Gender violence linked to apartheid

THE prevalence of domestic and gender-based violence in Namibia’s society could have to do with the family patterns that evolved during colonial apartheid times, when men were sent to work for long periods and could only visit their families after their contracts were completed, says Works and Transport Minister Helmut Angula.

Speaking during debate in the National Assembly on gender-based violence, Angula said the men of black families were sent via the contracting agency Swanla for working periods of up to 20 months in one go. ‘This kind of oppressive rule damaged society as husbands and fathers could only see their families back at home for a brief period at the end of the year. For the rest of the time, the children could not experience the love of their fathers, brothers and uncles and could not be taught the cultural values and traditions as intensively as one would have wished to,’ Angula said. The isolated men were squeezed together in hostels known as compounds and often frustrations among them would erupt in violence.’They beat each other up and those who were successful with that were looked up to and employers also liked them and made such a brute a foreman,’ according to Angula.Another possible reason for violence in today’s Namibian society could also be related to the apartheid era when the Police at that time would recruit mostly black Police -men who were ‘huge, tough and ugly’, Angula added. ‘That is what I recall from those days. These new Police recruits were trained to be rough and to first beat up suspects they arrested before interrogating them.’ Angula said he himself had been beaten by (black) Policemen in the vicinity of the current Louis Botha Store in Windhoek West near the Gammans River. ‘We had to put down our trousers and they would beat us with sjamboks (sticks), when we returned from our jobs at the SKW (Sportklub Windhoek),’ Angula recalled. Nora Schimming-Chase of the CoD said it was not good to transfer violence to other people if a person was a victim of violence, otherwise the vicious circle continued. ‘If violence was planted in you, you transfer it to the next weaker person, maybe that is why the South African apartheid regime made so many people violent,’ Angula countered.Peya Mushelenga of Swapo said when it came to violence, there was not only physical but also psychological abuse of people.Deputy Justice Minister Utoni Nujoma blamed television for showing violent scenes in programmes and movies, including sexual scenes. ‘Our children are watching all this, the media needs to be blamed. I am not so worried about DStv as those channels are watched by people who can afford it, they even watch pornography there,’ he said. ‘Which channel, tell us!’ some MPs demanded jokingly. Undeterred Nujoma junior continued and said the national broadcaster NBC was the only channel watched in rural areas. ‘NBC should make an effort to show good movies and not violence.’At this point Nora Schimming-Chase reminded Nujoma that DStv and M-Net were co-owned by some political parties, hinting at the ruling Swapo Party.Nujoma ignored her and explained his line of thought by saying the new Communications Bill was needed in this instance ‘to stop pornography on cellphones in schools, because teenagers make pictures of such scenes of their friends and spread them via their cellphones in schools’.McHenry Venaani (DTA) proposed that to curb physical violence it would be good to be stricter with people who had or wanted to buy weapons and applied for a licence. ‘There should be a screening process to check if applicants have a Police record with regard to violence,’ Venaani said.Debate on the motion, which was tabled by Juliet Kavetuna (Swapo), continues.