Good night!
WHAT WORLD DO some Namibian lawmakers live in that they utter the craziest and the most dangerous of statements?
This week veteran Swapo politician Jerry Ekandjo seemed to open his mouth and the words escaped – that the Namibian flag is the property of his party.
Ekandjo's senseless remark was quickly overtaken by opposition Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader Elma Dienda arguing that rape can't happened between married people.
Ekandjo's utterance was so laughable, a primary school child would not mistake it for anything but mindless.
Dienda's argument, however, is nothing short of encouraging abusive relationships in a society struggling with gender-based sexual violence.
It's shocking that a woman lawmaker is doing the bidding for male chauvinism and trying to take the world back to practices that have been fought against since women's emancipation in the 1800s.
We find it hard to believe that in 2022 Dienda still believes a woman should be treated as a man's property. With such beliefs brazenly expressed in an institution that makes laws, it is not surprising that there are men murdering their wives and girlfriends because they were denied sex.
It is even more concerning that it was left to 22-year-old lawmaker Patience Masua to pick up the courage to speak out against the views of much older MPs, who ridiculed her as she explained that forced sexual activities constitute rape.
Dienda was allegedly taught to have sex on demand by her husband under any circumstances.
The PDM lawmaker apparently has no idea that sex is instinctively an act of love, whether people are married or in some other romantic relationship. Bonobos can teach Dienda (and most of humanity) a thing or two about sex.
Lawmakers like Dienda, and there were many supporting her in the National Assembly, ought to revisit the Combating of Rape Act of 2000 to appreciate why it so clearly defines rape.
For the record, rape is rape inside or outside marriage, whether it's civil or customary.
Citizens look to parliamentarians for solutions to this country's woes.
Many married people, particularly women, suffer in silence exactly because of Dienda's type of primitive beliefs. Some are killed simply for not being in the mood for sex.
Parliamentarians need to spend time making laws that put a halt to abuse and other forms of sexual violence. Anything to the contrary is a dereliction of duty.
