‘Making babies and drinking kaalgat’

Justice Minister Albert Kawana has warned that some men might abuse paternity leave “to make more children and go on drinking sprees” instead of assisting the mothers of their children.
Commenting during the debate on the ratification of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Employment and Labour in the National Assembly, Kawana said the government would have to strongly legislate and monitor paternity leave, and might even go so far as to subject fathers to supervisory visits by social workers.
The protocol stipulates that “state parties shall provide paternity leave in order to ensure that child-caring is a shared responsibility between father and mother”.
“Instead of looking after children they may be hanging out in bars, making more babies and drinking kaalgat. The gender equality ministry should probably have to establish a unit that can teach fathers to change diapers and to clean bottles,” said Kawana.
“At the same time you find fathers having three to four children with different women at the same time. The question is now, where do you devote your time? Or one must look at whether your leave is extended per child?” he said.
The SADC protocol also stipulates that “employment-related maternity benefits shall ideally be financed through compulsory social insurance paid by both the employer and the employees in respect of the total number of men and women employed, without distinction of sex”.
Although pointing out that there would be financial implications, Kawana said Namibia could no longer shy away from the role fathers play in the lives of children.
“We have just ratified the Convention of the Child Act, it is important to meet the letter and the spirit of that convention. If you as a nation feel obliged to change the lives of children then you have to look at things like paternity leave,” he said.
Kawana also said that he would soon table a child justice bill that would ensure that these provisions to improve the lives of children were indeed implemented.
“They cannot reject this because of financial implications. Children are our future. If we make sure the social and health welfare of children is taken care of, we will have a smart and peaceful nation,” said Kawana.


The protocol further calls for increased protection to the level provided for in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) revised Maternity Protection Convention of 2000.
Convention No 183 provides for 14 weeks of maternity benefit to women to whom the instrument applies. Women who are absent from work on maternity leave shall be entitled to a cash benefit which ensures that they can maintain themselves and their child in proper conditions of health and with a suitable standard of living, and which shall be no less than two-thirds of her previous earnings, or a comparable amount.
The convention also requires ratifying states to take measures to ensure that a pregnant woman or nursing mother is not obliged to perform work which has been determined to be harmful to her health or that of her child, and provides for protection from discrimination based on maternity.
The standard also prohibits employers from terminating the employment of a woman during pregnancy or maternity leave, or during a period following her return to work, except on grounds unrelated to pregnancy, childbirth and its consequences, or nursing.
Women returning to work must be returned to the same position or an equivalent position paid at the same rate. It also provides a woman the right to one or more daily breaks, or a daily reduction in the hours of work, to breastfeed her child.

JEMIMA BEUKES