Esther Muinjangue

Esther Utjiua Muinjangue (born 17 August 1962) is a Namibian politician and the president of the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO), a party that occupies two seats in the National Assembly of Namibia and one seat in the National Council of Namibia. In addition, she is the first woman to lead a political party in Namibia, and the country's first female presidential candidate.^[1] She was appointed as the country's deputy minister of health and social services in March 2020 by Namibian President Hage Geingob. She has for a long time been advocating for social workers’ role in many aspects of people’s lives and at different levels.^[2] Esther Muinjangue promised to give the leadership to the upcoming new leadership in the party this year (2025).^[3]

Esther Muinjangue
Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services
In office March 2020 – 21 March 2025
Preceded by	Juliet Kavetuna
President of National Unity Democratic Organisation
Incumbent
Assumed office March 2019
Preceded by	Asser Mbai
Personal details
Born	(1962-08-17) 17 August 1962 (age 62) Windhoek, Namibia
Political party	NUDO
Alma mater	Academy of Tertiary Education (now University of Namibia) (BA Sci) University of Pretoria (Masters in Social Work) University of Stellenbosch (PhD)

Education

Muinjangue is a social worker by profession and obtained her BA qualification from the Academy of Tertiary Education (now the University of Namibia).^[4]

She further obtained her Masters in Social Work at the University of Pretoria.

In December 2019, Esther Muinjangue obtained her PhD from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Esther was congratulated by her party people (NUDO) for obtaining her PhD.^[5]

Professional career

Muinjangue joined the public sector in 1987 as a social worker, and in 1996, she became a social work lecturer at the University of Namibia. While she was university lecturer, she also committed to the Herero and Nama communities

Political career

The National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) elected Muinjangue as its President –making her the first woman leader of a political party in Namibia.

2019 Presidential election

In the 2019 Namibian general election, Muinjangue ran as a presidential candidate, but only won 1.5% of the popular vote. However, NUDO won two seats in Parliament, so, as the leader of her party, she will sit in the National Assembly.^[6]