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The Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Geoffrey Makhubo, today unveiled the City’s Women’s Month programme, which aims to address Gender-Based violence and femicide (GBV&F).

Celebrated and commemorated under the national theme “Generation Equality: Realising women’s rights for an equal future”, the programme will be rolled out in a three-phased approach as follows:

• Gender-Based Violence (Week 1) 10 -14 August 2020, which is aimed at describing and analysing the GBV&F situation in the city; including prevention, mitigation and response in terms of medical, case management and psycho-social support. 

Part of the planned activities for Week 01 will include the re-launch of the Substance Abuse and GBV&F Crisis Line and a series of dialogues centred around the City’s response on GBV&F with Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs), the LGBTQI + community and children;

• Women Empowerment (Week 2) 17- 22 August 2020, will seek to advance interventions that provide an opportunity to reflect on existing roles, and to explore opportunities to question gender divisions in skills development and labour market. 

This phase will see the City rolling out a series of stakeholder consultations on the review of the City’s Gender Policy. The engagement will take place through webinars targeting Female Councillors and the City’s Employees. 

• Women in Leadership (Week 3) 24-29 August 2020, is aimed at accelerating women’s economic empowerment by providing affordable, usable and responsive financial and non-financial support to women-owned businesses and providing business-related information to those aspiring to participate in entrepreneurial activities. Furthermore, the theme will also encourage black women to enter the property industry as the sector is still very male-dominated. It will further encourage a sustainable, balanced, inclusive growth and improve the representation of women in political leadership positions.

The launch was held at the new COJ council chambers- a stone throw away from the Constitution Hill, which houses the Women’s jail, where hundreds of women freedom fighters endured harrowing experiences at the hands of the oppressor during apartheid.

According to the Mayor, the City’s Women’s Month programme seeks to address inequality. The Mayor has also declared war against gender-based violence and Femicide (GBV&F).

Mayor Makhubo highlighted that the City of Johannesburg expects law enforcement to take stern action against perpetrators while at the same time creating conditions that guarantee that women reporting cases of violence against them are not re-victimized. “Women’s Month allows us to pause and take stock and evaluate our contribution towards eradicating sexism and fostering in a truly non-sexist and anti-sexist society, ”said Mayor Makhubo. 

“Gender-based violence and femicide demands a collective response because they threaten our beliefs, first encapsulated in the Freedom Charter and now in the Constitution, that South Africa belongs to all its people – women and men; black and white - regardless of their sexual orientation," said Mayor Makhubo 

In his address, Mayor Makhubo also highlighted that the City would focus on women empowerment, women in leadership and Gender-Based Violence & Femicide as the drivers of Women’s Month programme. 

“During the last week of August, the City will focus on Women in Leadership. Through this initiative, we hope to showcase the wealth of wisdom and leadership invested in the women of our city and tap into their insight in crafting a society that is fair and just for generations to come,” concluded Mayor Makhubo.

Issued by The City of Johannesburg