Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was sworn in on Monday as the Southern African country’s second head of state since independence, is known for his close ties to Sam Nujoma, whose legacy he has vowed to pursue.
Handpicked by Nujoma as his successor, Pohamba (69) won a landslide victory in the presidential election last November on a platform that called for continuity in Namibia, a former province of apartheid South Africa that became independent in 1990.
”I have been associated with President Nujoma for over 40 years … I have come to know his vision, hope and aspirations for this country,” said Pohamba recently at a meeting of the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo).
So close is Pohamba to Nujoma that Defence Minister Erkki Nghimtina once remarked that he was ”like another Nujoma”.
A discreet man who physically resembles Nujoma with his salt-and-pepper beard and glasses, Pohamba has earned his own credentials as an independence hero and a founding member of Swapo.
However his critics see him as a stooge of Nujoma, who they say will continue to wield power behind the scenes in his role as Swapo’s party president, a position he will retain until 2007.
As president, the former lands minister is expected to make land reform a priority, seeking to steer clear of a Zimbabwe-style violent land grab while ensuring that imbalances in ownership are redressed.
In his farewell address as lands minister on Friday, Pohamba made clear that white farmers must take up the government’s offer to buy their land ”at fair prices”.
”We have a fear in the Swapo leadership that if we do not do something, there could be a revolution,” Pohamba said.
”The ‘have-nots’ could stand up and say: ‘Enough is enough’. We as Swapo leaders could be overthrown, land could be confiscated and those people don’t know then how to govern the country,” Pohamba warned.
About 3 800 farmers, the majority of whom are white, own 44% of arable land in the dry Southern African country, an imbalance Pohamba and the ruling Swapo have vowed to address.
Born in Okanghudi in the north-central Ohangwena region, Pohamba started school at the age of 12 at a Christian mission near the Angolan border.
In 1956, he landed his first job as an office clerk at a copper mine in Tsumeb, about 480km north of Windhoek.
In 1960, he became one of the founding members of Swapo.
A year later, Pohamba was arrested by tribal chiefs opposed to Swapo, chained for several days and publicly flogged at a traditional court for ”political activism”.
He left Namibia in 1961 but returned a year later for underground work.
In 1964, Pohamba went into exile for a second time but returned in March 1966 with Nujoma to challenge the South African apartheid administration in then South West Africa.
Both men were deported the next day back to Zambia.
Pohamba’s star has been ascending since 1970, when he was elected member of the Swapo central committee in exile. Seven years later, he made it to the politburo and in between underwent military training in Tanzania and Zambia.
In the early 1980s, he obtained a degree in political science in Moscow and served as Swapo finance secretary at the organisation’s then headquarters-in-exile in the Angolan capital, Luanda.
He returned from exile in 1989 and was in charge of Swapo’s electoral campaign for the first democratic elections, which paved the way for independence in 1990.
Pohamba was appointed independent Namibia’s first home minister and then held the fisheries and marine resources portfolio. He has held the lands portfolio since 2002.
The professed Christian is married to Penexupifo, a practising midwife, who has now given up her job to play the role of First Lady. The couple has eight children and twelve grandchildren. — Sapa-AFP