Hage Geingob

Hage Gottfried Geingob (born 3 August 1941) is the third and the current President of Namibia, in office since 21 March 2015. Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia from 21 March 1990 until 28 August 2002, he served as Prime Minister again from 4 December 2012 to 21 March 2015. Since 2007, he has been Vice-President of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), Namibia's ruling party, and he was Minister of Trade and Industry from 2008 to 2012.

As the Presidency in Namibia is restricted to two terms, President Hifikepunye Pohamba was due to step down in 2015, and Geingob, as SWAPO Vice-President, took his place as SWAPO's presidential candidate. In November 2014, Geingob was elected as President of Namibia by an overwhelming margin.

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 today’s prominent political leaders of Namibia were educated, in 1958. In 1960, he was expelled from Augustineum for having participated in a march to protest the poor quality of education. He was, however, re-admitted and was able to finish 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.