Ndemupelila Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (born October 29, 1952) is a Namibian politician who became president-elect of Namibia after winning the presidential election on December 3, 2024.
She is scheduled to be Namibia’s fifth president and first woman to hold this position.
Her father was an Anglican clergyman. She was the ninth of 13 children. Ndaitwah was educated at St. Mary’s Mission in Odibo.
Nandi-Ndaitwah went into exile in 1974 and joined SWAPO members in Zambia. She worked at the SWAPO headquarters in Lusaka from 1974 to 1975 and attended a course at the Lenin Higher Komsomol School in the Soviet Union 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 in 1988 a further post-graduate diploma, in international relations, from Keele University, also in the UK. In 1989 Nandi-Ndaitwah obtained a master’s degree in diplomatic studies, also from Keele University.
She is a Namibian politician serving as third vice-president of Namibia since February 2024. She was also SWAPO’s first female presidential candidate for the 2024 Namibian general election. In 2017, Nandi-Ndaitwah was elected vice-president of SWAPO, the first woman to serve in that position.
Nandi-Ndaitwah previously served as the deputy prime minister of Namibia from 2015 to 2024, minister 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.
Nandi-Ndaitwah became the SWAPO deputy representative in Zambia 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. 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 since 1990. She was deputy Minister 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. In 2000 she was promoted to minister and given the Women Affairs and Child Welfare portfolio
From 2005 to 2010, she was the Minister of Information and Broadcasting in Namibia’s cabinet. She subsequently served as Minister of Environment and Tourism until a major cabinet reshuffle in December 2012, in which she was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs,a portfolio since renamed to International Relations and Cooperation.
Under President Hage Geingob, Nandi-Ndaitwah was appointed as Deputy-Prime Minister of Namibia in March 2015, while serving in parallel as Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.
Nandi-Ndaitwah sits both on SWAPO’s central committee and the politburo. She is also the party’s secretary for information and mobilisation and as such, is one of SWAPO’s main spokespeople.
In March 2023, President Geingob named Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as SWAPO’s presidential candidate in the 2024 Namibian general election. Following Geingob’s death in February 2024, Nandi-Ndaitwah was appointed vice president, succeeding Nangolo Mbumba who became president. She is the first woman serving in that role.
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is married to Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah, former Chief of the Namibian Defence Force. Her interests lie in children’s community work and reading.
