Swapo women vie for top positions Three stand for SPWC secretary Leadership positions in the ruling party’s women’s wing will be fiercely contested next month. JEMIMA BEUKES Swords have been drawn in the battle for the Swapo Party Women’s Council top position.
The wing’s main politicians, Petrina Haingura, her deputy Eunice Iipinge and Sylvia Kandanga are vying for the secretary position.
Windhoek deputy mayor Fransina Kahungu, Katrina Liswani and Bernadette Jagger are standing for the deputy secretary position.
The fate of all these women will be determined at the SPWC elective congress that is slated to take place at Keetmanshoop in the //Karas Region from 7 until 11 December.
Incumbent SPWC secretary Haingura this week confirmed that she was standing for re-election, while Iipinge said it was her responsibility to stand for election.
“It is the women themselves who nominated me. Maybe they think I am so good that they want me again or maybe they are missing my leadership skills,” said Iipinge.
Iipinge, a veteran politician who served in this position in the past, lost against Haingura at the 2006 elective congress at Rundu.
Kahungu confirmed that she would for election and believes she is able to take the SPWC to the next level.
“I have decided on the deputy secretary position because my seniors are standing and I do not want to stand and compete against them. I can always work myself up,” Kahungu said.
The SPWC congress comes at a time when everyone in the Swapo Party are gearing for next year’s national and regional Swapo conferences, which will determine who attends the party''s elective congress in November next year.
Role of women’s council
According to gender activist Immaculate Mogotsi the SPWC has succeeded in securing 50/50 gender representation but they need to re-strategise how to get men involved in lobbying for issues that affect women.
She added that the party’s commitment to gender equality was commendable, but commitment went beyond numbers.
“There are some things where I thought we could do much more, such as the provision of sanitary pads to girls. I got the impression that women’s empowerment has a lot to do with the provision of sanitary pads, but if politicians are wishy-washy about it then it reflects very badly on them. I was personally disappointed,” Mogotsi said
Mogotsi added that more needed to be done by female politicians to push for public discourse on gender-based violence, which according to her is not making inroads.
Women members of the National Assembly last month shied away from debating the provision of free feminine hygiene products to needy schoolgirls.
The motion was tabled by DTA president McHenry Venaani, who said it was important to remind those who considered the issue taboo that all matters requiring developmental intervention were “the issues of MPs”.
Deputy Speaker Loide Kasingo said she was embarrassed to discuss menstruation in parliament while the deputy minister of gender equality and child welfare, Lucia Witbooi, said she did not think such a debate was necessary.