Political Participation & Leadership
DOCUMENT
Program director,
Good Morning,
This year, the 60th anniversary of the Women's March was held under the theme "Women United in Moving South Africa Forward".
Indeed, the theme of unity has carried women through many years, and this was seen through other significant events before the 1956 march, including the demonstration against the 1913 Land Act that later subjected our people to ruthless land dispossessions.
It is the united front of brave African women, young and old, during the struggle leading up to 1994 that has carried the hopes of all South Africans despite laws like Section 29, which restricted them from moving freely around the country during apartheid.
As public representatives, we have worked hard to ensure that these and other apartheid laws that were designed to oppress the majority of our people, particularly African women, are thrown out.
Parliamentary representatives have since 1994 passed and reinforced many laws that seek to promote equality, women's empowerment and the protection of women and children's rights.
For example, the Labour Relations Act deals with sexual harassment in the workplace and also sets out the processes that can be used to handle such complaints.
Another law, the Maintenance Act, deals with challenges of previous maintenance laws that often negatively affected women. The law now makes a provision for maintenance to automatically be deducted from a person's salary, as well as placing a duty on the state to trace people who fail to pay maintenance.
During the 5th session of Parliament, the Maintenance Amendment Bill was passed by the National Assembly and this now allows the state to impose a garnishee order to deduct child maintenance from the salaries of those who default on maintenance payments.
We have seen women fall victim to acts of violence, with some dying in the hands of their partners when domestic disputes turn violent.
It is for this reason that the Domestic Violence Act was introduced to recognise that domestic violence is a serious social evil and an obstacle to achieving gender equality.
Since 2000, the Customary Marriages Act made history, and ensured that customary marriages are, by law, equally recognized in South Africa the same way that civil marriages are recognized.
This Act also outlaws the morally unjust practices such as ukuthwala, by prescribing that both partners must consent to a marriage and that they are 18 years or older.
It has been and remains our goal to promote a non-racist, non-sexist democratic society where the rights of all citizens are protected. In this regard, the Civil Union Act was passed during the 3rd session o fParliament to allow females in the same-sex relationships to marry and receive the same protections that are extended to spouses through the Marriages Act of 1961.
We have also introduced an amendment to the Criminal Law Act to expand the definition of rape and to cover a number of new crimes to protect women against violence.
For example, if your husband sexually assaults you, this is now regarded as rape despite the fact that this occurred within a marriage.
These laws, amongst others, have all been introduced over the past 22 years to empower and safeguard the rights of women in order to improve their quality of life.
While this signifies progress, a lot more still needs to be done to ensure that women and girls are treated with dignity in what has been over the years a society that is held back by patriarchy and discrimination.
The Commission of Gender Equity Act seeks to promote gender equality and women's rights in South Africa and gives women the voice that they did not have before.
In particular, the Employment Equity Act was introduced to achieve equity in the workplace, by promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment through the elimination of unfair discrimination.
While more still needs to be done to ensure that women occupy management positions and are that they are treated and remunerated equally, women are taking up leadership positions across the public and the private sectors.
Prior to 1994, South Africa had only one woman Judge. Today, women judges make up almost 28% of the Judiciary.
Women are making inroads into business leadership and heading up global giants in the country such as the head of the ABSA bank.
Women own conglomerates in the country with some business women being millionaires.
Women are in the defence force, navy and air force in South Africa. In fact women make p almost 40% of the Senior Management Service in the public service and overall women comprise more than 50% of employees in the Public Service.
Women have even entered previously male dominated areas in the corporate world, and currently constitute 3.6% of CEO positions, 5,5% of chairperson positions, 17.1% of directorships and 21.4% of executive management positions.
While this shows that a lot of strides have been made, we will not rest on our laurels.
We have launched a new publication titled, "Mainstreaming - Gender, Children's and Disability Rights" during a recent Women's Roundtable Discussion.
The manual was developed to assist Members in the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces and the Provincial Legislatures to effectively undertake their roles as duty-bearers by fulfilling, protecting and promoting the rights of women, children and persons with disabilities during the term of the 5th Parliament.
Former Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has also been appointed to review all the legislation that we have passed since 1994 to ensure that they have more impact to ensure that as South Africa, we achieve radical economic transformation at a faster pace.
As we conclude Women's Month, we would like to urge residents to work with the police and to report acts of abuse and violence against them and other women around them.
We need to search deeper and find the Lillian Ngoyi within and refuse to keep quite when we, as women, are subjected to any acts of discrimination against us.
We would like to see new houses in Gugulethu to be built by women-owned construction companies. We also want to see the same when it comes to roads dams, rail networks and key infrastructure projects to be managed by women.
From our side, we, your public representatives, will ensure that going forward, we continue to hold the executive to account so that they can fulfill their mandate of improving the quality of the life of our people.
Gender equality remains our main priority.
If you empower a woman, you empower a nation. There is evidence in both the public and private sector that where women have been given an opportunity to lead, there has been an improvement.
Just like in the wild, while a male lion is regarded as the head of the pride, the lioness has proven itself as the most skilled as well as a better hunter. The world would be a better place if women were afforded equal opportunities.
We will not rest until the plight of women is advanced.
Wathintha Abafazi, Wathintha Imbokodo!!!