Africa-Press – Namibia. POPULAR Democratic Movement (PDM) parliamentarian Elma Dienda says after 32 years it is time for a female president to run the country.
She says Namibia is more than ready for a woman president although the country has been failing to fully implement a 50/50, gender-equality policy, also known as the zebra system.
“Why can we not have a female president? After 32 years, look where we are – we are sitting with a bankrupt country and corruption,” she yesterday told Desert Radio 95.3 FM.
Dienda said political parties have failed to apply the Southern African Development Community (SADC) initiative aimed at equal representation of men and women in decision-making and political positions.
She attributed the failure to the absence of a law enforcing 50/50 gender representation.
She admitted Swapo is the only party with such a policy in its constitution.
“Our protocols are designed by the president and ministers. When they come back, it is their responsibility to let our domestic laws adhere to these policies, but this is not happening,” she said.
Dienda said Namibia is capable of producing a woman president since it has leaders with the right qualities in parliament.
“I believe the prime minister, our deputy prime minister, and our minister of justice perform very well in what they are doing for our country in our parliament, and we are proud,” she said.
Dienda said women in the parliament are doing the best they can, but bemoaned a lack of support.
“People say they do not feel and see women in parliament, but I do not believe that . . . We are saying female MPs in parliament are too quiet, but there are also men who have not said anything for the past two years since we started the new parliament,” she said.
Dienda said women are proving their worth in positions allocated to them in parliament.
‘NOT NEW’
Meanwhile, Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, a Swapo stalwart and member of the Swapo Women’s Council’s central committee, says the call for a woman president is not new.
She says discussions are gaining traction, because of Swapo’s elective congress slated for November.
“A woman president is not an anomaly. Other countries have had a woman president, and our constitution does not prohibit a woman from contesting for the high office,” she says.
She says her only concern is that women fight among each other.
“It should be by merit. Leading this nation is not by the look or a feature of an individual, it is about what that person is able to bring to the table,” she says.
The former home affairs minister says Swapo’s gender policy, which she has championed, has been sabotaged and is not being implemented properly.
She says the majority of female candidates chosen to represent women have been those who “could be silenced or are unable to respond to anything”.
Iivula-Ithana says none of the names from the party’s women’s council have been elected at Swapo’s last electoral college.
“Women from unknown backgrounds were lined up and the results were obvious. That is where I realised that the strategy for us to get this 50/50 representation was sabotaged in a way,” she says.
The first woman Swapo secretary general took the blame for not offering an implementation formula when pushing for the 50/50 gender policy, she says.
Iivula-Ithana says: “I think in the near future we will have to find a platform and talk about it. We should not have a privileged position and allow it to be turned against us.”
NOT ALL ABOUT GENDER
Political science lecturer Rui Tyitende says the selection of the next president should be based on merit as opposed to gender.
“I think no matter from which point of view you look at it in terms of the whole drive to empower women to positions of influence, my take is that the ultimate outcome should be the direct impact on the Namibian populace,” he says.
“I am against being gender-focused. Women can deliver as much as men can. It is all a matter of competency and I think as a country we are deviating from the main issue. The problem Namibia is facing, is not a matter of sex or gender. It is a matter of competence,” Tyitende says.
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