Hunter, The Bible and the quest for Developmental Justicefor independence (before 1990). Even though it sounds as if these cannot
be children any more, which they are not, many of them suffer post-
traumatic stress, as they could not really find their way in the new Na-
mibia. Many of them were born in the struggle and then send elsewhere
(countries such as Cuba, East Germany, Russia, for example) and came
back not even able to speak their “native” languages or were not ac-
quainted with their indigenous cultures. Many of these young people
feel that they were forgotten by the governing (ruling) party of Namibia,
which left them to try and cope with the new Namibia after 1990. In
2008, for example, such a group of young people had a strike in front of
the Ministry for War Veterans in Windhoek, protesting the fact that they
were born in exile but were then afterwards never cared for by their
families, extended families or the government. These young people were
then removed from Windhoek in 2009 and settled at Mount Aukas, a
farm north of Windhoek. These people practically live in squatter cir-
cumstances, with no regular transport to Windhoek. After a recent pro-
test march to Windhoek, the “struggle kids” were told by Government
(through Youth Minister Kazenambo) that they were “unruly” and that
Cabinet has decided that they will not get government jobs because of
this (The Namibian, June 22, 2010; see also e.g. the Allgemeine Zeitung,
31 May 2010 and The Namibian, June 10, 2010).
The Position of the Namibian State
The Constitution
Naldi, a lecturer in law, who did an analysis on constitutional rights in
Namibia in 1995, made some interesting remarks on the Constitution of
Namibia of which I wish to quote a few:
Unlike, for example the South African Constitution, “the Namibian
Constitution does not seem to envisage the concept of the best interest
of the child to be a paramount consideration.” (p. 79)
“Article 15(1) of the Constitution acknowledges that the best interests of the
child may necessitate the child’s separation from its parents, e.g. in cases
of neglect or abuse. However, international law requires that the
child maintain regular contact with his/her parents where possible.
Furthermore, where the authorities taking children into care the
European Court of Human Rights has held that the parents must be
involved in the decision-making process, in particular the right to be
heard and to be fully informed.” (pp. 79-80)