Minister of Trade and Industry
What was the position of Hage Geingob from Apr 2008 to Dec 2012?
Hage Geingob Hage Gottfried Geingob ( born 3 August 1941 ) is the third and current president of Namibia , in office since 21 March 2015 . Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia from 21 March 1990 to 28 August 2002 , and served as Prime Minister again from 4 December 2012 to 21 March 2015 . Between 2008 and 2012 Geingob served as Minister of Trade and Industry . He is also the current president of the ruling SWAPO Party since his election to the position in November 2017 . In November 2014 , Geingob was elected president of Namibia by an overwhelming margin . In November 2017 , Geingob became the third president of SWAPO after winning by large margin at the partys 6th Congress . In August 2018 , Geingob began a one-year term as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community . Early life . Geingob was born in Otjiwarongo , South West Africa ( present day Namibia ) , in 1941 . He received his early education at Otavi in South West Africa under the Bantu Education System . He joined the Augustineum , where most of todays prominent political leaders of Namibia were educated , in 1958 . In 1960 , he was expelled from Augustineum for having participated in a march in protest at the poor quality of education . He was , however , readmitted and finished the teacher-training course in 1961 . Subsequently , he took up a teaching position at the Tsumeb Primary School in Central Namibia , but soon discovered that his thirst for knowledge was unlikely to be quenched in Namibia . As a teacher , he also hated being an unwilling instrument in perpetuating the Bantu Education System . Therefore , at the end of the school year , he left his job to seek knowledge and instruction that could help him change the system . He and three of his colleagues walked and hitchhiked to Botswana to escape the system . From Botswana , he was scheduled to go to Dar es Salaam , Tanzania , on a plane chartered by the African National Congress ( ANC ) , but the plane was blown up by South Africans while still on the ground because the time bomb went off prematurely . Subsequently , the apartheid regime also tightened up the underground railway . As a result , Geingob stayed in Botswana , where he served as Assistant South West Africa Peoples Organization ( SWAPO ) Representative ( 1963–64 ) . University years . In 1964 Geingob left for the United States to study at Temple University in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , where he was granted a scholarship . Subsequently , he obtained a BA degree from Fordham University in New York City in 1970 and an MA degree in International Relations from the Graduate Faculty of The New School , New York in 1974 . In 1964 , he was appointed SWAPO Representative at the United Nations and to the Americas . He served in this position until 1971 . He travelled extensively , criss-crossing the United States , talking with people , and addressing gatherings . He and his colleagues were not always successful , but ultimately the United Nations General Assembly recognised SWAPO as the sole and authentic representative of the people of Namibia . Namibians struggle at the international fora , and their armed struggle launched in 1966 , eventually led to the independence of Namibia in 1990 . Career as politician and educationist . In 1972 Geingob was appointed to the United Nations Secretariat as political affairs officer , a position he held until 1975 , when he was appointed director of the United Nations Institute for Namibia . He and his team were responsible for starting the institute , whose primary function was to train cadres who could take over the civil service of Namibia upon independence . Another important component of the institute was to carry out sectoral research to develop a policy framework for the government of independent Namibia . Over the years , it grew in stature and institutional relations were established with various institutions of higher learning in Europe , including the University of Warwick , University of East Anglia , and University of Sussex . These and other institutions recognized the institutes diploma and admitted its graduates for further studies . Geingob was director of the United Nations Institute for Namibia until 1989 . At the same time , he continued to be a member of both the Central Committee and the Politburo of SWAPO . In 1989 , he was elected by the Politburo of SWAPO to spearhead SWAPOs election campaign in Namibia . To carry out this assignment , he returned to Namibia with many of his colleagues on 18 June 1989 , after 27 years absence from the country . As SWAPOs Director of Elections , Geingob , along with other members of his directorate , established SWAPO election centres throughout the country and spearheaded an election campaign that brought SWAPO to power in Namibia . On 21 November 1989 , subsequent to the elections , he was elected chairman of the Constituent Assembly , which was responsible for formulating the Namibian Constitution . But before a constitution could be formulated , he had to ensure that the Constituent Assembly went through a process of confidence building between the people , who were known for their hatred of each other . Subsequently , national reconciliation became government policy . Under Geingobs chairmanship , the Constituent Assembly unanimously adopted the Namibian Constitution on 9 February 1990 . On 21 March 1990 , Geingob was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Namibia , and on 21 March 1995 , he was sworn in for a second term . He served in this capacity for 12 years . As prime minister Geingob introduced modern management approaches to the government ; he was also committed to nature conservation coupled with tourism , and in the early 1990s opened the Ongava Lodge , just south of Etosha National Park . In a cabinet reshuffle on August 27 , 2002 , Geingob was replaced as Prime Minister by Theo-Ben Gurirab and appointed Minister of Regional and Local Government and Housing , but declined to accept this lesser position . He had placed ninth , with 368 votes , in the election to the Central Committee of SWAPO at the partys August 2002 congress , but on September 15 , he failed to be reelected to the SWAPO Politburo ; he received 33 votes from the 83-member Central Committee , while the lowest scoring successful candidate received 35 votes . In 2003 Geingob was invited to be Executive Secretary of the Global Coalition for Africa based in Washington , D.C . The Global Coalition for Africa is an intergovernmental forum that brings together top African policymakers and their partners in the international community to build consensus on Africas priority development