Do we like them?Do we like Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A real record on women's safety and a historic win, but thin on LGBTQ+ rights and dogged by questions about transparency and the press.
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was born in 1952 in the northern village of Onamutai, the ninth of 13 children of an Anglican clergyman. She joined the liberation movement SWAPO at 14, was detained as a school student, then went into exile organising in Zambia and Tanzania. She came home after independence and held ministries in foreign affairs, tourism, child welfare and information.
The achievement she is best known for abroad is simple: in December 2024 she won more than 57 per cent of the vote and became Namibia's first woman president. Her main rival, Panduleni Itula, called the poll deeply flawed after logistical problems and extended voting, and his party said it would go to court. So the history is real, and so is the asterisk on how the count went.
On the harm check, the record is quiet rather than clean. In her inaugural speech she pledged to uphold the rights of every Namibian, and a Washington Blade report found no remarks from her on LGBTQ+ people. Her government's law offices appealed the 2024 High Court ruling that decriminalised gay sex between men, and one South African outlet describes her as an advocate of strict abortion laws, though without a quote from her. I found no campaigning against trans or gay people in her own words, and nothing on climate denial.
On women's safety she has a genuine paper trail. She pushed the Combating of Domestic Violence Act through the National Assembly in 2002, and in December 2025 she said Namibia cannot claim progress on human rights while gender-based violence persists. When agriculture minister Mac-Albert Hengari was arrested on allegations of rape and trying to bribe the accuser into withdrawing her case, she dismissed him. He said he had resigned, and the investigation was still going at the time.
Where she looks shakier is transparency. In February 2026 Itula accused her of misleading the public about her family having no role in the oil industry, pointing to a company's website. She replied that her family has no direct or indirect interests in oil and gas, and I found no finding either way. The same month a journalist who asked her about it was escorted out of State House and said she was threatened with arrest, which press-freedom groups condemned. The Presidency said the officers acted under security protocols and she was simply escorted out.
Overall, she is no villain and no campaigner for harm that we could find, but the record on LGBTQ+ rights is mostly silence and her government's appeal. She gets credit for the women's safety record and for acting on Hengari. The journalist incident and the unanswered family-business questions stop this being an easy yes.