Feature: Sun sets for Namibia's colourful politician

The sun could be setting for one of Namibia's most revered politicians, Hidipo Hamutenya, after his party, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), announced last month that he would resign as president and active politics.

Although Hamutenya, who wrote Swapo's constitution, had initially agreed to go, he made a U-turn Friday claiming that he was being pushed out. He also declared that he was still the president and would be going to the next parliament when it opens this month.

His party has, however, appointed Hamutenya's vice Steve Bezuidenhout as the acting president Sunday until May when new leadership is elected.

Hamutenya is a former ruling Swapo party politician considered a strategist and even held the posts of information, foreign affairs and trade and industry.

At one time, Hamutenya was tipped to take over from Namibia's founding president Sam Nujoma but lost the Swapo Party vice presidency to the out-going president Hifikepunye Pohamba in 2004.

Feeling cheated, Hamutenya broke away from Swapo to form the RDP, together with several other disgruntled members in 2007.

The party won eight parliamentary seats in 2009 thereby becoming the official opposition party. In last year's elections, RDP managed three seats leading to calls for Hamutenya's resignation.

In December last year, Hamutenya indicated that he would step down for the sake of the party and last month, the party announced that he would leave end of February.On Friday, however, Hamutenya made a U-turn claiming that he was forced out and that he was still going to parliamentary as one of the three RDP representatives.

In a letter circulated to media, Hamutenya dug in saying that he was democratically elected as party president to lead the party for the next five years.

"I was pushed by a faction of the leadership which has, for the past months, declared a crusade against me for allegedly causing the poor performance of the party in the recently held national elections," he pointed out in the letter.

He further said that the "comrades persistently coerced me under duress to announce when I would exactly retire as party president which I eventually did against my conscience and against my human rights".

"I would, therefore, need to inform you in unambiguous terms that I am not going anywhere until I myself without any due pressure will announce my retirement," he wrote, adding that: "When the right time arrives, I will procedurally retire."

At Sunday's press conference, the party also dug in saying Hamutenya would not be going to the next parliamentary that opens next month.

If this happens, it means that Hamutenya's political career that started with his father, Aaron, a railway worker being one of the founding members of Swapo ends unceremoniously.

Ironically, one of the people he worked the trenches with, Hage Geingob, will be sworn in as Namibia third president this month on the 21st.

This is the man who joined Swapo Party at 22 in 1961 when he went into exile to Tanzania and was then sent to Egypt where he worked at the party's office in Cairo in 1963.

As part of training during the struggle, Hamutenya sojourned in Bulgaria for a short course in media at the University of Sophia.

He also attended Temple University High School in Philadelphia, the U.S, where he met some of the current and past Swapo leaders among them Geingob, and Speaker of Parliament Theo-Ben Gurirab.

When he graduated from Lincoln University with a BA in Political Science in 1968, Hamutenya, together with Geingob and Gurirab were appointed Swapo representative to the Americas.

In 1968, he and Geingob, co-authored a seminal document which first defined the meaning of the name "Namibia". This document formed an important chapter called "The Rise of Nationalism in Namibia" in a book entitled "Nationalism in southern Africa".

In 1973, Hamutenya was recalled to Tanzania where he became the Swapo secretary for education responsible for placing thousands of young Namibians in educational institutions throughout the world.

Three years later, he was elected to the Swapo Central Committee and Politburo as well as become the deputy director and Head of the History and Political Science Department of the United Nations Institute for Namibia (UNIN) in Lusaka, Zambia.

There he taught many of Namibia's current government officials, including Chief Justice Peter Shivute, minister of Home Affairs and Immigration Pendukeni Ivula-Ithana, Attorney-General Albert Kawana, Judge-President Petrus Damaseb and many others.

In 1976 Hamutenya wrote the Swapo Constitution which, albeit with minor changes here and there, still remains in force today.

Between 1978 and 1989, he was a key member of the team that negotiated for the UN Plan for Namibian Independence.

He came back to Namibia in 1989 as part of Swapo's Elections Directorate as well as the Constituent Assembly and its Constitution Drafting Committee.

At independence, he became a Member of the first Parliament and the country's first Minister of Information.

Under his guidance, the then-SWABC was transformed into the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and it truly began to reflect the new dispensation in both its programming and recruitment policies. Under his leadership, the Namibian Press Agency (NAMPA) and New Era were also established.

Hamutenya took over the portfolio of Trade and Industry in 1993. Here he was instrumental in the promotion of the SME programmes and the introduction and implementation of the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) policy and programme. Endi