From 1977 through 1988 the economy of Namibia stagnated overall and fell by more than 3 percent per year per capita. Five factors influenced this: six years of drought, decline in fishing yields (because of overfishing), serious worsening of import-export price ratios, the slow growth and mismanagement of the South African economy, and the impact of the war on the budget and on both domestic and foreign investor confidence. For white residents, real incomes (except in ranching) stagnated or rose slowly; for Blacks, they rose for perhaps one-sixth of households in wage employment with government or large enterprises and declined rapidly for others, especially for residents of the northern “operational area” (war zone).

For South Africa, Namibia turned from an economic asset to a millstone (with a war bill by the late 1980s on the order of $1 billion a year—comparable to Namibia’s gross domestic product). Capital stock was run down, and output of all major products—beef, karakul, fish, base metals, uranium oxide, and diamonds—fell.

On the domestic side a long series of South African attempts to build up pro-South African parties with substantial Black support failed even when trade unions were legalized, wages raised, and petty apartheid laws (including abolition of the contract labor and residence restrictions) relaxed. Indeed, after the failure of the alliance between moderate Black Bishop Abel Muzorewa and white Prime Minister Ian Smith in the Zimbabwe independence elections, South Africa’s internal political maneuvers looked increasingly desperate and lacking in conviction.

Internationally and militarily, decline was slower and less apparent. While the UN Security Council had passed resolutions (notably resolution 435) demanding independence for Namibia, South Africa skillfully and repeatedly protracted negotiations and played on U.S. fears of communism and paranoia about Cuba (whose troops had defeated the 1975 South African invasion of Angola and remained there to augment the defense against South Africa and its Angolan allies or proxies).

Through 1986 about 2,500 South African soldiers had died, a figure proportionally higher per capita than the U.S. death toll in the Vietnam War. However, the South African government skillfully disguised the high casualty rate as well as the fiscal burden of the Namibian occupation and policy in Angola. The war, like the negotiations, appeared stalemated.

The turning point came in 1988. South Africa’s invasion of Angola was defeated near Cuito-Cuanavale, air control was lost, and the Western Front defenses were tumbled back to the border (by a force consisting largely of units of SWAPO’s People’s Liberation Army of Namibia [PLAN] under Angolan command). By June South Africa had to negotiate a total withdrawal from Angola to avoid a military disaster, and by the end of December it had negotiated a UN-supervised transition to elections, a new constitution, and independence for Namibia.

Independence

The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) opened operations in April 1989. After a disastrous start—in which South African forces massacred PLAN forces seeking to report to UNTAG to be confined to designated areas—UNTAG slowly gained control over the registration and electoral process in most areas.

The election of 1989, held under the auspices of the UN, gave SWAPO 57 percent of the vote and 60 percent of the seats. Sam Nujoma, the longtime leader of SWAPO, became president. With two-thirds majorities needed to draft and adopt a constitution, some measure of reconciliation was necessary to avoid deadlock. In fact, SWAPO and the business community—as well as many settlers—wanted a climate of national reconciliation in order to achieve a relatively peaceful initial independence period.

As a result, a constitution emphasizing human, civil, and property rights was adopted unanimously by the end of 1990, and reconciliation with settlers and (to a degree) with South Africa became the dominant mood. For the new government, the costs of reconciliation included retaining about 15,000 unneeded white civil servants, deferring the landownership and mineral-company terms issues, and offering de facto amnesty for all pre-independence acts of violence (including those of SWAPO against suspected spies and dissidents in Angola in the late 1980s). The benefits were the takeover of a functioning public administration and economy (with growth rising to 3 percent in 1990) and grudging but real South African cooperation on fishing and use of Walvis Bay. Above all, South Africa forebore from mounting destabilization measures or creating proxy armed forces.

On March 21, 1990, the South African flag was lowered and Namibia’s raised at the National Stadium; Namibia subsequently joined the Commonwealth, the UN, and the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union). Diplomatic relations were established with many countries. The Namibian Defense Force—which included members of PLAN as well as the former South West African Territory Force—was created with the assistance of British military advisers.

South Africa agreed to a transition to Namibian sovereignty over Walvis Bay, which was effected in 1994. It also agreed to a revised boundary along the Orange River, giving Namibia riparian rights; the earlier border had been placed on the north bank and thus left Namibia without water rights. Namibia remained a member of the Southern African Customs Union.

The political climate was calm. The main opposition party, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (heir to South Africa’s puppet government efforts and beneficiary of considerable South African funds for campaign financing), held almost one-third of the seats in the legislature but was neither particularly constructive nor totally obstructive. In the 1994 national elections, SWAPO consolidated its hold on power, surpassing the two-thirds majority needed to revise the constitution—which it did in 1998, passing an amendment that allowed President Nujoma to run for a third term. Despite widespread disapproval of the amendment, Nujoma was easily reelected in 1999.

SWAPO maintained its hold on power in the country’s 1999 elections, in the face of allegations from the opposition—now headed by a SWAPO splinter party, the Congress of Democrats—that the government was engaging in authoritarian practices. Opponents also questioned the government’s 1998 decision to dispatch troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to support the government of Congolese President Laurent Kabila during that country’s civil war. The government generated even greater controversy in 1999 when it granted the Angolan government permission to pursue Angolan rebels into Namibian territory, leading to unrest along the border that did not subside until 2002.

