Gabby Byukusenge
The story of 72-year-old Netumbo, who has voted to become Namibia’s first female president.
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the ruling SWAPO party in Namibia has been elected as president, making history as the first woman elected to lead the country located in Southern Africa.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, of the SWAPO [South West Africa People’s Organization] party, won with 57 percent of the vote after a disputed election last week. The SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organization) party has been in power in this large but populous country since 1990, when it gained independence from colonial South Africa (after Germany). Nandi-Ndaitwah, a strong SWAPO activist, was a former loyalist leader who had been in high government positions for 25 years.
As the election results were announced, Reuters quoted 72-year-old Nandi-Ndaitwah as saying, “Namibia voted for peace and security.” Ndemupelila Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is set to become the fifth president of Namibia, after a long tenure in the Parliament.
A brief biography of the new President of Namibia, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah Netumbo Nandi was born on October 29, 1952, to Justina Nekoto Shaduka-Nandi and Petrus Nandi, born at Onamutai in Ovamboland among nine children in South West Africa.
His father was an Anglican. Nandi-Ndaitwah went into exile in 1974 and joined SWAPO in Zambia. He worked at SWAPO headquarters in Lusaka from 1974 to 1975.
He studied at the Lenin Higher Komsomol School in the Soviet Union from 1975 to 1976.
He graduated with a degree in labor and social affairs. youth. In 1987, he obtained a master’s degree in public administration and accounting from Glasgow University of Technology, England, and in 1988 he obtained another master’s degree in international relations from the University of Keele, which is also in England. In 1989, Nandi-Ndaitwah earned a master’s degree in diplomacy, also from Keele University.
He served as deputy head of SWAPO from 1976 to 1978 and then as its head from 1978 to 1980. From 1980 to 1986, he was head of SWAPO in East Africa, based in Dar es Salaam.
From 1991 to 1994, Nandi-Ndaitwah was the president of the National Association of Women in Namibia (NANAWO).
He has been a member of the Namibian Parliament since 1990. She was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation from 1990 to 1996, and this year, she was appointed as the Director of Women’s Affairs in the Office of the President, where she worked until 2000.
In 2000 she was promoted to the rank of The Minister, who is given responsibility for the well-being of women and children.
From 2005 to 2010, he was the Minister of Information and Communications in the Government of Namibia. He later became Minister of Environment and Tourism until a cabinet reshuffle in December 2012, when he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Under President Hage Geingob, Nandi-Ndaitwah was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia in March 2015 while serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.
In March 2023, President Geingob selected Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as the presidential candidate from SWAPO for the 2024 Namibian general election. After Geingob’s death in February 2024, Nandi-Ndaitwah was appointed Vice President, replacing Nangolo Mbumba, who had been President.
He was awarded the Best Leadership Award at the Namibia Sustainable Development Awards. Later she received another award at the ‘2024 Nala Feminist (Nalafem) Summit.’ She also holds a PhD from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is married to Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah, former Chief of Army Staff.
After taking the oath of office, she will join a special team that currently includes Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the only woman to lead a country in Africa.
