PRESIDENTIAL affairs minister Frans Kapofi says the proposal to abandon the winter time zone is driven by business interests at the expense of children whose safety has not improved since it was introduced in 1994.
Kapofi, one of the ministers who disagreed with a Cabinet decision to an all-year summer time, told The Namibian during the weekend that doing so will drag Namibia back to colonial days.
Finance minister Calle Schlettwein also told The Namibian yesterday that the proposed single time zone brushes aside the security of lesser-privileged children and workers who do not have the comfort of being driven in vehicles to and from school or work.
The proposal was tabled by home affairs minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana in the National Assembly last week. Iivula-Ithana wants Namibia to use the summer time the country is currently using as the only time all-year-round.
If the proposal is accepted, the current time zone will not be changed in April this year, as has been the case at the start of every winter season since 1994. Namibia changes time on the first Sunday of April every year.
Admitting that Cabinet took a collective decision to abandon winter time, Kapofi said although he is not against the proposal, he believes the suggestion is being pushed to benefit businesses that want to align themselves with South African time.
Kapofi said the proposed time change will take Namibia into the past days when South Africa imposed a uniform time zone for Namibians during apartheid.
“We have a different geography from South Africa. Why should we be like them?” he asked. “For me, it is an issue of the safety of children going to school and the decolonisation from South Africa’s imposed time in the past.”
Kapofi said the children’s safety has not improved since 1994. “They may be safer in areas like Windhoek but they are not safe in most rural parts of the country,” he said.
There is a proposal to change the school starting time in winter, but Kapofi insists that this will still change the routine of pupils.
Although Iivula-Ithana said 97% out of 3 507 people consulted by the ministry are in favour of summer time all year, Kapofi said more people need to be consulted.
More than 300 people supported the winter and summer time slots.
“The proposed time change is a nice-to-have, but people will blame us (leaders) if something bad happens to their children. I hope people will see the logic on why the current time slots should not be changed” he said.
Kapofi said President Hage Geingob as chair of Cabinet has not taken sides on whether to change to a single time zone.
Schlettwein also disagrees with the proposed time. “The President decided that the process should take its course and be discussed in parliament,” he added.
He said summer time will force less-privileged children and workers to walk long distances in the dark and cold.
“The trade-off is between discomfort and unsafe circumstances for the most vulnerable (children and workers), and the wants of the more affluent members of society. I believe that the status quo better caters for the needs of the vulnerable,” he said.
Schlettwein said most businesses have adjusted to do business with even Chinese or American partners with much larger time differences.
“Summer/winter time was introduced not out of the blue, but with reasons, and these reasons prevail,” he said.
Schlettwein said “the underlying statistics justifying the proposed change on face value at least appear to me as being biased towards the more well off society. Let us therefore make sure that the less well off and their needs are equally entertained”.
