Ndemupelila Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (born 29October 1952), nicknamed NNN, is a Namibian politician who is the fifth and current

president of Namibia The president of Namibia is the head of state and head of government of Namibia. The president directs the executive branch of the Government of Namibia, government, acts as chair of the Cabinet of Namibia, Cabinet and is the commander-in-chie ...

since 21 March 2025. She is the country's first female president. Previously, she served as the third

vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

under President Nangolo Mbumba between 2024 and 2025. She was the first female presidential candidate for

SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO ; , SWAVO; , SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former independence movement in Namibia (formerly South West Africa). Founded in 1960, it has been ...

(the South West Africa People's Organisation) in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. In 2017, Nandi-Ndaitwah was elected vice president of SWAPO, the first woman to serve in that position. Before entering the top leading position, Nandi-Ndaitwah served as the deputy prime minister of Namibia from 2015 to 2024,

minister of International Relations and Cooperation The minister of international relations and cooperation is the foreign minister of the South African government, with political responsibility for South Africa's foreign relations and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. ...

from December 2012 to 2015, and as minister of Environment and Tourism from March 2010 to December 2012. She is a long-time member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

Early life and education

Netumbo Nandi was born on 29October 1952 to Justina Nekoto Shaduka-Nandi and Petrus Nandi in Onamutai,

South West Africa South West Africa was a territory under Union of South Africa, South African administration from 1915 to 1990. Renamed ''Namibia'' by the United Nations in 1968, Independence of Namibia, it became independent under this name on 21 March 1990. ...

, today near the border of

Ohangwena Region Ohangwena is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Eenhana. Major settlements in the region are the towns Eenhana and Helao Nafidi as well as the self-governed village of Okongo and the proclaimed settlements Ongha, Ongenga and O ...

and

Oshana Region Oshana is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia; its capital is Oshakati. The towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva and Ondangwa, all situated with this region, form an urban cluster with the second largest population concentration in Namibia after the c ...

, Namibia. Her father was an Anglican clergyman. She is the ninth of 13 children. Ndaitwah was educated at St. Mary's Mission in Odibo. Nandi-Ndaitwah became politically active as a teenager, joining SWAPO's ranks at the age of 14. She soon became the leader of SWAPO's Youth Movement organisation, fighting to end South Africa's occupation. Nandi-Ndaitwah soon became a target for the opposition, forcing her to go into hiding. Nandi-Ndaitwah went into exile in 1973 and joined SWAPO members in

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. She worked at the

headquarters in

Lusaka Lusaka ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was abo ...

from 1973 to 1975 and attended a course at the Lenin Higher

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

School in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

from 1975 until 1976. She graduated with a diploma in the work and practice of the communist youth movement. In 1987 she obtained a post-graduate diploma in public administration and management from the Glasgow College of Technology, in the United Kingdom, and 1988 a further post-graduate diploma, in international relations, from

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

, also in the UK. In 1989 Nandi-Ndaitwah obtained a master's degree in diplomatic studies, also from Keele University. After the 2024 November election, she was given an honorary Doctorate in diplomatic and public work.

Political career

Nandi-Ndaitwah became the SWAPO deputy representative in

from 1976 until 1978 and the chief representative in Zambia from 1978 to 1980. From 1980 until 1986, she was the SWAPO chief representative in East Africa, based at

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

. She was a member of the SWAPO central committee from 1976 to 1986 and the Namibian National Women's Organisation (NANAWO) president from 1991 to 1994. She has been a member of the

National Assembly of Namibia The National Assembly is the lower chamber of Namibia's bicameral Parliament. Its laws must be approved by the National Council, the upper house. Since 2014, it has a total of 104 members. 96 members are directly elected through a system of cl ...

since 1990. She was deputy

Minister of International Relations and Cooperation The minister of international relations and cooperation is the foreign minister of the South African government, with political responsibility for South Africa's foreign relations and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. ...

from 1990 to 1996 and first gained ministerial status in 1996 as director-general of Women's Affairs in the Office of the President, where she served until 2000, under Namibia's first president,

Sam Nujoma Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma ( ; 12May 19298February 2025) was a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first president of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005. Nujoma was a founding member and t ...

. In this role, Nandi-Ndaitwah worked in the department to coordinate between government, private and public spheres on advancing government programs to support women and children. During this time, the Namibia's National Gender Policy (1997) was enacted. Other gender responsive laws such as the Married Persons Equality Act (1996) and the Combating of Rape Act (2000), recognizing marital rape, were enacted to improve gender equality and reduce gender-based violence. In 2000 she was promoted to Minister and given the Women Affairs and Child Welfare portfolio. In 2003, the Domestic Violence Act (2003) was passed with her support to provide protection to children and spouses within from violence occurring in the home. In 2022, an amendment was published to extend safeguards to children in the home, beyond their 18th birthday. From 2005 to 2010, she was the minister of information and broadcasting in Namibia's cabinet. She subsequently served as the minister of environment and tourism until a major cabinet reshuffle in December 2012, in which she was appointed

minister of foreign affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

, a portfolio since renamed to International Relations and Cooperation. Under President

Hage Geingob Hage Gottfried Geingob (3 August 1941 – 4 February 2024) was a Namibian politician who served as the third president of Namibia from 2015 until his death in February 2024. Geingob was the country's first prime minister A prime minister ...

