By Kuvee Kangueehi
WINDHOEK
The Secretary of the Swapo Party Women’s Council (SPWC), Petrina Haingura, has called on women who are being abused, to speak out.
Addressing a press conference in the capital on Monday, Haingura said that although our cultural practices do not encourage women to speak out against abuse, the time has come for women to report such practices to the police.
Haingura said the SPWC has been shocked by the inhuman acts of violence perpetrated against women and children in Namibia.
“It is indeed unfortunate that incidents of violence against women and children are on the increase, and this shows that all is not well in our society.”
Haingura, who is also the Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, said the SPWC condemns the recent spate of senseless killings of women in the country, and expressed her condolences to the families of victims of gender-based violence. She said it is beyond her comprehension why certain men commit such barbaric acts against women.
“How can our sons kill us mothers, after carrying them for nine months in our wombs? This is not only criminal, but disrespectful of human life and should therefore be condemned by all mankind.”
She added that it is equally unacceptable for girls to abandon their newly-born babies in dustbins and other places, and said that if girls or women are not prepared for motherhood, then they should not sleep with men.
“The future of any nation rests upon its youth, but what we are seeing in Namibia’s youth is disheartening.”
She stated that all the problems in society are because today’s youth have no moral background.
“We need to go back to the basics and install moral values in our children.” She called on all political parties and stakeholders to put on their agenda, activities aimed at restoring traditional values of respect for life and fellow human beings.
The deputy minister further noted that it is no secret that today women and children are not free to go out without constantly looking over their shoulders.
“Namibia is a free and independent country, and we should all feel secure and enjoy our freedom, but this is being undermined by the increasing gender-based violence in our nation.”
Haingura called for stiffer sentences for those found to have committed murder.
“Murder should be changed from a common-law crime to a statutory offence where the legislature will prescribe mandatory minimum penalties for those found guilty”, he said.
Meanwhile, Joseph Kauandenge, the newly-appointed Secretary-General of the Namibia Democratic Movement for Change (DMC), said the recent killings and the decapitation of a woman along the B1 road, the killing of youth at shebeens, mothers killing their own children, as well as the endless killings of women because of love relationships gone wrong, clearly depict a nation in an intensive care unit. The DMC urged all churches to help inculcate a sense of value of life in children from an early age, as well as the fear of God.
Kauandenge charged that parents are failing miserably in rearing their children.