Amid a tense national debate about the immediate and long term future of Namibia’s Energy sector, President Netumbi Nandi-Ndaitwah has relieved Natangwe Ithete of his duties as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy (MMI&E), a portfolio which also covers Petroleum.
Frans Kapofi, the Defence and Veterans Affairs Minister, was appointed as the interim minister for the ministry. His appointment is temporary while the process of selecting a permanent minister continues.
It is instructive that Gaudentia Kröhne, who is Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy, was not asked to act as interim minister.
The President told the staff of MMI&E in a closed-door address that Mr. Ithete went against her directive regarding approval of any new oil blocks or renewal of existing ones without consultation.
“I told the minister that, let me first understand and there should be no renewal; there should be no new block given unless we consult one another,” she told the staff.
Mrs. Nandi-Ndaitwah, the first female President in Namibia’s 35 years post-independence history, has been in power only since March 21, 2025.
She has taken the reins at a time when Namibia, acknowledged as one of the hottest petroleum exploration spots on the globe, was beginning to move into the development phase of the discovered hydrocarbons, and she wanted to have a grip. “We know that when I took over, I said the upstream will fall under the Office of the President,” she reportedly said at the meeting, according to the influential local daily Windhoek Observer.
Mr. Ithete’s ouster, announced Sunday October 27, 2025, came less than 48 hours after Tom Alweendo, the country’s former Minister of Mines and Energy, published an article that provided a scathing opinion of the progress made so far by the country, in supporting TOTALEnergies, to take Final Investment Decision on what will be the first large scale oilfield development in the country. “Namibia needs a serviceable, phased plan for (the) Lüderitz (Port) and a sensible overflow role for Walvis Bay (Port)”. Mr. Alweendo noted in a widely distributed article. “Instead”, he lamented, “the market saw Namport pause southern-harbour upgrades to “clarify scope” and cancel a Lüderitz supply-base tender days after launch. That injects uncertainty into drilling schedules where rig days and marine spreads cost real money. The fix is not a megaproject”.
Mr. Ithete, who was appointed to the job on March 24, 2025 , has also had the misfortune of witnessing RWE, the large German utility, announce its withdrawal from Namibia’s $10Billion Hyphen green ammonia project, dealing a setback to Namibia’s ambition of becoming a leading hydrogen hub in southern Africa.
