Namibia’s First Female President Acknowledges Land Problem

Namibia’s first female president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who was sworn in on Friday, says land is a serious problem in the country.

“Truly, land is a serious problem in this country,” she told the BBC ahead of the inauguration.

“We still have some white citizens and more particularly the absent land owners who are occupying the land.”

While the party has made changes and improved the lives of the black majority, the legacy of apartheid can still be seen in patterns of wealth and land ownership.

Netumbo is Africa’s second-ever directly elected female president and Namibia’s first female head of state.

“If things go well then it will be seen as a good example,” Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah told BBC’s Africa Daily podcast, “But if anything then happens, like it can happen in any administration under men, there are also those who would rather say: ‘Look at women!’”

The 72-year-old won November’s election with a 58% share of the vote.

Nandi-Ndaitwah has been a long-term loyalist of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) – which has been in power since the country gained independence in 1990 after a long struggle against apartheid South Africa.

She joined SWAPO, then a liberation movement resisting South Africa’s white-minority rule, when she was only 14.