Immediately prior to independence, he was a SWAPO member of the Constituent Assembly, which was in place from November 1989 to March 1990,[REF][REF] and when Namibia gained its independence in March 1990, he became a member of the National Assembly and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting [REF].
In May 2004 Hamutenya sought SWAPO's nomination as its candidate for the presidential election which took place later in 2004;[REF][REF] his candidacy was proposed by Mosé Penaani Tjitendero and seconded by Hartmut Ruppel [REF].