Namibians are frustrated by falling living standards and rising corruption. Many of the country’s 3m-odd people are short of basic housing. Two-thirds of urbanites live in shanty towns. Unemployment is stubbornly high. From next year the daily minimum wage for farm workers will be ten Namibian dollars (55 American cents).

Across southern Africa, political parties that have led their countries since the end of colonialism have ceded power to the opposition in recent months. Namibia bucked the trend.

Namibia's first woman president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah on Thursday said her victory in a disputed vote last week had broken a "glass ceiling". "As a woman, I'm the first to admit that my election to the highest office in the land is definitely one that is breaking the glass ceiling for a Namibian woman,