Are Women Truly Under-Represented in SWAPO                                                               

By Annelien P. van Wyk

It is a well-known fact that gender representation across Namibia is profoundly ensued in favor of men and that all political parties, with the exception of one party, have “side-lined” women on their party lists for this month’s elections.

Since early September, opinions have been raised by political analysts, (mind you, none of these political experts are women), about the inadequate representation of women on the SWAPO PART list in particular.

In their 2009 SWAPO Party Election Manifesto, the party clearly state:

“Gender mainstreaming and the equitable representation of women in positions of power will remain a priority to the SWAPO Party in line with the 2002 and 2007 SWAPO Party Congress Resolutions.  The SWAPO Party will intensify the implementation of laws and programmes to combat violence against women and children, and will ensure that offenders in this regards shall face the full force of the law.

To this end, the SWAPO Party will, for the next five years, pursue the following strategies:

Continue to improve the policies affecting the conditions of professional and working women including the improvement of maternity leave benefits and the creation of child-friendly working environments.

Provide leadership to all structures of society in gender mainstreaming along with equal access for women to all socio-economic and political activities and in the enforcement of laws prohibiting gender-based violence”.

No-where and not at any particular time did the SWAPO Party promised that they will have 50% women representation on their 2009 Party List.

However, some news papers claimed that the Government signed the SADC Protocol on Gender Development which requires political parties to implement equal gender representation by 2015 as a meager ritual.

Unless it is written in inkless ink, I do not see 2009, so I searched my mind and asked myself, why all the fuss about the SWAPO Party List. Namibia has so many political parties and all of them, with the exception of just that one party, do nor have 50% female representation, but every time you open a paper you read critique about only one Party. The SWAPO Party.

Most of these brave citizens that so willingly speak out on the issue of gender under-representation in the SWAPO Party do not even belong to the SWAPO Party. Some of them are not even involved in their own citizenry. Why don’t Namibians allow the SWAPO party women which they claim are not receiving a fair share of the political cake, to speak out for themselves.

Did it perhaps cross their mind that the women of the SWAPO Party understand and respect the strategy of their Party and that is why they are silent, because they know exactly where the Party is heading to and with the faith they have in their party leaders, they do not have to get panic attacks.