Dear honourable Jerry Ekandjo, you are a political bully!
Members of the LGBTQI+ community in Namibia have observed with concern how, since last year, after the Supreme Court ruling to
recognise same-sex marriages concluded outside Namibia, you tabled a Bill to contradict this ruling, pushed for its passage by Parliament, and relentlessly continued in your campaign to hound the late president and current President to assent to the bill.
We recognise the power bestowed upon legislators by Article 81 of the Constitution to overturn Supreme Court rulings. Still, we also recognise that the framers of the Constitution did not make Parliament the final judicial authority or create the “Supreme Court of Parliament.”
Given that our Constitution was enacted in March 1990, post-apartheid, and after the lessons we learned from the Herero and Nama genocides at the beginning of the 20th century by the colonisers, an act that sought to eliminate and wipe out our people based on our identities and status, our forefathers could not have meant contradicting court rulings to mean violating rights.
Jerry, we are uncomfortable with how quickly you drafted the Bill, and equally uncomfortable with how quickly Parliament passed it without considering the fundamental rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights in Chapter 3 of the Namibia, Constitution. Parliament allowed itself to be
misled by you by not giving itself time to carefully consider how the proposed Marriage Bill(s) threaten the separation of powers between the Judiciary and the Executive.
Respectfully, honourable member of
Parliament, you misled Parliament with misinformation that the Supreme Court ruling in Digashu and Another v GRN and Others and Seiler-Lilles and Another v GRN and Others formalises same-sex marriages in Namibia. The truth is that the Supreme Court ruling is limited to same-sex marriages concluded outside of Namibia.
You erroneously panicked Parliament and the country over a court decision that does not exist, and passed a Bill based on untruths and misinformation.
As it stands, Jerry, your Bill(s) contradict a court ruling that does not exist, making the said Bills unlawful, unconstitutional and baseless. It is worrying that parliament passed a Bill based on misinformation and moral panic you engineered—a deliberate action by yourself intended to unlawfully make laws that violate the rights of vulnerable minorities.
We are disappointed that legislators failed to inform themselves. Though you have access to the State legal adviser, the attorney general, to tell you that Namibia already has a law prohibiting same-sex marriages, there is no need for another law duplicating the same purpose.
Jerry, lately, during one of your many submissions in Parliament on pushing the President to assent to the Bill(s), you again reiterated that you cannot allow a ruling influenced by Western culture.
What is horrifying is that your position to evoke Article 81 of Namibia’s Constitution is influenced by apartheid South Africa. During this time, the apartheid government introduced the Separate Representation of Voters’ Act No 6 of 1951 to enforce racial segregation and remove non-whites from voting.
This was challenged in Harris v Minister of Interior, and the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the applicant, invalidating this law. However, the National Party did what you, Jerry, have just done in Namibia: they overturned the decision by introducing a contradictory law, in the process eroding the rights of non-white voters. Even then, the new racially-segregating law garnered overwhelming support from the majority in Parliament, but that did not mean the majority was right.
Jerry, you are wrong; the Namibia National Assembly and National Council are wrong for passing those Bills. The Namibian Parliament has silenced the judiciary from protecting human rights, and allowed human rights’ erosion to be further entrenched in the law.
Congratulations, honourable Jerry Ekandjo! You have squarely mimicked the apartheid and colonial oppressors; you have succeeded in repeating a horrid history we would rather forget; you have sanctioned violent killings against an already-marginalised group with your hate Bills and set the precedent to erode human rights and reinstate parliamentary sovereignty. The basic rights prescribed in the Bill of Rights serve as a reprieve following the genocide carried out by the German colonisers.
Like the colonisers, you are using your power to oppress rather than to free your people. Finally, honourable Jerry Ekandjo, remember that politicians do not remain in power forever; the same dodgy tactics you are using now will be used against you one day.
*The Young Feminists Movement of Namibia