A scientist who ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’

President Nangolo Mbumba has been described as a ‘moderate’ by former prime minister Nahas Angula, with whom he fled the country in 1965 to join the liberation struggle.

Mbumba, a United-States-educated scientist, became Namibia’s fourth president on Sunday after he was sworn in following the death of president Hage Geingob in the wee hours of the morning.

Mbumba had been vice-president since 2018, replacing the sickly Nickey Iyambo.

His journey to State House effectively started in December 1965 when he, Angula, Nangolo Taapopi and Alpo Mbamba left Oshigambo High School and took on the long journey into exile in Zambia, via Botswana.

“He was a grade ahead of me at Oshigambo,” Angula, who turned 80 last year, said. Mbumba was 24, while Angula was the youngest of the lot at 22.

The four friends left Oshigambo with the assistance of Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo, who gave them a lift to leave the Ondonga district. Mbamba, the only non-Omuwambo in the group, hailed from Kavango.

“Ya Toivo drove us to Onambutu, from where we hitch-hiked further until Eenhana,” Angula, Namibia’s prime minister between 2005 and 2012, said.

The quartet hitch-hiked on trucks from Eenhana to Okongo, and then Nkurenkuru to Divundu - all the way to Shakawe village in Botswana. They either pretended to be contract labourers going back to work, or boys going to a friend’s wedding.

Reunited in Harlem

It was only after crossing into Botswana that Mbumba and his friends revealed their true identity as refugees from Namibia who were on the run from the apartheid regime in their country. They eventually made it to Zambia, where they finished their secondary schooling at Nkumbi International College, near Kabwe.

“He left us in Zambia to continue his studies in the United States of America,” Angula recalled.

Originally from Olukonda in present-day Oshikoto Region, Mbumba graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1971. In 1973, he graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Master of Science degree in biology.

He soon became a science and mathematics teacher at the Harlem Preparatory School in New York.

“I met him in Harlem – our first meeting since Zambia,” Angula said.

Mbumba returned to Africa in the late 1970s, becoming the head of the science department at the Namibia Education Centre in Kwanza Sul, Angola, from 1979 to 1980. He later became the principal of the centre - his lifelong dream.

During his swearing-in on Sunday, Mbumba remarked that becoming a school principal was the pinnacle of his political life.

In 1985, he was elected as deputy secretary of education and culture for the Swapo Party, ironically deputising Angula. Two years later, he quit that position to become personal secretary to party president Sam Nujoma.

Gentleman politician

After independence in 1990, Mbumba became the CEO of the Joint Administrative Authority for Walvis Bay and Off-Shore Islands, tasked to ensure the return of Walvis Bay to Namibia from South Africa’s apartheid control.

His former Cabinet colleague Ben Amathila, a personal friend, yesterday told Namibian Sun: “He replaced Petrus Damaseb in the role of returning Walvis Bay to Namibia, and he did a good job by ensuring this happened”.

He would soon land his first Cabinet position, as agriculture minister, in 1993. Mbumba went on to become minister in the portfolios of finance, information, education, and safety and security. Between 2012 and 2017, he was secretary-general of Swapo.

Geingob appointed Mbumba as his vice-president in 2018. With the next general election only in November, the law provides that he must be elevated to the position of head of state until a new president is elected.

According to Angula, Mbumba is “a moderate who won’t hurt a fly”.

“He’s not a man of extremes. He is a gentleman politician who approaches leadership scientifically. He has inherited a lot of problems - such as the widening gap between the rich and poor, high rates of unemployment and a dysfunctional education. We must all support him to succeed.”

'Too soft'

Former Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) secretary Dr Elijah Ngurare, who worked closely with Mbumba when the latter was party secretary-general said: “We agreed on many things, and disagreed on a few things. For example, he launched the then SPYL’s workshop, which focused on youth employment creation strategies, and he went to present it on our behalf to the Cabinet retreat.

“He would often come to my office and give me encouragement, joking that during his youthful years he was radical just as we were.”

Some within Swapo have described Mbumba as ‘too soft’ and ‘spineless’, saying he’s not his own man.

“When things are hot, he surrenders quickly. [Geingob] and [former president Hifikepunye] Pohamba often held his hand because he is too soft to stand his own ground,” an insider said.