Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was sworn in as President of Namibia on Friday 21 March, following judicial confirmation of her victory in the elections held at the end of November 2024 (58% of the vote). The leader, from the historic ruling party, was sworn in in the capital, Windhoek, at a ceremony attended by several heads of state.
Namibia’s new president, 72, was sworn in to lead a country facing high levels of unemployment, inequality and poverty. She will have to cope with the added burden of being the second woman elected by direct universal suffrage in Africa and the first female head of state in Namibia.
Ms Nandi-Ndaitwah is a long-standing loyalist of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), which has been in power since the country gained independence in 1990 after a long struggle against South African apartheid.
The challenge of inequality
With a Gini coefficient of 59.1 in 2015, Namibia is one of the most unequal countries in the world, according to the World Bank, which predicts that poverty will remain high at 17.2% in 2024. The unemployment rate has risen from 33.4% in 2018 to 36.9% in 2023, according to the national statistics agency.
Nandi-Ndaitwah became the second woman to be directly elected in Africa after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia. She stressed the need for her country to develop its mineral resources rather than export raw materials, while encouraging the development of creative industries and adapting the education system to the new economic realities. While wishing to be judged on her merits, she welcomed the fact that countries now recognise that women, like men, are capable of taking on high responsibilities, following the example of Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, currently in office.
Source : BBC et AFP
