Geingob: I hold no grudges for 2002 demotion

President Hage Geingob has spoken extensively about his 2002 sacking as prime minister by then president Sam Nujoma, saying he holds no drudges over the controversial demotion.

In a Cabinet reshuffle on 27 August 2002, Geingob was replaced as prime minister by Theo-Ben Gurirab and appointed minister of regional and local government and housing, but refused the lower position.

His political fortunes declined after that, failing to be re-elected to the Swapo politburo a month later.

Geingob then jetted off to the United States of America (USA) to become the executive secretary of the Global Coalition for Africa, an organisation based in Washington DC.

He left America in 2004 after winning a seat in the National Assembly, becoming a Swapo backbencher and the party’s chief whip. In 2008, he was appointed minister of trade and rose back to the position of prime minister in 2012, before becoming president in 2015.

Speaking at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, also known as Sciences Po, late last week, Geingob said politics was his life, and that is why he had to return to Namibia, despite earning ‘big money’ in the USA.

“You see, in any situation there are setbacks. You may disagree with your boss. While I was such a darling of my president, there was really a problem of the third term, because the president wanted to continue and there was a bit of disagreement,” he told his audience.

“We are good friends, so I don’t want him to feel that I am still [unhappy],” he said.

Escape

Geingob explained that the apartheid government was against the education of black people, and in 1961, when the United Nations (UN) set up scholarship schemes to educate Namibians, he and his colleagues decided to escape because they did not want to apply from Namibia.

“Myself and my colleagues said we are not going to apply from here; the South Africans would know where we are going – so we escaped. We went to Botswana, walking. We were small boys, sometimes sleeping in the bush there.”

“Then we got to Botswana. There, the situation was so bad for me, because it was before independence. My suffering was done there in Botswana, not Namibia. Staying there for one year and four months, suffering - literally suffering, sometimes sleeping without eating anything for a week.

“Then I ended up being loaded in a plane, going to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), [being] dumped there.

“I stayed there for about three months and the UN and Americans came and I was given a scholarship,” he said.

He added that he received a scholarship in the USA, but could not speak English, so they were sent to high school where they were tested and enrolled into remedial courses to bring their education ‘up to standard’.

“The British were asking for a diploma – I ran away from South Africa and they were saying ‘go back to Pretoria to ask for forms to apply’,” he said.

Leadership transitions

Geingob concluded the talk by saying that despite his popularity in office, he still believes in the importance of leadership transitions, highlighting that leaders cannot cling to power indefinitely.

Doing so, he said, not only risks humiliation, but also the potential for political unrest, including the threat of a coup.

The head of state is serving his second and last term in office, which he is scheduled to vacate in early 2025.

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