By Nuusita Ashipala
OSHAKATI – Foreign Affairs Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has urged women heading to parliament next year to work hard and prove they are ready to be entrusted with leadership responsibilities.
They should display their abilities and serve the nation with dignity, commitment and honesty, the minister urged.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, who was speaking at the commemoration of Namibian Women’s Day in Oshakati on Wednesday, which was also Human Rights Day, remarked that women on the parliamentary list should show the nation they are serious to lead and utilise the resources available to develop the country.
“The country has resources. Swapo has put down a strong foundation and this is the time to use this foundation,” stressed Nandi-Ndaitwah.
In addition Nandi-Ndaitwah assured that the zebra-style parliamentary list of the ruling party will enable more women to help craft policies that are gender sensitive and empower themselves and their families.
“This is indeed a commendable deed which should be emulated by all political parties, as well as by the private sector,” said Nandi-Ndaitwah.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said the liberation struggle is long gone but that the struggle for economic freedom is still ongoing.
She said many women had committed themselves to liberate the country, but the struggle now is to free the country from the oppression of poverty.
She said she was wounded by the escalating gender-based violence and unjust killings of Namibian women.
She stressed that such evils should be stopped and platforms used to talk about the social ills besetting society.
Nandi-Ndaitwah said that to achieve a fundamental psycho-social paradigm shift, young boys and girls should be taught the virtues of mutual respect and harmonious co-existence right from childhood.
“The distorted notion that men are superior to women must be eliminated from the mindsets of society, for the sake of prosperity,” stressed Nandi-Ndaitwah.
She said Namibians continue to celebrate December 10 as Human Rights Day without recognising it is as Namibian Women’s Day.
She appealed to people involved in designing calendars including the government to ensure that December 10 is recorded as Human Rights Day-Namibian Women’s Day.
International Human Rights Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1950. The aim was to recognise the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the common standard of achievement of all people and nations.
In Namibia, December 10 was declared as Namibian Women’s Day to mark the day on which 12 people were killed and 54 others, including women, injured after resisting relocation from the Old Location (today’s Hochland Park) to Katutura. The event was mostly attended by women and children.