Parents have a responsibility to care for children – Schlettwein

Agriculture, water and land reform minister Calle Schlettwein says parents have a continued responsibility to maintain children until adulthood.

He said this while contributing to a discussion on the divorce bill in parliament on Tuesday.

While contributing to the debate, works and transport deputy minister Veikko Nekundi said he wants spousal maintenance to be scrapped from the divorce bill.

He argued that maintenance is unAfrican.

Nekundi was adamant that spousal maintenance does not reflect African culture, adding that no African marries for material benefit, but for love.
Schlettwein disagreed with Nekundi.

“The crucial part should be that children have a prospect of dignified livelihood. Both spouses share the responsibility, the act is blank to ensure that,” said Schlettwein.

Justice minister Yvonne Dausab tabled the long-awaited divorce bill in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Popular Democratic Movement chief whip Elma Dienda requested that the bill should not be discussed until the private member’s bill is signed into law by president Nangolo Mbumba.

“I feel this bill is really incomplete. In the absence of a definition of ‘spouse’,” she said.

The bill was first on the desk of late president Hage Geingob and is currently with Mbumba.

Health and social services minister Kalumbi Shangula wants the bill renamed, saying the word divorce has a negative connotation.

“I would propose that instead of calling it the divorce bill, we could call it the ‘dissolution of marriage’ bill,” he said.
Read more in The Namibian.