Windhoek
DTA president McHenry Venaani has called for the introduction of safe havens to accommodate gender-based violence (GBV) victims who at times have to hide from their attackers.
GBV occurs nearly on a daily basis in Namibia, with a frightening number of 822 cases already reported so far this year.
In an interview with New Era on Friday, Venaani said GBV is a cross-cutting issue, adding: “It has no political party, no tribe, no religion, no race and it has no creed.”
According to him, Namibia is faced with a bigger problem since society protects perpetrators of violence, which he says should change. Therefore, he said, there is a need to create safe havens throughout the 14 regions in the country, since perpetrators are being protected.
“We need safe havens because victims have nowhere to run. They run to their parents’ homes and villagers where they are chased back (to their partners). People run back to their parents and villagers, because they have nowhere to go. So we need to create an infrastructure of safe havens where people can go and be counselled and protected,” he noted.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare together with First Lady Monica Geingos launched the Zero Tolerance Campaign against GBV 2015 on Friday under the theme, ‘Spot It to Stop It’.
The First Lady said the cases recorded thus far this year on GBV are alarming.
“Our statistics are saying we don’t read the Bible, because this is the exact opposite of what is happening with GBV.
This is why I am particularly disturbed by the fact that GBV cases are committed by our intimate partners, family members or the people we know,” she noted.
She added that there is an urgent need to construct better models of masculinity that discourage physical assertion as a means to prove superiority.
Meanwhile, Gender Equality and Child Welfare Minister, Doreen Sioka, said there is a need for everyone to come on board and fight GBV so that the next generation will be able to say “it is a thing of the past.”