EDITORIAL: Swapo should do away with gender quota
President Hage Geingob is against a proposal to introduce a rule that forces political parties to appoint youth leaders in key positions. We agree with him.
“Quotas, in as much as they can offer short remedies on this issue, are not sustainable and not the way to go in any democratic organisation,” he said.
Perhaps what the president must answer, in all fairness, is why he is only rebellious against the youth quota and not the gender one.
Swapo has a 50/50 gender policy – a superficial tool to camouflage the party’s laziness to innovate and pursue genuine empowerment models that would allow women to realise their full potential in politics.
Currently, women and the youth in Swapo are at the mercy of old men who dictate the pace and magnitude of inclusion, through piecemeal freebie policies such as the zebra-style intervention.
In what way are we empowering women by wheelbarrowing them into Parliament while neglecting the fundamentals of equipping them with the tools necessary to successfully compete on their own?
It’s like a schoolteacher dishing out free marks to learners in order to erase the footprints of his own incompetency.
President Geingob’s stance on quotas is a welcome one, but only if it is applied to all demographics of the party, instead of only confining it to the youth. Empower everyone and open up the space for competition.
“Quotas, in as much as they can offer short remedies on this issue, are not sustainable and not the way to go in any democratic organisation,” he said.
Perhaps what the president must answer, in all fairness, is why he is only rebellious against the youth quota and not the gender one.
Swapo has a 50/50 gender policy – a superficial tool to camouflage the party’s laziness to innovate and pursue genuine empowerment models that would allow women to realise their full potential in politics.
Currently, women and the youth in Swapo are at the mercy of old men who dictate the pace and magnitude of inclusion, through piecemeal freebie policies such as the zebra-style intervention.
In what way are we empowering women by wheelbarrowing them into Parliament while neglecting the fundamentals of equipping them with the tools necessary to successfully compete on their own?
It’s like a schoolteacher dishing out free marks to learners in order to erase the footprints of his own incompetency.
President Geingob’s stance on quotas is a welcome one, but only if it is applied to all demographics of the party, instead of only confining it to the youth. Empower everyone and open up the space for competition.
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