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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - Web posted at 7:09:51 GMT Death penalty mooted LINDSAY DENTLINGERAN incensed Minister of Women's Affairs and Child Welfare Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah yesterday said Namibia must consider introducing the death penalty for child murderers. |
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"As much as I respect and have taken [an] oath to defend and protect the Namibian Constitution, the events of the past weeks ... leave me with no other alternative but to submit to the nation to seriously discuss if it is not possible to introduce capital punishment ... especially for the murderers of children," Ndaitwah told the National Assembly. She was reacting to the sexual assault and brutal murder of two young girls at Swakopmund and Windhoek in the past two weeks. In guaranteeing the right to life, the Namibian Constitution does not provide for perpetrators of serious crimes to be sentenced to death for their actions. Lashing out at perpetrators of violence against women and children when the special session of the National Assembly resumed yesterday afternoon, Nandi-Ndaitwah said it was clear that the nation needed "psychological therapy". Nandi-Ndaitwah said that "anyone of sound mind" would struggle to comprehend the senseless and violent deaths of six-year-old Rachel Hamatundu at Swakopmund two weeks ago and that of three-year-old Manuela //Hoesemas in Katutura last week. She said Government would still have to determine an appropriate time, but that it would definitely need to call a national conference on violence if the country was going to restore its cultural and traditional norms and make the country's laws effective. Nandi-Ndaitwah added that she did not believe that unemployment and poverty were contributing to the increase in violence against women and children. She said that her own investigations had revealed that in most such cases the perpetrators were in fact employed. "I know exactly what I am talking about. We need psychological therapy," Nandi-Ndaitwah added. The Minister said she believed the nation's laws were not enough of a deterrent against such crimes. "What is coming to light is that these laws have not got into the hearts and minds of the perpetrators. It leaves us puzzled as to what is going on in our society," said Nandi- Ndaitwah. "They don't respect themselves, nor people at large. Those who commit such horrible crimes do not see themselves bound by any social norms or regulations," she said. The Minister praised the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) for taking the lead by organising a demonstration against violent crime in Windhoek on Monday, saying they played a role in determining the spiritual needs of society. On Tuesday the National Assembly is expected to start discussing violence following a motion brought by the Congress of Democrats' Rosa Namises. Namises told the House yesterday that they had the responsibility to discuss and offer solutions to the escalating violence. The two men accused in the Hamatundu and //Hoesemas rape and murders appeared in court in Swakopmund and Windhoek respectively on Monday. Yesterday, Monitor Action Group's Kosie Pretorius once again pleaded with Government to consider corporal as well as capital punishment, saying they were responsible for the protection of the lives and property of its citizens. He directed his question to the Minister of Justice, as he did last year, asking whether this could be discussed. His question was, however, ruled inadmissible by Speaker Mosé Tjitendero, who said the House could not reflect on a constitutional provision without there being a substantive motion to amend such a provision. |
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