WINDHOEK – Research institutions and stakeholders should conduct academic research on the factors that drive mothers to commit abominable crimes against their children, such as the mother who allegedly murdered and incinerated the body of her disabled child recently.
This was the view of Swapo Party Women’s Council (SPWC) deputy secretary Eunice Iipinge during a media conference on Sunday. “There have been horrific reports of mothers murdering their own children, including the 49-year-old teacher who barbecued the flesh of her own daughter. The SPWC strongly condemns these actions.” Iipinge was reacting to a recent incident in which a mother killed her 27-year-old disabled daughter at Ongwediva in the Oshana Region and the case of a woman who strangled her cousin’s 13-month-old baby in the Omusati Region and said the SPWC is shocked and embarrassed by the incidents. “As mothers we should know that no one has the right to take another person’s life whether it is your own, your friend’s, relative’s or a stranger’s child,” said Iipinge. She called on mothers who may find themselves in difficult circumstances, when it comes to the care of their children, to look for assistance instead of committing such heinous crimes that also compromise their own liberty. “A child belongs to all of us. It does not belong to you even if you are the biological mother,” she said, adding that women must seek help instead of committing crimes that would end in imprisonment.
“Situations like those cause trauma, not only among families, but also neighbours and the nation at large,” she added. She also called on fathers to provide both material and moral support to their children. “It is crucial for fathers to be fully involved in the upbringing of their children,” she said. “As human beings we have the responsibility to assist and to look after one another by not only observing any strange behaviour among ourselves, but also to bring this to the attention of others and to attend to others’ needs,” she said.
By Kuzeeko Tjitemisa