to bring about change in the country through equitable land redistribution. LPM advocates for distribution of ancestral land to Namibians whose land was dispossessed by German settlers in the 1900s.[2] [6] He is the president of the party as well as its chief change campaigner.[7]
In the 2019 Namibian general election, Swartbooi ran as presidential candidate of the LPM. They gathered 2.7% and four seats in Parliament.[8]
Swartbooi's legislative interests includes Economic Policies and Agrarian Reform Politics. He is a teacher, lawyer, politician and farmer.
In 2024, while the respective local authorities were under LPM government, streets were renamed after Swartbooi in Keetmanshoop, Mariental and Oranjemund.[9]