“… gender-based violence is Namibia’s foremost human rights problem,” – Norman Tjombe
By Petronella Sibeene
WINDHOEK
A string of horrendous and brutal forms of violence that plague Namibia have prompted hundreds of stakeholders to meet in Windhoek for a four-day national conference that seeks solutions to this nagging problem.
Yesterday, 350 delegates representing government, civil society, traditional leaders and religious groups, among others, gathered to find a lasting solution to the thorny issue of gender- based violence.
The meeting comes two days after the latest incident in which a young woman was murdered and her head, legs and arms savagely hacked off.
The remaining parts of the body were dumped in a rubbish bin on the road between Okahandja and Windhoek.
Beatings and other forms of assault characterize gender-based violence in the country. The curse recently took a different form. Perpetrators do not only rape and kill but also maim as they mutilate the bodies of victims.
Two years ago, Juanita Mabula was murdered and her head cut off and hidden for weeks and grief-stricken relatives eventually buried her headless body.
Also, over the weekend an unidentified headless body of a young man was found in Rehoboth.
Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Marlene Mungunda, says these incidents show that Namibia is fighting a vicious enemy. The problem, she added, calls for watertight strategies.
The minister appealed to the Namibian police and other law enforcers to ensure that the perpetrators of gender-based violence, particularly those committing bizarre murders, are apprehended.
“As long as they (perpetrators) are at large, no one is safe in Namibia,” she said.
The police have at several platforms been criticised for failing to apprehend perpetrators committing gender-based violence, especially those committing crimes that are gruesome and shocking to the public.
Namibia is among countries in the SADC region that have good legislation on children and women’s rights. However, the effective implementation of these laws is being doubted in some quarters.
She told delegates that the conference should come up with concrete actionable recommendations that can be implemented at all levels.
The judiciary, police, social workers, civil society, media, churches, government and generally, all stakeholders in the fight against this problem, she stressed, should implement the recommendations.
Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) Director Norman Tjombe said gender-based violence is Namibia’s foremost human rights problem.
While this problem has different forms, Tjombe singled out rape and said 60 rape cases out of 100 000 persons in the country are recorded every year. One third of rape victims are under the age of 18. While society has viewed rape as an incident where the female is always the victim and the male the perpetrator, surprisingly one out of 14 victims is a man or a boy.
“A disturbing number of rapists are very young. At least one fourth of the perpetrators in our study were minors … The youngest rapist was only aged seven…. There is clearly something wrong with the messages we are teaching our children about what it means to be male,” he said. Rape incidents take place from in prison cells to churches but most cases recorded take place inside homes where perpetrators are family members and acquaintances.
“Perpetrators are not aliens from some other planets such as Mars but family members,” said the facilitator of the conference from the Commonwealth Secretariat Gladys Mutukwa. In incidents where the perpetrator is arrested, cases are usually withdrawn at the request of the complainant.
“Out of 100 cases, 70 are withdrawn, trials will be finalized for only 36 out of the 100 perpetrators and about 14 of them are not found guilty … Only 16 of the 100 alleged rapists will be convicted of rape,” the director revealed.
Tjombe said it was common among communities that family members go to greater lengths to cover up for a family member who has raped another family member to avoid scandal.
Reasons leading to gender-based violence remain harmful cultural practices where uncles engage in sexual intercourse with their nieces as initiation into adulthood and the “inheritance” of widows/widowers, which is simply a violation of human dignity.
The 2000 national survey on gender-based violence conducted by the Legal Assistance Centre show that husbands found it justifiable to beat up their wives if they refused sex, argued with him, food was not ready on time and in situations where the wife questioned the husband about money expenditure and girlfriends. The study also found that one in every three Namibian women had been physically or sexually abused by their partners. The conference is being held under the theme “Unifying Action to Eliminating Gender-Based Violence in Our Society”.
During the remaining three days, the conference will cover issues related to understanding the underlying issues of gender-based violence, masculinity, femininity and gender-based violence, policy-based approaches and interventions to fight gender-based violence, promoting and implementing gender-based programmes, roles of policymakers and communication constraints and opportunities, among others.
In addition, the conference will explore issues related to HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence, culture, religion and the role of the media.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba is expected to officially open the first ever national conference on gender-based violence this morning.