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Let us work together to ensure that we make a difference and improve the lives of ordinary women in our country
Last Sunday, South Africa celebrated National Women's Day and observed August as Women's Month under the theme: Together Empowering Women for Development and Gender Equality
President Jacob Zuma addressed the national event in Vryheid in Northern KwaZulu-Natal. Other events will be held in various parts of our country throughout this month
To sustain the momentum in observing Women's Month throughout August, we are encouraged to focus on various Government priorities as far as they relate to women.
These includes:
Economic transformation and gender equality;
Job creation;
Access to quality health care and education;
Crime prevention and response; as well as,
Rural development
This year's celebrations are particular of importance as they come after the reaffirmation of the mandate of the ANC to lead the transformation process in our country. As a further demonstration of commitment to transformation, President Jacob Zuma announced the establishment of a Ministry for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities.
As the President Zuma indicated at the time, this decision was taken to "emphasise the need to focus on equity and access to development opportunities for the vulnerable groups in our society."
Urgent efforts had to be put in place to establish this new office which was non-existent. Parallel to the many logistical processes to establish this new Ministry, efforts have been made to develop strategic priorities addressing the interests of all the three target groups. A stakeholder consultation programme has been put in place to canvass the inputs of all stakeholders on strategic priorities in the three focus areas of the Ministry - Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities.
The strategic thrust of the Ministry is to advance policy and achieve measurable milestones on mainstreaming gender, children's rights and disability considerations into the programmes of government and other sectors of society.
The Ministry will build on the progress made over the past 15 years. It will ensure that our country continues to play its international role and honours all the regional and international commitments and protocols including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. One of the tasks is the speedy ratification of SADC protocol on Gender and Development.
The immediate deliverable of the Department is going to be the establishment of a fund for empowerment of women. This fund will enable women to start and develop their own businesses. It should also assist NGOs and civil society in undertaking women-empowerment programmes.
The Ministry has already initiated engagement on this concept and women's organizations are making inputs into the proposal for the Women Empowerment Fund. We will also be engaging with other funds available in the public sector to ensure that we increase funding opportunities and avoid duplication. Our objective is to ensure that this fund assist ordinary women to break the shackles of poverty and to enter into the mainstream economy.
The legislative programme will focus on establishing a legal framework for enforcing the 50% representation of women in decision-making positions in both the public and private sectors. In advancing the 50/50-Campaign, we call for the equal representation and empowerment of women to enable them to play a positive and dynamic role in bringing about social justice in society.
The Ministry is identifying blockages limiting progress towards attaining the 50% target for women in Senior Management positions in the public sector. We will take all the necessary measures to ensure that gender parity targets are achieved and this will apply also to the private sector.
Women constitute the majority of the population in rural areas and are at the receiving end of the challenges posed by underdevelopment. They are the ones who fetch water from the streams, collect wood for cooking and toil the land to support families through subsistence farming. It is therefore logical that they should be the primary beneficiaries of government programmes on rural development, agricultural support and land reform.
Our goal is to ensure that women are liberated from the constraints of many centuries of land deprivation. We will be working with the departments responsible for these areas to ensure that women constitute the majority of beneficiaries of these programmes. We also have to ensure that the 500 000 jobs created through the public works programme primarily benefit women.
While economic empowerment will ultimately improve the overall social conditions for women, the Ministry is responding to the immediate problem of violence and crime affecting women and girl children. In this regard, we support the re-establishment of the sexual offences and child protection units in the Police Service. We have to ensure mobilisation of specialised skills within police to respond to the challenge of crime against women and children.
This year, the Ministry will intensify the implementation of the campaign on 16 Days of Activism and 365 Days of No Violence Against Women and Children to raise awareness and mobilise community support for the fight against crime and woman abuse
We want to ensure that all cultural practices are consistent with the Constitution and our country's legislation. It is within this context that we acted quickly to deal with the cases of abduction of girls who are forced to marry old men in areas around Lusikisiki in Eastern Cape under the pretext of a traditional practice called "ukuthwala". We will also be attending to cases of ritual or muti-killings and human trafficking to ensure that these crimes are stopped.
The programme of the Ministry is diverse and challenging. It requires an intensive mobilisation of a multitude of stakeholders for it to succeed. It also requires a commitment of adequate resources to support the organizational structure necessary to advance the interests of women.
Let us work together to ensure that we make a difference and improve the lives of ordinary women in our country. Let us participate in the programme for Women's Month and ensure that together, we empower women for development and gender equality.