Swapo Party President, Dr Sam Nujoma, last night announced that he would not stand for party presidency at the coming Swapo Party congress in November.

At a Politburo meeting last night, Nujoma said he would not seek re-election as President of the Swapo Party and added that he wished that President Hifikepunye Pohamba became the President of Swapo Party.

In a moving farewell speech, which left some Politburo members in tears, Nujoma said he had been at the helm of the mighty Swapo Party for 47 years.

He said for 40 years, the party had never been single-handedly run by one person, but had always been run collectively.

The announcement brings to an end speculation about whether or not the founding president would stand for re-election.

“This announcement must serve to put to rest misinformation going around that I am seeking re-election as president of the Swapo Party “.

The move by the Swapo Party President is not surprising as in 2004, Nujoma informed the Politburo officially of his intension to relinquish the country’s presidency and then nominated Pohamba as a preferred candidate to succeed him.

Despite attempts by fellow party members who favoured current Prime Minister Nahas Angula and former Foreign Affairs Minister Hidipo Hamutenya, to portray Pohamba in a poor light, he emerged victorious at the Swapo Party Extraordinary Congress and has turned out to be a popular president.

Pohamba was Nujoma’s most-trusted confidant during the liberation struggle and it is no surprise for Nujoma to nominate him.

Pohamba was a founding member of Swapo in 1960 and left for exile the following year after being flogged by the tribal authority in Ohangwena for his Swapo activities.

In 1962, he volunteered to return to Namibia as a Swapo organizer but was initially detained in Zimbabwe and then for five months in Windhoek, before being deported to the then Ovamboland and placed under house arrest until 1964, when he went back into exile.

Pohamba agreed once more to return to Namibia in 1966, this time with Nujoma when the two men attempted to test South Africa’s claim that the Swapo leadership abroad were self-exiled and could return to Namibia at any time.

On their arrival in Windhoek, they were locked up and then deported 16 hours later.

The announcement by Nujoma, opens up the race for the vice presidency position of the party and speculation has been rife since yesterday morning when the news filtered through that Nujoma would finally make the announcement that he would quit.

Party insiders claim that the race is now between Swapo Party Chief Whip Hage Geingob and Minister of Lands and Resettlement Jerry Ekandjo.

Geingob is one of the most senior members of the Swapo Party and has always been given important assignments by the party, such as in 1989 when he carried the Swapo Party flag home to organize Swapo for the first democratic elections.

His political career dates back to 1963 at the age of 22. Having been in exile for one year he was soon entrusted with key responsibilities for the Swapo Party.

His first assignment was as an assistant representative of the party in Botswana between 1963 and 1964. Thereafter, he became a petitioner to the United Nations and the United States until 1971.

In 1972 he was appointed associate political affairs officer at the UN Secretariat.

Geingob was the founding director of the UN Institute for Namibia (UNIN) in Lusaka. He established a solid reputation as an educator and negotiator while he was the UNIN director from 1975 until 1989.

However, Geingob’s prominence shot up after he was appointed Swapo’s Elections Director for the UN-supervised elections in 1989 and subsequently as chairman for the Constituent Assembly. He subsequently became Namibia’s first Prime Minister.

The Politburo was also expected to discuss preparations for the upcoming party congress in November.

Ekandjo has risen through the ranks of the Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) and helped organize the 1970-71 nationwide strike against the contract labour system. He addressed rallies across the country as the SYL mobilized the youth.

Almost immediately, the SYL leaders attracted the attention of the apartheid security services. In 1973, Ekandjo was arrested after addressing a Swapo rally in Walvis Bay and was sentenced to four months in prison.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison on November 16 1973. The following March he was transferred from Windhoek Central Prison to Robben Island.

After his release in November 1981, he served on Swapo’s National Executive inside the country and was detained several more times during the 1980s. He worked at Hendrik Witbooi’s independent school at Gibeon until 1987 before leaving to become a full-time Swapo organiser.

Since independence, he has become the most prominent of the former internal leaders within Swapo, particularly after he took over the Home Affairs portfolio in September 1995, following a five-month period as Deputy Minister in the same Ministry.

He was voted on to the Central Committee in 1991 and became a member of the Politburo in 1997. At the 2002 congress, he emerged as one of the most popular figures in the party.

The position of secretary-general is also up for grabs at the upcoming congress but insiders claim that the race is between John Pandeni and Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, with the latter leading the race.