'Nonsense' gay issue no priority for Amupanda govt
Presidential hopeful breaks silence on homosexuality
After ducking the subject for years, the former Windhoek mayor said there are more pressing challenges that would enjoy his attention if elected.
Leader of the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) movement Job Amupanda on Monday said the raging LGBTQ+ debate in Namibia is not a material issue he would occupy himself with should he be elected president of the country this November.
Speaking on X’s Spaces platform - hosted by Mwahafar Ndilula - the former Windhoek mayor said people are being ‘terrorised’ and labelled as homophobes for not endorsing homosexuality.
“This is a very weak conversation and it is not even necessary for me to take a position on it. Everyone is being terrorised. When you have a view on something, then they say you are homophobic. You have a right to like something or not to like it,” the University of Namibia (Unam) academic remarked.
Amupanda made the comments while responding to questions about his stance on the LGBTQ+ issue as an aspiring presidential candidate, who intends to stand for the highest office in the land in November. AR has recently been registered as a political party with the Electoral Commission of Namibia.
Discussions about homosexuality have refused to wind down since the Supreme Court ruled in May 2023 that same-sex marriages concluded overseas between Namibian citizens and foreigners should be recognised.
Parliament subsequently passed a private member’s bill, initiated by Swapo member of parliament Jerry Ekandjo, that seeks to ban same-sex marriages and punish their supporters. The bill has been collecting dust on the desk of the president – first Hage Geingob and now Nangolo Mbumba – for over 12 months.
Adding fuel to the debate is a recent High Court judgment decriminalising sodomy and acts of unnatural sex, and home affairs minister Albert Kawana’s subsequent tabling of an amendment marriage bill, which seeks to ban same-sex marriages and confine the term ‘spouse’ to heterosexual couples only.
Unemployment a concern
Amupanda said he is concerned about the high rate of unemployment, not “people’s sexuality”.
The economy of the country is his concern, he added, stressing that he cannot have ‘weak conversations’ which are not necessary for him. Amupanda argued that members of the LGBTQ+ community benefit from education and health conversations and all national topics have them covered. As it stands, no member of the LGBTQ+ community has been harassed for their sexual orientation, he claimed.
“I don’t regard it as a [big] issue because corruption affects everyone. If that is the [basis] of the vote, [whether] I support gay [people] or not, let me lose that vote. No one in Namibia is killed because of their sexuality. This is not a national conversation,” he said.
'Waste of time'
A visibly irritated Amupanda said there is a new tendency where people seek affirmation, and there is an assumption that there’s universality as far as the Supreme Court judgment on same-sex marriages is concerned.
There are people who know their sexuality, are content with it and keep it to themselves, he said. “They don’t go around parading their sexuality,” he said.
“Do I come to your house and say ‘do you recognise that I am straight?’ Why do we have more men than women in the army? Whether we like it or not, we need to respect nature. Are we going to start asking how many gays are in jail and how many are corrupt? Maybe people who have nothing to do [with their time],” Amupanda said.
“Spending these minutes responding to it is a waste of time. I should be responding about diamond and mining deals as well as agriculture,” the presidential hopeful said.
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Speaking on X’s Spaces platform - hosted by Mwahafar Ndilula - the former Windhoek mayor said people are being ‘terrorised’ and labelled as homophobes for not endorsing homosexuality.
“This is a very weak conversation and it is not even necessary for me to take a position on it. Everyone is being terrorised. When you have a view on something, then they say you are homophobic. You have a right to like something or not to like it,” the University of Namibia (Unam) academic remarked.
Amupanda made the comments while responding to questions about his stance on the LGBTQ+ issue as an aspiring presidential candidate, who intends to stand for the highest office in the land in November. AR has recently been registered as a political party with the Electoral Commission of Namibia.
Discussions about homosexuality have refused to wind down since the Supreme Court ruled in May 2023 that same-sex marriages concluded overseas between Namibian citizens and foreigners should be recognised.
Parliament subsequently passed a private member’s bill, initiated by Swapo member of parliament Jerry Ekandjo, that seeks to ban same-sex marriages and punish their supporters. The bill has been collecting dust on the desk of the president – first Hage Geingob and now Nangolo Mbumba – for over 12 months.
Adding fuel to the debate is a recent High Court judgment decriminalising sodomy and acts of unnatural sex, and home affairs minister Albert Kawana’s subsequent tabling of an amendment marriage bill, which seeks to ban same-sex marriages and confine the term ‘spouse’ to heterosexual couples only.
Unemployment a concern
Amupanda said he is concerned about the high rate of unemployment, not “people’s sexuality”.
The economy of the country is his concern, he added, stressing that he cannot have ‘weak conversations’ which are not necessary for him. Amupanda argued that members of the LGBTQ+ community benefit from education and health conversations and all national topics have them covered. As it stands, no member of the LGBTQ+ community has been harassed for their sexual orientation, he claimed.
“I don’t regard it as a [big] issue because corruption affects everyone. If that is the [basis] of the vote, [whether] I support gay [people] or not, let me lose that vote. No one in Namibia is killed because of their sexuality. This is not a national conversation,” he said.
'Waste of time'
A visibly irritated Amupanda said there is a new tendency where people seek affirmation, and there is an assumption that there’s universality as far as the Supreme Court judgment on same-sex marriages is concerned.
There are people who know their sexuality, are content with it and keep it to themselves, he said. “They don’t go around parading their sexuality,” he said.
“Do I come to your house and say ‘do you recognise that I am straight?’ Why do we have more men than women in the army? Whether we like it or not, we need to respect nature. Are we going to start asking how many gays are in jail and how many are corrupt? Maybe people who have nothing to do [with their time],” Amupanda said.
“Spending these minutes responding to it is a waste of time. I should be responding about diamond and mining deals as well as agriculture,” the presidential hopeful said.
– [email protected]
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