LETTERS -
| 2013-08-09No Safe Place For Women
NAMIBIA is renowned as an exemplary tourism destination in Africa. This is owing to critical aspects, such as infrastructure, cultural diversity and vastness, but most of all, its political stability and peace.
Equally, Article 6 (Protection of life), Chapter 3 of the Constitution, states that “right to life shall be respected and be protected”. It further maintains that “no executions shall take place in Namibia”.
For a lack of a competent interpretation to the above, I would have hoped that protection and respect shall be ensured by the law, such that in an event of violation, severe measures shall be in place and be applied to retain and restore confidence of the nation in its constitution. And no executions shall take place in Namibia, would have meant, zero fatal and stringent actions shall be taken against perpetrators, swiftly.
In recent weeks, let alone past years, both print and televised media, have been fountains of saddening news of gruesome acts – women killed by men.
It is perturbing to note that a perpetrator who killed a child had been given bail and eventually killed a woman while on bail. It’s disheartening to hear that a four-year-old girl witnessed the brutal stabbing of her mother. This does not build a stable future for a woman at all, not to mention this child in particular. This child will grow up in fear, no matter how much counselling she goes through.
Namibia is no longer a safe place for our mothers, sisters, and female friends!
It is very frequent, that at any given juncture, law enforcing institutions will reiterate and emphasise the law to take its cause, especially for the gruesome killers. What happened to our laws? Are they protecting and respecting the lives of male perpetrators only?
A person caught smuggling a cigarette consignment worth of N$20 million, is hastily charged and slapped with more than half a million dollar bail. Yet, we have bail of a mere N$ 1000 for a brutal killer.
A bad image would have ripple effects to our marketing as a mecca of tourism, which is a significant arm of economic growth in this country.
Konstantinus Shuukwanyama
By email
Equally, Article 6 (Protection of life), Chapter 3 of the Constitution, states that “right to life shall be respected and be protected”. It further maintains that “no executions shall take place in Namibia”.
For a lack of a competent interpretation to the above, I would have hoped that protection and respect shall be ensured by the law, such that in an event of violation, severe measures shall be in place and be applied to retain and restore confidence of the nation in its constitution. And no executions shall take place in Namibia, would have meant, zero fatal and stringent actions shall be taken against perpetrators, swiftly.
In recent weeks, let alone past years, both print and televised media, have been fountains of saddening news of gruesome acts – women killed by men.
It is perturbing to note that a perpetrator who killed a child had been given bail and eventually killed a woman while on bail. It’s disheartening to hear that a four-year-old girl witnessed the brutal stabbing of her mother. This does not build a stable future for a woman at all, not to mention this child in particular. This child will grow up in fear, no matter how much counselling she goes through.
Namibia is no longer a safe place for our mothers, sisters, and female friends!
It is very frequent, that at any given juncture, law enforcing institutions will reiterate and emphasise the law to take its cause, especially for the gruesome killers. What happened to our laws? Are they protecting and respecting the lives of male perpetrators only?
A person caught smuggling a cigarette consignment worth of N$20 million, is hastily charged and slapped with more than half a million dollar bail. Yet, we have bail of a mere N$ 1000 for a brutal killer.
A bad image would have ripple effects to our marketing as a mecca of tourism, which is a significant arm of economic growth in this country.
Konstantinus Shuukwanyama
By email
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