The 72-year-old Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, nicknamed NNN, was sworn in on Friday as the first woman president of the southern African nation of .
Her SWAPO party, which has ruled the country of about 3 million people for over three decades, won both the presidential and parliamentary elections in November. Nandi-Ndaitwah, who previously served as vice president, won 58% of the vote.
Outgoing 83-year-old President Nangolo Mbumba handed over power in a ceremony that coincided with Namibia’s 35th anniversary of independence and was moved from the Independence Stadium to State House in Windhoek due to rare heavy rains.
Nandi-Ndaitwah is the fourth woman to hold the presidency in , after Ellen Sirleaf Johnson in Liberia, Joyce Banda of Malawi, and Samia Suluhu Hassan in Tanzania.
Sirleaf and Banda, now former leaders of their countries, and Tanzania’s current president, Hassan, all attended Nandi-Ndaitwah’s inauguration.
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s inauguration came a day after the Namibian parliament elected its first female speaker, former Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.
What did Nandi-Ndaitwah say?
In her first address as president, Nandi-Ndaitwah vowed to focus on reducing youth unemployment and making major investments in green energy, agriculture and infrastructure.
“We will increase investment in the development of infrastructure to open investment opportunities, enhance economic productivity, promote economic growth and improve the quality of life of our people,” she said.
The president also called for the country to implement universal health coverage.
She committed to diversifying the economy, enabling citizens to “derive maximum benefits from our country’s natural resources, through value addition.”
The president said Namibia would continue to contribute to efforts to combat climate change, an ongoing threat to the arid country that regularly experiences droughts.
Nandi-Ndaitwah also used her speech to express support for the right to self-determination of the Palestinians and the people of Western Sahara and called for the lifting of international sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Veteran politician in young nation
Nandi-Ndaitwah is only the fifth president of Namibia, which was a German colony until the end of World War One. She is a veteran of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), which led Namibia to independence in 1990 and has been the ruling party ever since.
Namibia’s first woman president joined SWAPO as a teenager in the 1960s and lived in exile in Zambia, Tanzania, the former Soviet Union and the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s.
She has been a lawmaker in Namibia since 1990 and held several Cabinet posts, including those of environment minister and foreign affairs minister, before being appointed vice president.
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s husband is a retired general who once commanded Namibia’s armed forces and was officially given the title of “first gentleman.”
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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