Erastus Uutoni


Erastus Amutenya Uutoni is a Namibian politician who has served in the Cabinet of Namibia since March 2010. He was appointed the Minister of Urban and Rural Development in March 2020 in President Hage Geingob's second-term cabinet.
He served as the Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service from 2018 to 2020. Uutoni served in other ministerial portfolios before that. He was Deputy Minister of Safety and Security from 2010 until 2015, and Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration since from 2015 until 2018. A member of SWAPO, Uutoni was first elected as the Mayor of Ongwediva in May 1998. In 2009, Uutoni was selected for the SWAPO list for the National Assembly of Namibia for the 2009 general election.

Political career

Uutoni is a former People's Liberation Army of Namibia combatant. He underwent training in Angolan exile in Lubango and thereafter worked as a unit commander at the PLAN's First Mechanized Infantry Brigade. He holds a Diploma in Police Science and a Certificate in Marketing, both from the Namibia University of Science and Technology in Windhoek, as well as a Certificate in Political Science from the Institute of Political Science in Moscow. He also received training in office management and in photojournalism, and has worked for Namibia Today.