The newly appointed attorney general, Rama Valayden gave a strong signal and must be congratulated for his stand on gender discrimination. For too long gender has been at the bottom of the agenda.

Rama Valayden took prompt action when two complaints were sent to him regarding a sexist advertisement on “King’s beer” and another one using children to market electrical appliances. We are also grateful that the Equal Opportunity Bill will be discussed in Parliament in September 2005. This key instrument for achieving gender equality is long overdue. But it will be interesting to see the contents of this Bill.

Looking at the new appointees chosen by the President of the Republic on the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Disciplined Forces Service Commission (DFSC) one gets the impression that the President is not aware that the African Union (AU) has set a target of equal representation of women in all areas of decision-making. All SADC members belong to the AU, Mr. President.

Although we do not have an Equal Opportunity Act yet we have a Sex Discrimination Act.

Let us hope that the Equal Opportunity Act will put a stop to gender discrimination and women will be considered as human beings and not as “Barbie Dolls”.

It is clear that with only one lady on these two Commissions, the PSC and the DFSC, the President is in contradiction with his speech which spells out “his” government’s programme for 2005-2010.