Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah Sworn in as Namibia’s First Female President
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was sworn in as Namibia’s first female president on Friday, nearly six decades after joining the liberation movement that fought for independence from apartheid South Africa.
At 72 years old, Nandi-Ndaitwah secured victory in the November election, joining a select group of female leaders in Africa, including former presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Joyce Banda of Malawi, as well as current Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan. All three attended her inauguration.
The swearing-in ceremony coincided with Namibia’s 35th Independence Day anniversary. Initially planned for a soccer stadium with thousands expected to attend, the event was moved to the official presidential office due to heavy rain. Dignitaries from South Africa, Zambia, Congo, Botswana, Angola, and Kenya witnessed Nandi-Ndaitwah take her oath to defend, uphold, and support the constitution.
She succeeds Nangolo Mbumba, who had served as interim president since February 2024 following the death of President Hage Geingob. After Geingob’s passing, Nandi-Ndaitwah was elevated to vice president before assuming the presidency. She becomes only the fifth president of Namibia, a sparsely populated southwestern African nation that was a German colony until World War I and gained independence from South Africa in 1990 after a protracted guerrilla war.
“The task facing me as the fifth president of the Republic of Namibia is to preserve the gains of our independence on all fronts and to ensure that the unfinished agenda of economic and social advancement of our people is carried forward with vigor and determination to bring about shared, balanced prosperity for all,” Nandi-Ndaitwah stated in her address.
A long-standing member of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), which led Namibia’s fight for independence and has remained the ruling party, Nandi-Ndaitwah has played a pivotal role in the country’s governance. Born into a large family as the ninth of thirteen children, her father was an Anglican clergyman, and she attended a mission school where she later became a teacher. She joined SWAPO as a teenager in the 1960s, spending time in exile in Zambia, Tanzania, the former Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom during the 1970s and 1980s.
Since 1990, she has served as a lawmaker and was Namibia’s foreign minister before becoming vice president. As president, she pledged to uphold good governance, high ethical standards in public institutions, and stronger regional cooperation. She reaffirmed Namibia’s support for the rights of Palestinians and the people of Western Sahara to self-determination and called for the lifting of sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
Acknowledging the persistent threat of climate change in Namibia, an arid country prone to droughts, she reiterated the nation’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
Her husband, a retired general and former commander of Namibia’s armed forces, has been formally recognized with the title of "first gentleman." Her inauguration followed another historic milestone, as Namibia’s Parliament elected its first female speaker a day earlier.
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