Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah


Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is a Namibian politician who is the Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia since March 2015. She has also been serving as Namibia's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation since December 2012. From March 2010 to December 2012, she was Minister of the Environment and Tourism. Nandi-Ndaitwah is a member of SWAPO, Namibia's ruling party, and a long-time member of the National Assembly of Namibia. In 2017 Nandi-Ndaitwah was elected Vice-President of the Swapo Party at the party's 6th Congress. She is the first woman to serve in that position.

Political career

Born at Onamutai in Oshana Region, Nandi-Ndaitwah went into exile and joined SWAPO members in Zambia in 1974, worked at the SWAPO headquarters in Lusaka/Zambia from 1974 to 1975 and attended a course at the High Komsomol School in the Soviet Union from 1975 to 1976. She 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 President of the Namibian National Women's Organisation from 1991 to 1994. She has been a Member of the National Assembly of Namibia since 1990. She was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1996, Director-General for Women's Affairs in the Office of the President from 1996 to 2000 and subsequently Minister for Women's Affairs.
Nandi-Ndaitwah first gained ministerial status as Director-General of Women Affairs in the Office of the President in 1996. In 2000 she became Minister of Women Affairs and Child Welfare. She is a member of the Swapo Party Central Committee and Politburo and serves as Swapo's Secretary for Information and Mobilisation. As such Nandi-Ndaitwah is one of the party’s main spokespersons. From 2005 to 2010, she was the Minister of Information and Technology 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.
Under President Hage Geingob, Nandi-Ndaitwah was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister in March 2015, while also serving as Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

Education

Ndaitwah was educated at St. Mary's Mission in Odibo, obtained a master's degree in Diplomatic Studies from Keele University, UK in, she holds a post-graduate Diploma in International Relations, Keele University, UK, a post-graduate Diploma, Public Administration and Management, Glasgow College of Technology, UK. Diploma in work and practice of communist youth movement, Lenin High Kosomol School, USSR.

Personal life

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is married to Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah, former Chief of the Namibian Defence Force.