Pohamba, Hage talked Lutombi out of City CEO job

Outgoing Roads Authority boss Conrad Lutombi says former presidents Hage Geingob and Hifikepunye Pohamba personally intervened to stop him from accepting the lucrative N$300 000-a-month chief executive job at the City of Windhoek in 2022 — urging him instead to remain in his national role to finish the country’s road network transformation.The story, told on Network Television’s The Agenda talk show — premiering this Sunday — reveals the high level political lobbying that took place behind the scenes when Lutombi emerged as the preferred candidate to lead the country’s most politically contested municipal organisation.Lutombi, who was offered a salary reported to be around N$308 000 per month, says the offer was appealing not for its perks but for the developmental challenge it presented.“Windhoek houses about 40% of Namibia’s population. I thought perhaps my next five years could be spent assisting in building the city,” he said, explaining that visits to informal settlements had stirred his sense of duty.“We visit Havana whenever we have time. I take my children so they can see how people live — the sanitation, the lack of water and electricity, the state of the roads, the housing. It forced me to ask myself: maybe I should go and help address these things.”Presidential pressureBut before he could say yes, Lutombi says “national interest intervened”. “It’s not a secret,” he stated, recounting how then-president Hage Geingob called him in to ask why he wanted to move.“He felt that yes, you want to serve Windhoek, but you are already serving the national capital. So which one now?” Lutombi recalled, adding that Geingob even questioned whether he was chasing money. “I said no. I explained myself.”Soon after, Pohamba — who is widely credited with championing Namibia’s road expansion during Lutombi’s time at the helm of Roads Authority — stepped into the fray.“President Pohamba summoned me to his house in Okanghudi. It was a tough meeting,” he recounted.“He told me not to answer immediately. Later he phoned again and said, ‘just stay.’”Lutombi said his family, in-laws and spiritual advisers also cautioned against the move.“My wife was not supporting it,” he noted, saying the decision was deeply introspective and drawn-out.A divided Windhoek?In the end, he concluded that Windhoek’s fractured politics would have constrained his ability to deliver.“I realised the environment in Windhoek was very toxic, politically. Even if I went there, I wouldn’t have been able to deliver,” he said.“You can’t deliver if you have various political parties and interests pulling in different directions.”He said even attempt by political parties Affirmative Repositioning (AR) and Landless People’s Movement (LPM) to convince him to take the City job could not alter his stance.Exit on his own termsEven as Roads Authority later moved to renew his contract for another five years, Lutombi only accepted a short extension, which ends this month.“They wanted me to stay for five years. I told them no — two years. I feel I have done what I could do. A good leader knows when to leave the stage.”That decision paved the way for succession planning, which he says was set in motion well in advance.“What you see happening now was prepared two years back,” he said.“The system is bigger than individuals. We are alive to a bigger call.”A decade-defining tenureLutombi, widely regarded as one of Namibia’s most effective public enterprise leaders of the last decade, steps down on 31 December after overseeing a transformative period for Roads Authority. He first ascended to the CEO’s position in 2010, as acting CEO, before he was appointed substantively in 2013. During his second term alone, the institution executed 584 road construction and maintenance contracts worth N$17.5 billion — with 98% of the work awarded to local contractors, including SMEs and emerging firms.Roads Authority also recorded unqualified audits each year under his stewardship.On 1 January 2026, Hippy Tjivikua takes over the reins — inheriting a highly organised entity Lutombi says was primed to transition years ago. - nikanor@nmh-hub.com.na

Pohamba, Hage talked Lutombi out of City CEO job

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-04

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Pohamba, Hage talked Lutombi out of City CEO job

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Namibian Sun 2025-12-04

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