Namibia’s new president was once sworn in on Friday to steer a rustic going through prime charges of unemployment, inequality and poverty. And she or he might be coping with it with the extra burden of being most effective Africa’s second-ever without delay elected feminine president and Namibia’s first feminine head of state. “If issues cross smartly then it is going to be noticed as a excellent instance,” Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah advised BBC’s Africa Day-to-day podcast. “But when the rest then occurs, find it irresistible can occur in any management underneath males, there also are those that would slightly say: ‘Have a look at ladies!'” The 72-year-old gained November’s election with a 58% proportion of the vote.Nandi-Ndaitwah has been a long-term loyalist of the South West Africa Other people’s Organisation (Swapo) – which has been in energy because the nation received independence in 1990 after a protracted battle in opposition to apartheid South Africa.She joined Swapo, then a liberation motion resisting South Africa’s white-minority rule, when she was once most effective 14.Whilst the birthday party has made adjustments and stepped forward the lives of the black majority, the legacy of apartheid can nonetheless be noticed in patterns of wealth and land possession. “In reality, land is a significant issue on this nation,” she advised the BBC forward of the inauguration. “We nonetheless have some white electorate and extra specifically the absent land house owners who’re occupying the land.”She provides that she is dedicated to the “willing-buyer, willing-seller” idea, which means that no-one is compelled to promote up. Namibia is a geographically massive nation with a small inhabitants of 3 million. Govt statistics display that white farmers personal about 70% of the rustic’s farmland. A complete of 53,773 Namibians recognized as white within the 2023 census, representing 1.8% of the rustic’s inhabitants. Namibia is among the global’s maximum unequal international locations, with a Gini coefficient of 59.1 in 2015, in step with the International Financial institution, which initiatives poverty is anticipated to stay prime at 17.2% in 2024. The unemployment charge rose to 36.9% in 2023 from 33.4% in 2018, in step with the rustic’s statistics company.Nandi-Ndaitwah mentioned the economic system, which in part depends upon mineral exports, will have to paintings extra on including worth to what the rustic extracts from the bottom slightly than exporting uncooked fabrics.She additionally needs Namibia to center of attention extra on ingenious industries and get the training sector to regulate to new financial realities.Nandi-Ndaitwah is most effective the second one African girl to be without delay elected as president, after Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.The continent’s most effective different feminine president in this day and age is Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, who took up the position after her predecessor died in place of job in 2021.Nandi-Ndaitwah needs to be judged on her deserves, however she mentioned that it was once a “excellent factor that we as international locations are realising that simply as males [can do], ladies too can hang the placement of authority”.
