Tucked between Fidel Castro Street and Robert Mugabe Avenue in Namibia’s capital of Windhoek lies Sam Nujoma Drive, named after the southern African country’s outgoing president and independence hero.
Sweeping down from the hilly Klein Windhoek (little Windhoek) suburb, and passing other roads bearing the names of long-time liberation leaders, including former South African president Nelson Mandela, Sam Nujoma Drive cuts the Namibian capital in half, from east to west.
He may be stepping down in four months after a third term as Namibia’s founding president, but there is little doubt that Sam Nujoma will continue to wield power in the arid southern African country.
On Monday, almost a million Namibian voters are expected to go to the polls to choose ”Uncle Sam’s” successor, named so because of his white grandfather beard and bear-like figure.
His handpicked candidate from the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) party, Lands Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba (69) is certain of victory in the presidential election.
But Nujoma (75) will retain his post as Swapo party president, ensuring that he will continue to have a say in running the affairs of the country. He is due to step down from that position in 2007.
For many Namibians living in Windhoek, Nujoma’s legacy is undisputed and they will continue to look to him for leadership long after he has laid down the presidential reins in March next year.
”President Nujoma is our father,” said Anna Shinana (26) while drinking a cool drink at a park a few blocks from Sam Nujoma Drive.
”We were one of the luckiest countries to have him as we have had stability for the last 14 years, unlike many other places in Africa,” said her friend Tjekupe Meroro (27).
Both are children of former Swapo activists who lived in exile in neighbouring Zambia and only returned to the country after independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
”President Nujoma has done much to bind us together as a Namibian nation,” added Willie Hansen, a municipal council worker.
Nujoma has been a pivotal figure for the past five decades in the vast southern African country of 1,82-million people.
The son of poor farmers from the Ovambo tribe, he was elected Swapo president in 1960 and launched the armed struggle against apartheid South Africa’s rule just six years later.
The Windhoek-based Namibian monthly publication Insight recently described Pohamba as a ”steady pair of hands” with his presidency ”not about
great leaps forward, but rather continuity”.
It regarded Nujoma’s confidence in Pohamba as a ”tremendous boon” for the incumbent president.
”His [Pohamba’s] opponents may want to portray him as a puppet, but if the puppeteer is ‘the father of the nation’ such jibes will largely miss their mark,” it said.
”Just as Nujoma’s support… secured him the nomination [for president], the same relationship will be the key to his success as president,” the publication said.
But Namibian political analyst Joseph Diescho warned that although Nujoma and Pohamba come from similar backgrounds — like Nujoma, Pohamba was a co-founder of Swapo in 1960 — it may be premature to predict what the new president will do once in power.
”Nujoma may be taking a big gamble if he thinks he could control Pohamba,” he said from Pretoria. – Sapa-AFP