Nujoma to stand down but stay in saddle

WINDHOEK – Namibia’s founding President Sam Nujoma is to stand down in March after this week’s elections, but will remain a lynchpin of his country’s politics as president of the ruling Swapo party.

After nearly 15 years in power, the rural retirement the guerrilla-turned-president sometimes speaks of still seems some way off. He is expected to remain the governing party’s leader until at least 2007.”So long as I am still alive I will contribute in any way possible,” he told Reuters earlier this year.At 75, the man who spent three decades fighting South African rule appears in robust health — he shuns red meat and alcohol — and his interest in running the affairs of his country is undiminished.Appealing on Saturday to loyalists to back chosen successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in a vote on Monday and Tuesday, Nujoma listed the achievements of his government from building schools, hospitals and roads to creating jobs in industrial zones.”On this solid foundation we have made notable success to improve the standard of living for the majority of our people,” said Nujoma, recognisable by his trademark grey beard and thick-framed spectacles.There is little doubt that life has improved for most Namibians since the end of South African apartheid rule.But Nujoma drew criticism from some quarters for sending troops into the vast Democratic Republic of Congo in the late 1990s to back late President Laurent Kabila, and for standing for a third term in 1999 polls, which required a vote in parliament to exempt him from a two-term limit.Likewise his vociferous attacks on homosexuality detract from the image of a leader who has championed reconciliation with whites rather than revenge for years of repression.His government’s policy of land expropriation to release white-owned farmland for landless black Namibians has attracted parallels with Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.But Nujoma insists everything be done legally, and not an acre has yet been expropriated under a policy that has come to be seen more as a means of pressuring farmers to sell land voluntarily than to seize their farms.FREEDOM FIGHTER Samuel Shafiishuna Nujoma was born on May 12, 1929, into the northern Owambo people who make up half Namibia’s population.He tended the family’s cattle and attended a Finnish missionary school before going to the port of Walvis Bay where he worked at a general store and a whaling station.After working in the capital Windhoek as a railway cleaner, in the late 1950s he helped to organise resistance against South Africa’s apartheid labour laws.The campaign led to a clash with police in 1959 in which 13 blacks were killed.Nujoma was arrested after the battle but fled the country in February 1960 after being released on bail, leaving behind his wife, with whom he had three sons and a daughter.During 30 years as an exiled guerrilla leader, he roamed foreign capitals to convince the world that Swapo represented the true voice of his homeland.The stalemate over Namibia’s future ended in 1988, when South Africa, Cuba and Angola signed an independence accord, tacitly accepted by Swapo.Nujoma returned home in triumph in 1989 to lead Swapo to a convincing victory in UN-sponsored elections which paved the way for independence.Nujoma is due to stand down on March 21 — 15 years to the day since he proudly took charge as the first president of an independent Namibia.- Nampa-ReutersHe is expected to remain the governing party’s leader until at least 2007.”So long as I am still alive I will contribute in any way possible,” he told Reuters earlier this year.At 75, the man who spent three decades fighting South African rule appears in robust health — he shuns red meat and alcohol — and his interest in running the affairs of his country is undiminished.Appealing on Saturday to loyalists to back chosen successor Hifikepunye Pohamba in a vote on Monday and Tuesday, Nujoma listed the achievements of his government from building schools, hospitals and roads to creating jobs in industrial zones.”On this solid foundation we have made notable success to improve the standard of living for the majority of our people,” said Nujoma, recognisable by his trademark grey beard and thick-framed spectacles.There is little doubt that life has improved for most Namibians since the end of South African apartheid rule.But Nujoma drew criticism from some quarters for sending troops into the vast Democratic Republic of Congo in the late 1990s to back late President Laurent Kabila, and for standing for a third term in 1999 polls, which required a vote in parliament to exempt him from a two-term limit.Likewise his vociferous attacks on homosexuality detract from the image of a leader who has championed reconciliation with whites rather than revenge for years of repression.His government’s policy of land expropriation to release white-owned farmland for landless black Namibians has attracted parallels with Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.But Nujoma insists everything be done legally, and not an acre has yet been expropriated under a policy that has come to be seen more as a means of pressuring farmers to sell land voluntarily than to seize their farms.FREEDOM FIGHTER Samuel Shafiishuna Nujoma was born on May 12, 1929, into the northern Owambo people who make up half Namibia’s population.He tended the family’s cattle and attended a Finnish missionary school before going to the port of Walvis Bay where he worked at a general store and a whaling station.After working in the capital Windhoek as a railway cleaner, in the late 1950s he helped to organise resistance against South Africa’s apartheid labour laws.The campaign led to a clash with police in 1959 in which 13 blacks were killed.Nujoma was arrested after the battle but fled the country in February 1960 after being released on bail, leaving behind his wife, with whom he had three sons and a daughter.During 30 years as an exiled guerrilla leader, he roamed foreign capitals to convince the world that Swapo represented the true voice of his homeland.The stalemate over Namibia’s future ended in 1988, when South Africa, Cuba and Angola signed an independence accord, tacitly accepted by Swapo.Nujoma returned home in triumph in 1989 to lead Swapo to a convincing victory in UN-sponsored elections which paved the way for independence.Nujoma is due to stand down on March 21 — 15 years to the day since he proudly took charge as the first president of an independent Namibia.- Nampa-Reuters