SWAPO WOMEN REVIEW THE WAY FORWARD
By Petros Kuteeue, Windhoek

August 5, 2003 – (The Namibian - Windhoek) HEAD of the the Swapo Party Women's Council (SPWC), Eunice Iipinge, has not ruled out restructuring the wing to "conform with the demands of a multi-party democratic system".

Members of the ruling party women's wing converged at Okahandja at the weekend to review its role in present-day, democratic Namibia.

Iipinge, SPWC Secretary General, noted that the Council was formed during the liberation struggle hence its mandates and operations were mostly modelled on the political party wings of socialist and communist organisations.

"[The] only existing experience of women wings that we have are those from one-party states. Now we find ourselves in a multi-party system therefore we need to adjust accordingly," she told The Namibian.

The conference was also to look at ways to enhance networking between the SPWC and other national institutions involved in women's issues such as the Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Welfare.

Iipinge expressed disappointment that no significant strides had been taken in attaining a Swapo Congress resolution calling for 30 per cent of women participation in decision-making.

"It is now a year since this resolution was taken but its progress is not satisfactory. We will soon be carrying out a capacity-building programme to look at the problems experienced in implementing the resolution," she said.

Swapo Secretary General Ngarikutuke Tjiriange advised the Women's Council to be consistently involved in the day-to-day politics of the party if they wanted to be recognised and to be elected.

"We might have the 50-50 policy but people might not vote for you because they don't know you .... you have to be actively involved," he urged.

Tjiriange, however, acknowledged the need for women to be accorded the opportunity to acquire the tools to perform "on a par" with men.

"We should put a system that will discriminate in favour of women, and this can be done without violating our laws," Tjiriange added.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200308050475.html