(2018) 2 African Human Rights Yearbook 147 What has stirred sudden interest within SWAPO to undertake gender quotas remains a mystery. In fact, there has not been a robust discussion within the party on this major decision. However, with the increased abuse of and violence against women, the ruling party openly became sympathetic to the subordination of women generally. 4.2.2 Political will and commitment from the political establishment As of early 2000 onwards, a good number of brutal killings of women and girls was brought to light by the media. Women began to speak openly about their suppression in their domestic life and society started to react positively to address violence against women and their subordination more generally. As a means to address this, women’s political empowerment became an essential part of policy – especially for the political elite in the ruling party - to address the challenges facing women in the country. For example, in 2013, the abuse of women became such a concern to central government that the then State President, Hifikepunye Pohamba called for a ‘national day of prayer’.65 In a sense, society and State became conscious of the state of women in both private and public life. It is therefore not surprising, that after a ‘pervasive period’ of brutal gender-based violence, the Pohamba ledgovernment took a firm decision to reform its National Gender Policy of 1997 and started mobilizing women in political positions of authority. The political transition from the Nujoma to Pohamba admistration in early 2015 came with major gender reforms. Pohamba, a generally soft-spoken SWAPO cadre carried with him a long track record of gender sensitivity. His commitment to gender equality became more visible when he joined the political leadership of the ruling party in 1997 as its Secretary-General where he had been repetitively calling for more women in party and state leadership. The formal signs of this political commitment occurred in early 2013, when he became party president, and called for an extra-ordinary congress to make provision for equal gender representation in all party organs and structures. The basis for this extra-ordinary Congress was resolution 2 read together with resolution 11, which dealt with gender equality in party structures and women empowerment respectively.66 This formal affirmative action position of the ruling party, who over the years have amplified its hold of central government, has positively translated on state level as shown in the previous section of this article The attribution of violence as a determinant that has led to the proliferation of women in political spaces in Namibia is not an unfounded suggestion. In fact, it is in countries where the experiences 65 66 The president declared 6 March 2014 as the national day of prayer against gender based violence https://www.newera.com.na/2014/03/06/national-prayer-day/ (accessed 1 February 2018). These two resolutions date back to the third SWAPO Party congress, held from 21 to 26 August 2002. As of 2015, SWAPO has settled on a policy of 50/50 representation in its party structures and organs.