Namibia in the 21st century

At the beginning of the 21st century and after its first decade of independence, Namibia stood apart from many other African countries as a model of political and economic stability. Nevertheless, the country still had serious matters to address. As in much of Africa, the spread of AIDS was a concern: by 2000 one in five adult Namibians was infected. Another issue at the forefront was land reform—the government program of purchasing farmland owned by the white minority and redistributing it to the historically disadvantaged and landless Black Namibians. The controversy surrounding land reform continued to escalate in the first decade of the new century as the slow progress of the program frustrated many, and the threat of forcible seizures of farmland loomed.

The new millennium also saw the democratic transfer of power in the country. After leading Namibia since the country gained independence, Nujoma stepped down from office at the end of his third term. Fellow SWAPO member Hifikepunye Pohamba prevailed in the November 2004 presidential elections and was inaugurated the next year. In the presidential and parliamentary elections of November 2009, Pohamba was reelected, and SWAPO maintained its hold on the majority of parliamentary seats. International observers, while noting that some aspects of electoral procedures needed improvement, declared that the elections were largely transparent and fair. Several opposition groups, however, refused to accept the results of the election, claiming that the country’s electoral laws had been violated. The parties filed an appeal of the results with the High Court in early 2010 and the case moved through the judicial system before finally being dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2012.

Prior to the 2014 elections, controversial constitutional amendments were passed that included provisions for holding elections on one day rather than over the course of two days, increasing the number of seats in Parliament, and creating a new vice president position. Although the government maintained that it was necessary to pass the amendments ahead of the upcoming elections, critics claimed that many of the provisions in the new amendments would benefit the SWAPO party and were rushed through without adequate public discussion while SWAPO maintained the necessary two-thirds majority in Parliament—something which could not be guaranteed after the elections.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on November 28, 2014. With Pohamba barred from standing for a third term as president, Prime Minister Hage Geingob was SWAPO’s presidential candidate. Geingob won easily, with 86.73 percent of the vote, and SWAPO won an overwhelming majority in the parliamentary vote. Geingob was inaugurated on March 21, 2015, which was Namibia’s 25th anniversary of independence. Geingob was reelected in the November 27, 2019, presidential election, taking 56.3 percent of the vote—enough to avoid a runoff election but a much smaller total than he had won in 2014. He was trailed by Panduleni Itula, a former SWAPO member running as an independent, who received 29.4 percent, and McHenry Venaani of the Popular Democratic Movement, who garnered 5.3 percent. Likewise, SWAPO won a majority of the parliamentary vote but saw its share of seats fall from the 2014 elections. Geingob and SWAPO’s support appeared to be affected by the economic recession the country was mired in, as well as by a corruption scandal involving two cabinet ministers.

In January 2024, the government announced that Geingob had been diagnosed with cancer and would undergo treatment. However, Geingob died on February 4. He was succeeded by Vice Pres. Nangolo Mbumba, who was sworn in as president later that day. He appointed Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, a longtime member of SWAPO, to the vice-presidency; she was also to be the party’s presidential candidate in the upcoming election.

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on November 27, 2024. In the presidential race, more than a dozen candidates competed for the presidency, with Nandi-Ndaitwah and Itula—now representing the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party he had founded in 2020—seen as the frontrunners. Election day was uncharacteristically problematic, with technical malfunctions occurring at some polling stations and a shortage of ballots noted across the country. As a result, there were very long voting queues—some voters reported they had stood in line for 12 hours—and some Namibians were ultimately unable to cast a ballot, though certain areas saw voting extended for up to three days. The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) was heavily criticized for the problems and its handling of the situation.

The results were announced in early December. In the presidential election, Nandi-Ndaitwah was declared the winner, taking more than 57 percent of the vote. Itula and Venaani again received the second- and third-most votes, with about 26 percent and 5 percent, respectively. In the parliamentary elections, SWAPO again saw its share of seats decline, though it still won more seats than any other party. Many opposition parties boycotted the announcement of the results and some stated their intent to contest the results.

Amidst the election drama, Namibia’s first president, Sam Nujoma, died on February 8, 2025. The government declared a 21-day mourning period and a state funeral, held on March 1, was attended by foreign dignitaries as well as Namibians who came to pay their respects to the liberation icon.

Meanwhile, citing the problems on election day and the impact it had on voters, the IPC and another party had filed a legal challenge to the election results, but it was dismissed by the Supreme Court on February 28. Nandi-Ndaitwah was inaugurated on March 21, 2025, which is also the 35th anniversary of the country’s independence. She is the first woman to serve as president of Namibia.

The next day, Nandi-Ndaitwah announced a slimmed-down cabinet, with women holding more than half of the portfolios. She named Lucia Witbooi to serve as vice president and Elijah Ngurare as prime minister. Earlier that week, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, who had previously served as prime minister, was elected speaker of the National Assembly; she is the first woman to hold that post.