We say farewell to senior reporter Patience Nyangove

WITH deep sadness, the Confidente Newspaper family is grappling with the death of our colleague and sister, Patience Nyangove who passed on early Tuesday morning in a Windhoek Hospital where she had been hospitalised for the previous three weeks.

After a short period of illness, Nyangove eventually succumbed to kidney failure. She first joined Confidente in its inception years in 2011 and has been a leading figure on the editorial team, serving both as news editor and senior investigative journalist over the years.

Nyangove was born on 17 January 1982 in Masvingo, Zimbabwe and started her career as a journalist 16 years ago in Harare, where she was a reporter with AMH Media Holdings.

Before she joined Confidente, Nyangove endured several arrests at the hands of the Zimbabwean security forces. Her most prominent arrest came a few months before she joined Confidente, when she was charged with criminal defamation and “publication of false statements prejudicial to the state” for reporting on the tension between a coalition of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

She moved to Namibia at the invitation of Confidente editor-in-chief Max Hamata, where they briefly worked together at Trustco’s Informante newspaper. She later rejoined Max Hamata at Confidente where she worked until her untimely death.

She was also in her final year of studies at the University of Namibia, pursuing an Honours degree in Public Management.

Confidente editor-in-chief Max Hamata described Nyangove as an award winning, hardworking and passionate investigative journalist, who covered several reporting beats with a particular interest in politics and health. Her investigative work included coverage of several criminal enterprises, stemming from GIPF multi-million dollar fraud saga, investigations into racketeering and illegal abortions by several doctors, as well as the Chinese government scholarships for children of the political elite.

Some of her investigative work led to official state investigations.

“We have indeed lost a precious asset in investigative reporting.  We have lost one of our own and we can only honour her legacy by building on the foundation that she has left us. Certainly journalism is poorer without her and we offer our deepest condolences to her family,” he concluded.

Nyangove is survived by her mother, two brothers and a son.