(2018) 2 African Human Rights Yearbook 141 least these countries could do, especially Namibia, who had just recently gained sovereignty through the aid of the international community, was to demonstrate a culture of human rights protection and promotion. The rapid promulgation of legislation blended with human rights connotations was therefore not surprising. In as much as these new States owed a considerable degree of allegiance to the international community, their hard-won political gains from the harsh experiences of the past gave them high political and moral sensitivities towards the plight of minority groups such as women. Although a considerable number of laws were passed immediately after the first democratic elections in 1989, it was only in the midst of the second electoral process in 1994 that women’s legislative protection, directed at political empowerment gained force. The first pieces of legislation primarily focused on traditional areas such as labour and social security. However, the adoption of the National Gender Policy in 1997 and its Addendum National Gender Plan and Action gave leeway to the surfeit of pieces of legislation that was passed thereafter pertinent to women’s rights issues. The Married Persons Equality Act of 199631 was the first of the new laws that addressed the evident gender disproportionalities between men and women in the country. It abolishes marital power previously enjoyed by husbands over their wives,32 as inherent in the common law concept of paterfamilias; and amends the matrimonial property law of marriages in community of property in Namibia by providing for equal powers of spouses married in community of property.33 The Act also addresses issues relating to the domicile of married women;34 domicile and guardianship of minor children;35 and further regulates the liability for household necessaries of spouses married out of community of property.36 The substantive application of the Act first unfolded in 2000 in Myburgh v Commercial Bank of Namibia & Others,37 which dealt with the marital power of a husband over his wife. In this case, although confirming the entrenched position in the Act, it was stated that the marital power husbands enjoyed over their wife’s was automatically invalidated by virtue of its unconstitutionality and thus invalid retrospectively with the promulgation of the Namibian Constitution.38 The court held, per Heathcote AJ, (as he then was) that the differentiations brought about by disproportionalities in marriage were stereotypical and did not take cognisance of the equal worth of women.39 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 1 of 1996. Sec 2 of the Act. Sec 4-11 of the Act. Sec 12 of the Act. Sec 13 of the Act. Sec 15 of the Act. (SA2/00, SA2/00) [2000] NASC 3 (8 December 2000) http://www.saflii.org/na/ cases/NASC/2000/3.html (accessed 12 December 2018). As above.