DEPUTY Prime Minister, Dr Libertina Amathila, has called for the castration of rapists to stop others from the habit.

Contributing to a motion on Gender-based Violence in the National Assembly Tuesday this week, Amathila said to tame rapists, the country must pass a law allowing castration.
“Just castrate one rapist to set an example. They will stop,” she said.
Dr Amathila was responding to Minister of Works and Transport, Helmut Angula, who had blamed apartheid for the widespread cases of gender-based violence.
“War of aggression catapulted into violence against women and children that includes rape where conquerors were admired. This can be seen by violence in countries that were colonised for a long time,” he said.
Angula argued further that the violent mentality spanned from the colonial era when people were imprisoned and marriages broke down. This, he said, made some people assume more power than others and resort to aggression.
Dr Amathila disagreed with him saying, ““How can you justify a 12-year-old raping? They have never been in jail, never experienced apartheid.”
The remarks drew applause from female parliamentarians from the ruling Swapo Party and opposition as most members agreed that the legislation to castrate rapist should be passed to tame escalating rape cases. 
However, Deputy Minister of Justice, Uutoni Nujoma, disagreed, saying the only solution is to stop watching pornographic and violent programmes especially on DStv while encouraging the nation to watch only Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) because it’s safe from these ills.
“I read that even if you castrate that thing (sperm) don’t come out, but you can still do it anyway,” Nujoma said amidst thunderous laughter.
“People who are privileged enough to own DStv, they go to these sites (porn and violence).”
Nujoma could not supply details of channels that beam pornographic programmes when other members asked him about it.
 All he could say was: “They are there on the bouquets.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Regional Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Kazenambo Kazenambo, blamed the media for failure to allocate enough time to educate and inform the public on domestic violence.
“They are supposed to mirror the community. They have failed to do that,” Kazenambo charged while hitting out at the DTA Secretary General, McHenry Venaani, accusing him of coming late to the house.
“You are not prepared to debate: Uaripi (Where were you?).”
Gender-based violence has been on the rise in Namibia where several innocent women and children have lost their lives to boyfriends and fathers.
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