The imminent swearing-in of Namibia’s first female President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, was the main spotlight during a celebration of International Women’s Day in South Africa.

Dr. Nandi-Ndaitwah is set to be sworn in as the first female President of Namibia on Independence Day on 21 March during an inauguration ceremony in Windhoek.

Several prominent personalities in South Africa spoke to the South African Broadcasting Corporation about the swearing in of Namibia’s first female president after participating in a ceremony marking International Women’s Day.

“We congratulate Namibia for having a president-elect who is a woman because women’s leadership is one of the areas that we have not really done well since Beijing. We have seen a lot of women in positions of leadership, but we have not yet reached 50%, so we still have a challenge and to have one of the countries here in SADC with a woman president, it is really something to celebrate,” said former Deputy President of South Africa Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Also participating in the discussion was Dr. Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma, former Foreign Affairs Minister of South Africa, who said, “We are very happy and excited that we are going to have a woman president in Namibia and actually in southern Africa. She is the first to run for election and win; in Africa, she is the second. The first is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and she will be sworn in on 21 March. It is very exciting.”

Former President Thabo Mbeki said he is very pleased that Dr. Nandi-Ndaitwah was nominated by the Swapo Party and that the Supreme Court has ruled that she was duly elected.

“I have known her for many years; I knew her since when she was a little girl because when she came into exile in Lusaka, she was still very young…in a sense, she has grown up in front of us. So, I think I know something about her enough to have confidence in her that indeed she will discharge her responsibility as President of Namibia properly, bearing in mind she is the first woman President we have in our region.”

Saturday’s extraordinary congress of the Swapo Party in Windhoek also elected Nandi-Ndaitwah unopposed as party president.