issues . It is based on the premise that Africa can grow only from within , but to do so it needs outside support . His focus was to work with African continental and regional organizations and Africas development partners toward conflict resolution in Africa , promotion of good governance in African states , and integration of African economies in the global economy . In the nomination of SWAPO parliamentary candidates by party delegates on October 2 , 2004 , Geingob , at the time still in Washington working for the Global Coalition for Africa , placed 28th out of 60 . He then left the Global Coalition for Africa and returned to Namibia to participate in the November 2004 parliamentary election , in which he won a seat . Geingob became the party Chief Whip of SWAPO in the National Assembly on April 18 , 2007 . He was brought back into the SWAPO Politburo in mid-2007 , filling one of two vacancies . In November 2007 , a few weeks before a party congress , the Politburo named Geingob its sole candidate for the position of Vice-president of SWAPO . At the congress , he was accordingly elected without opposition on November 29 , 2007 and appointed Minister of Trade and Industry on April 8 , 2008 . At SWAPOs 2012 party congress , Geingob was reelected as Vice-president of SWAPO on 2 December , a result considered likely to make him the successor of Hifikepunye Pohamba as President of Namibia in 2015 . Geingob received 312 votes from the delegates , while Jerry Ekandjo received 220 and Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana 64 . Following the congress , Pohamba appointed Geingob prime minister on 4 December 2012 . As the SWAPO candidate , Geingob was elected President of Namibia by an overwhelming margin on 28 November 2014 , receiving 87% of the vote . He was sworn in as president on 21 March 2015 ; the ceremony was attended by 15 regional Heads of State and Government . In November 2019 Geingob was reelected with 56.3% of the vote . While speaking to newspaper The Namibian in December 2016 , he dared the United States to join the International Criminal Court to reassure the court is not particularly targeting Africans . He is the current chairperson of SADC after being elected to the position in 2018 . In April 2021 , the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and The Namibian reported that Geingob was involved in the Fishrot scandal by allegedly instructing a government official to divert funds from a state-run fishing company to bribe attendees of the 2017 SWAPO electoral congress to vote for him . Personal life . Geingob is known to be a die-hard football fan and has attended many high-profile games . He also regularly attends the Namibia Annual Music Awards ( NAMAs ) , and in his youth sang in a choir , and played in a band . In 1967 Geingob married Priscilla Charlene Cash , a New York City native ; the couple had one daughter , Nangula Geingos-Dukes . Geingob later married Loini Kandume , a businesswoman , on September 11 , 1993 , in Windhoek , in a high-profile marriage which resulted in two children : a daughter and a son . Geingob initiated divorce proceedings against Kandume in May 2006 , and he was granted a provisional divorce order in July 2008 . Geingob married Monica Kalondo on February 14 , 2015 . Hage Geingob Rugby Stadium in Windhoek is named after him . Awards , honours and recognition . - In 1980 , awarded the Palmes Academiques ( Officer Class ) by the French Government in recognition of valuable services in education . - In 1987 , awarded Omugulugwombashe Medal ( SWAPO ) for bravery and long service . - In 1994 , awarded LL.D . Honoris Causa by Columbia College , Illinois . - In 1994 , awarded the second highest order in Cuba , Carlos Manuel de Céspedes . - In 1994 , awarded the Order of the Sun , 1st Class by the Government of Namibia for providing outstanding political leadership . - In 1995 , awarded LL.D . ( Doctorate of Laws ) Honoris Causa by the University of Delhi , India . - In 1997 , awarded LL.D . ( Doctorate of Laws ) Honoris Causa by the University of Namibia . - In 1998 , awarded Doctorate of Humane Letters ( Honoris Causa ) by The American University of Rome . - In 2001 , a new school aimed at educating deprived children was opened in Katutura and named after the president . The Hage G . Geingob High School educates many from the informal settlements around Windhoek . - In 2015 , was conferred the Order of the Most Ancient Welwitschia Mirabilis by then-President Hifikepunye Pohamba , upon Geingobs inauguration as Namibias third President on 21 March 2015 Research activities and publications . Hage Geingob received his Ph.D . from the University of Leeds . His thesis was entitled State Formation in Namibia : Promoting Democracy and Good Governance . In his thesis , he examined significant events in the process of state formation in Namibia and provided an insight into the role played by various actors involved in shaping the evolution of Namibia as a state . He also examined the efforts of Namibians to build a reconciled society out of ethnically and racially stratified , diverse and often antagonistic groups , to promote democracy and a policy of reconciliation , to improve the life condition of the previously disadvantaged groups through affirmative action , to encourage good governance , to promote a culture of human rights , and to build state institutions to support these policies . Finally , he carried out a democratic audit of Namibia . As the director of the Institute for Namibia and as the chairman of the Research Coordinating Committee , Hage Geingob oversaw all research activities at the United Nations Institute for Namibia . The result of this effort resulted in 22 published research studies . He was also the chairman of the most comprehensive study ever undertaken on Namibia , Namibia : Perspectives for National Reconstruction and Development , which was undertaken by the United Nations Institute for Namibia in pursuance of the mandate given to it by the United Nations General Assembly . This study covered all aspects of socio-economic reconstruction and development for independent Namibia . This study came to be known as the Blue Bible , referring to the colour of its cover , among the researchers and planners of Namibia . Indeed , this study provided the blueprint for setting up the new government in independent Namibia . In addition , Hage Geingob has contributed numerous articles to various publications , including monographs , periodicals and newspapers . He has travelled extensively covering all the continents and has attended , chaired , and presented papers at numerous UN and other international conferences . He also regularly attended the General Assembly sessions from 1965 to 1985 . External links . - Official Twitte