Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah
Awards & Honours
1
Awards Won
4
Honours
3
Records
The record here is one of firsts rather than trophies. She is the first woman to serve as president of Namibia, sworn in on 21 March 2025, and the first woman elected vice president of SWAPO in 2017. She was also the party's first female presidential candidate in 2024. Those three milestones sit on top of roughly six decades of continuous service to SWAPO and the Namibian state, which is the kind of longevity that rarely survives a change of government, let alone a change of era.Her 2026 inclusion in the TIME100 placed her among the world's most influential people, recognition that arrived more than fifty years after she joined the liberation struggle as a teenager. For a politician whose career began before Namibia existed as a country, that timing is the story.
Awards
Honours & Distinctions
TIME100 Most Influential People
Named to the annual list of the world's most influential people.
First woman President of Namibia
Inaugurated on 21 March 2025 as the country's fifth president and first female head of state.
First woman Vice President of SWAPO
Elected as the party's first female vice president.
First female presidential candidate of SWAPO
Selected as the party's presidential candidate ahead of the December 2024 election.
Records & Feats
First woman president of Namibia
Inaugurated on 21 March 2025, becoming the first female head of state in Namibia's history.
First woman vice president of SWAPO
Elected in 2017 as the first woman to hold the party's vice presidency since its founding.
First female presidential candidate of SWAPO
Chosen in 2024 as the governing party's first woman candidate for the presidency.