, Nandi-Ndaitwah was appointed as

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

in March 2015, while serving in parallel as the minister of international relations and cooperation. Nandi-Ndaitwah sits both on SWAPO's central committee and the

politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

. She is also the party's secretary for information and mobilisation and as such, is one of SWAPO's main spokespeople.

Presidency

In March 2023, President Geingob named Nandi-Ndaitwah as SWAPO's presidential candidate in the

2024 Namibian general election General elections were held in Namibia to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly. Initially scheduled on 27 November 2024, these were later extended in some areas to 30 November due to poor planning. Opposition parties decri ...

. Following Geingob's death in February 2024, Nandi-Ndaitwah was appointed as vice president, succeeding Nangolo Mbumba, who became president. She is the first woman serving in that role. On 3December 2024, she was officially declared the president-elect of the Republic of Namibia, making her the first woman to hold the position. Nandi-Ndaitwah received 683,560, or 58.7% of the vote, defeating Panduleni Itula and McHenry Venaani. She was inaugurated on 21 March 2025. During her inauguration speech in 2025, she pledged to focus on job creation, specifically targeting "500,000 new jobs" as a policy priority, with a key focus on agriculture, fishing, creative and sports industries. In April 2025, Nandi-Ndaitwah announced that the government would provide free tertiary education in government schools beginning in 2026. On 27 April, she dismissed Mac-Albert Hengari as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform following his arrest on rape charges.

Personal life

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is married to Lieutenant General (retired) Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah, former Chief of the Namibian Defence Force. She is interested in children's community work and reading. She is popularly referred to as NNN, a nickname used commonly by her political associates. She is an advocate for women and gender equality in Namibia. Despite work on gender equality in Namibia, many of her critics consider her beliefs to be in opposition to feminism, as she has a more traditional, conservative viewpoint. In a 2022 interview between EagleFM and political analyst Henning Melber, Melber stated she has not historically supported

reproductive rights Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to human reproduction, reproduction and reproductive health that vary amongst countries around the world. The World Health Organization defines reproductive rights: Reproductive rights ...

or protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals. She is also an opponent of abortion.

Awards

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was awarded the 'thought leadership' at the Namibia Sustainable Development Awards. Nandi-Ndaitwah was recognized with an Inter-Generational Leadership Award at the 2024 Nala Feminist (Nalafem) Summit. She further holds an Honorary Doctorate from the

University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) (Swahili: ''Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam'') is a public university located in Ubungo District, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. She has also been honored by the President of the Namibia National Women’s Organization, (NANAWO) for her work on improving women's role in politics.https://ippr.org.na/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Int6.pdf

Gallery

File:WIPO Director General Meets Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah Namibia's Deputy Prime Minister - 52112407643.jpg, Nandi-Ndaitwah meeting

WIPO The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to pr ...

Director General

Daren Tang Daren Tang Heng Shim ( zh, 邓鸿森; born 1972) is the fifth and current Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). He is also Secretary-General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plan ...

in 2022. The two discussed IP's role in helping drive economic, youth music industry, women innovators, and social development under the "Namibia Vision 2030" plan. File:Kohtumine Namiibia välisministriga (32963876308).jpg, Meeting with the Estonian foreign ministry, 2019. File:F20230222ES-0628 (52829875141).jpg, Nandi-Ndaitwah meets with First Lady

Jill Biden Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (née Jacobs; born June 3, 1951) is an American educator who served as the first lady of the United States from 2021 to 2025 as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was second lady of the United States from 2009 to 20 ...

in 2023, at the State House in

Windhoek, Namibia Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

References

External links

* * 1952 births Living people Members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Politicians from Oshana Region SWAPO politicians Alumni of Keele University Presidents of Namibia Vice presidents of Namibia 20th-century Namibian women politicians 20th-century Namibian politicians 21st-century Namibian women politicians 21st-century Namibian politicians 21st-century women presidents Deputy prime ministers of Namibia Ministers of foreign affairs of Namibia Female foreign ministers Women government ministers of Namibia Environment and tourism ministers of Namibia Information ministers of Namibia Gender equality and social welfare ministers of Namibia Women vice presidents in Africa Women members of the National Assembly (Namibia) Namibian expatriates in Tanzania Women presidents in Africa {{Commonwealth heads of government