Life and career
As a child, he was educated at an Anglican
mission. At the age of 25, Pohamba was a founding member of SWAPO in 1960. He
was arrested for his political activity but moved to Southern Rhodesia, whence
he was deported soon afterwards. He then spent four months in prison in South
West Africa before spending two years in Ovamboland under house arrest. In
1964, he went to Lusaka to set up SWAPO's Zambian office, and on his return,
met the man who was later to become President, Sam Nujoma.Until the achievement
of Namibian independence, Pohamba represented SWAPO across Africa, although he
studied politics in the Soviet Union for a time in the early 1980s. He headed
SWAPO's 1989 election campaign and was a SWAPO member of the Constituent
Assembly, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990, before becoming
a member of the National Assembly at independence in March 1990. He was
Minister of Home Affairs from March 1990 to 1995, Minister of Fisheries and
Marine Resources from 1995 to 1997, and Minister without Portfolio from 1997 to
March 2000. He was elected as Secretary-General of SWAPO in 1997 and as its
Vice-President in 2002. On January 26, 2001, he was appointed Minister of
Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, in which position he remained until
becoming President in 2005.
Under Pohamba as Minister of Lands,
Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Namibia initiated a policy of partial land
expropriation from landed white farmers to landless black ones. This policy
replaced the previous one of "willing buyer-willing seller".
Presidency
Pohamba was selected as SWAPO's candidate
for the 2004 presidential election at an extraordinary party congress held in
May 2004. He received 213 votes out of 526 in the first round of voting; in the
second round, held on May 30, he won with 341 votes against 167 for Hidipo
Hamutenya, having received the support of nearly all of those who had backed
third place candidate Nahas Angula in the first round. In the presidential
election, held on November 15/16 2004, Pohamba won with 76.44% of the vote, in
what has been described as a "landslide", but also denounced as flawed
by the opposition. He was backed by Nujoma, who was then serving his third
five-year term; Pohamba has been described as Nujoma's hand-picked successor.
Pohamba took office as president on March 21, 2005 and has since distinguished
himself by careful but decisive moves against corruption.
Although there was speculation that Nujoma would
seek re-election as SWAPO President in 2007 and then run for President of
Namibia again in 2009, he denied these rumours in early October 2007, saying
that he intended to step down as party leader in favour of Pohamba. On November
29, 2007, Pohamba was elected as SWAPO President at a party congress; he was
the only candidate to be nominated and no voting was deemed necessary. Nujoma
said that he was "passing the torch and mantle of leadership to comrade
Pohamba". The congress also chose Pohamba as the party's only candidate
for the 2009 presidential election. Pohamba won the 2009 presidential election,
receiving 611,241 totals votes (76.42%). The closest candidate was Hidipo
Hamutenya, who received 88,640 (11.08%).
Pohamba is a recipient of the Ongulumbashe Medal for Bravery and Long Service.
President Pohamba left the Presidency on 21 March 2015 making way for H.E. Dr. Hage Geingob
