Sex victims must share the blame: Nambinga

A SWAPO backbencher and an opposition MP had a heated exchange in Parliament yesterday about sex between teenage schoolgirls and teachers.

Watched by a large group of teenagers sitting in the public gallery, former Prisons and Correctional Services Minister Jeremiah Nambinga argued that if a young girl “allows herself to be seduced by a teacher and gets pregnant, she is just at guilty as the teacher is”. Nambinga was contributing to debate on the nation’s lack of morality and respect for elders.As the schoolgirls in the gallery gasped at what they had heard from the Swapo MP, Nambinga added that young girls should not “allow themselves to be entangled in relationships and affairs with teachers and other elderly people who are sometimes as old as their own fathers”.An enraged Elma Dienda (CoD) rose on a point of order to tell Nambinga that sex with children under the age of 16 was illegal.”Sex between an adult and a youth younger than 16 is unacceptable!” Dienda said emphatically.”The Member should be less emotional,” Nambinga quipped.Nudo MP Arnold Tjihuiko then asked Nambinga why he as a lawmaker did not know that.The Deputy Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare remarked that Nambinga himself had a daughter.”If my daughter falls pregnant she must know that she does not have a licence to do that,” the Swapo MP explained.”We must be responsible parents.”He then told the House that when a teacher or any other adult showed “undue interest in her” a girl should report this to somebody with authority who could assist her.”I therefore regard as nonsense the notion that girls are always the victims.I think many of them are just not serious and allow themselves to be led into bad situations,” Nambinga said.Tjihuiko of Nudo then reminded Nambinga that some girls could easily be sexually exploited if they were poor and saw no other way of getting food or money.The debate is expected to continue today.Nambinga was contributing to debate on the nation’s lack of morality and respect for elders.As the schoolgirls in the gallery gasped at what they had heard from the Swapo MP, Nambinga added that young girls should not “allow themselves to be entangled in relationships and affairs with teachers and other elderly people who are sometimes as old as their own fathers”.An enraged Elma Dienda (CoD) rose on a point of order to tell Nambinga that sex with children under the age of 16 was illegal.”Sex between an adult and a youth younger than 16 is unacceptable!” Dienda said emphatically.”The Member should be less emotional,” Nambinga quipped.Nudo MP Arnold Tjihuiko then asked Nambinga why he as a lawmaker did not know that.The Deputy Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare remarked that Nambinga himself had a daughter.”If my daughter falls pregnant she must know that she does not have a licence to do that,” the Swapo MP explained.”We must be responsible parents.”He then told the House that when a teacher or any other adult showed “undue interest in her” a girl should report this to somebody with authority who could assist her.”I therefore regard as nonsense the notion that girls are always the victims.I think many of them are just not serious and allow themselves to be led into bad situations,” Nambinga said.Tjihuiko of Nudo then reminded Nambinga that some girls could easily be sexually exploited if they were poor and saw no other way of getting food or money.The debate is expected to continue today.