Rumpf, the son of well-known farmer and right-wing
National Party member Ernst Rumpf, grew up on the Combumbi parental farm in the community of
Steinhausen. He received his secondary education in
Swakopmund and studied political science, African history and economics at
Rhodes University and
Rand Afrikaans University in
South Africa. During his studies, Rumpf was active in the progressive student movement and briefly secretary-general of the Namibian student movement. Rumpf was in the early 1980s one of the few white members of SWAPO. Because he did not want to do military service with the South African armed forces, he went into exile in 1984. Until 1987 he was initially a research assistant at the
University of Bremen, and later a member of the Namibian Communications Centre in London. ==Career==