WOMEN REMAIN SHACKLED
By Wezi Tjaronda

April 2, 2004 – (New Era - Windhoek) Female municipal councillors at Walvis Bay are afraid the quest for gender balance in all spheres will remain a pipe dream if women do not avail themselves for service.

Women at the coastal town, they say, are too reserved, suffer from a lack of confidence and do not even avail themselves to participate in developmental projects, let alone politics.

At meetings, lots of men often attend and the only women that dare to take part are the elderly. Conspicuously absent are middle-aged and young women.

In this day and age, they say, women are still colonised.

Adheleid Kandjala, a local councillor, says that in the pre- and post-independence days, women were colonised twice: by the colonial regime and by cultural beliefs and traditions.

Although traditionally women are more involved in taking care of their families, many also formally work and are breadwinners for their households.

This, the councillor feels, has made them withdraw to concentrate on their own businesses. She feels a common stand is needed if women are to overcome common problems.

Many women at the coast run small enterprises such as catering, tailoring, hairdressing and jewellery-making, among many others, but there is a lack of common projects that can unite them.

"Everyone wants to work on their own and it divides them," remarks Kandjala.

To address this problem, plans are in the pipeline to form a women's grouping, which will address real issues. If the plans are realised, the grouping will see how it can assist in development and identify suitable projects for all interested women.

The huge influx of unemployed people from all over the country to the coastal town in search of job opportunities has seen some women doing odd jobs that can barely keep their families alive.

Restructuring and retrenchments at some fishing companies have also affected women to the extent that former breadwinners have been reduced to beggars.

"They are creating unemployment and increasing poverty," she adds.

Another female local authority councillor, Manethe Nendongo, notes that of all the retrenched workers, single mothers are the most affected because their capability to put food on their families' tables is also affected.

This has resulted in an increase in failure of children at school, juvenile delinquency and child prostitution. The mothers on the other hand can no longer afford to pay for municipal services due to a lack of income.

Another worrying trend is the increasing number of sex workers.

Women and children of both sexes, the councillors say, have joined the bandwagon of commercial sex workers in order to make a living.

"It is a chronic disease that is happening here," says Kandjala, who believes that if one has one's cultural values entrenched in oneself, prostitution would be the last thing to do.

But a study on Commercial Sex Work and the Law in Namibia, by the Legal Assistance Centre, has found that while some sex workers are single females, the majority support whole households from their earnings.
Interviews conducted in Walvis Bay and Windhoek revealed that sex work is linked to job instability as women who find themselves out of work turn to selling themselves for a living.

The two councillors also lamented the way mothers of today bring up their children, saying if parents cannot entrench in them cultural values, parents should not expect a bright future for the children.

They also wondered as to what happened to the past when a child used to be every parent's child. "Let's go back to our roots when a child was every one's child," remarked Nendongo.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200404020733.html