ONDANGWA – The Deputy Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, Juliet Kavetuna, said violence on women by men claiming to have spent a fortune on them is unjustifiable.
While officially opening the National Young Woman Association (NYWA) convention in Ondangwa Kavetuna said when men spend on women that they are romantically involved with, they are simply returning favours, as women do a lot for them.
“You are supposed to pay a prostitute but you didn’t. You have sex everyday but you don’t pay. You are supposed to take a bucket of your clothes every week to laundry and pay N$150 for that service but somebody has washed your clothes at no cost. You were supposed to go to a restaurant every day but someone is cooking for you for free. And if you think that she does not deserve the money that you are giving to her, why are you not giving it to your sister? You are giving her money and other items as a reward for all the things she does for you. Killing her is not justifiable,” she said.
Kavetuna said the Namibian women as well as society at large should rise above the culture were a real woman is classified as a sex object and her beauty is defined by her sex appeal, dressing in skimpy clothes and by being obedient to give into unprotected sex.
“A woman is defined by a society as a good wife because she can behave well but not because she can add value. Our value is defined by the opposite sex,” Kavetuna added.
The deputy minister told the women that attended the conference, of which the majority are young women, that research has proven that a human being’s ability is not limited by their gender. It is also proven that the majority of people that graduated in Namibia’s institutions of high learning over the past four years are women.
She said this is an indication that Namibian women are not only beautiful but they are also intelligent.
Kavetuna maintained that the assumption women are not supporting other women to get high positions, be it in politics or in the corporate environment, is not true, as it is men that are not supporting women.
“I want to kill that philosophy today that we are supporting one another. If you go to a congress 60 percent are men and you will find only that three women that make it to the top. These women were supported by women and not by men, because if that was not the case, we would have more women making it to top leadership because it is men that are in majority,” said Kavetuna.
By Hevy Shaanika