{"id":260907,"date":"2024-12-05T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/12\/05\/from-freedom-fighter-to-namibias-first-female-president\/"},"modified":"2024-12-05T12:00:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T12:00:30","slug":"from-freedom-fighter-to-namibias-first-female-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/12\/05\/from-freedom-fighter-to-namibias-first-female-president\/","title":{"rendered":"From freedom fighter to Namibia&#8217;s first female president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/449\/44919466.295.jpg\" alt=\"Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia's first female president\" title=\"Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia's first female president\" width=\"295\" height=\"161\" \/> <span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia&#8217;s first female president<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"-webkit-user-select: none; -webkit-touch-callout: none; -moz-user-select: none; -ms-user-select: none; user-select: none;\">\n<p id=\"article-123\">Nicknamed NNN, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia&#8217;s first female president.<\/p>\n<p>The 72-year-old won more than 57% of the vote, with her closest rival, Panduleni Itula, getting 26%, according to the electoral commission.<\/p>\n<p>It is just the latest episode in a life packed with striking events &#8211; Nandi-Ndaitwah has fought against occupying powers, fled into exile and established herself as one of the most prominent women in Namibian politics.<\/p>\n<p>However, Itula has rejected her victory. He said the election was &#8220;deeply flawed&#8221;, following logistical problems and a three-day extension to polling in some parts of the country.<\/p>\n<p>His Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party said it would challenge the result in court.<\/p>\n<p>Nandi-Ndaitwah has been a loyal member of the governing party, Swapo, since she was a teenager and pledges to lead Namibia&#8217;s economic transformation.<\/p>\n<p>Nandi-Ndaitwah was born in 1952, in the northern village of Onamutai. She was the ninth of 13 children and her father was an Anglican clergyman.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Namibia was known as South West Africa and its people were under occupation from South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Nandi-Ndaitwah joined Swapo, then a liberation movement resisting South Africa&#8217;s white-minority rule, when she was only 14.<\/p>\n<p>A passionate activist, Nandi-Ndaitwah became a leader of Swapo&#8217;s Youth League.<\/p>\n<p>The role set her up for a successful political career, but at the time Nandi-Ndaitwah was simply interested in freeing South West Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolitics came in just because of the circumstances. I should have become maybe a scientist,\u201d she said in an interview this year.<\/p>\n<p>While still a high school student, Nandi-Ndaitwah was arrested and detained during a crackdown on Swapo activists.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of this persecution, she decided she could not stay in the country and joined several other Swapo members in exile.<\/p>\n<p>She continued to organise with the movement while in Zambia and Tanzania, before moving to the UK to undertake an International Relations degree.<\/p>\n<p>Then in 1988 &#8211; 14 years after Nandi-Ndaitwah fled her country &#8211; South Africa finally agreed to Namibian independence.<\/p>\n<p>Nandi-Ndaitwah returned home and subsequently joined the post-independence, Swapo-run government.<\/p>\n<p>In the years since, she has held a variety of posts, including ministerial roles in foreign affairs, tourism, child welfare and information.<\/p>\n<p>Nandi-Ndaitwah became known as an advocate for women&#8217;s rights. In one of her key achievements, she pushed the Combating of Domestic Violence Act through the National Assembly in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>According to Namibian media, Nandi-Ndaitwah criticised her male colleagues for trying to ridicule the draft law, sternly reminding them that the Swapo constitution condemns sexism.<\/p>\n<p>She continued to rise despite Namibia&#8217;s traditional and male-dominated political culture, and in February this year she became vice-president.<\/p>\n<p>She suceeded Nangolo Mbumba, who stepped up after the death of then-President Hage Geingob.<\/p>\n<p>In her personal life, Nandi-Ndaitwah is married to Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah, the former chief of Namibia&#8217;s defence forces. The couple has three sons.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout her career, Nandi-Ndaitwah has displayed a hands-on, pragmatic style of leadership.<\/p>\n<p>She once declared in a speech: &#8220;I am an implementer, not a storyteller.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia&#8217;s first female president Nicknamed NNN, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia&#8217;s first female president. The 72-year-old won more than 57% of the vote, with her closest rival, Panduleni Itula, getting 26%, according to the electoral commission. It is just the latest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>From freedom fighter to Namibia&#039;s first female president - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/12\/05\/from-freedom-fighter-to-namibias-first-female-president\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From freedom fighter to Namibia&#039;s first female president - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia&#8217;s first female president Nicknamed NNN, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has made history by being elected as Namibia&#8217;s first female president. 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