Editorial Note

Sheila Camerer's article on Women's Day offers the opportunity of looking more generally at the position of women and their rights in South African society. In the founding provisions of South Africa's 1996 constitution, non-sexism is given equal billing with non-racialism. To promote women's rights in what has been a predominantly patriarchal society among both whites as well as blacks, the ANC has brought in a number of laws over the past 16 years, legalising abortion, giving women equal power in marriage, cracking down on domestic violence, criminalising sexual harassment at work, banning all gender discrimination and providing women of any skin colour with the same degree of affirmative-action in education, employment and politics as blacks, coloureds (people of mixed race) and Asians.

So on paper South Africa has one of the world’s most impressive arsenals for projecting women’s rights. But the gap between principles and practice is often wide. In some areas, particularly in politics, it does well. Women played a big part in the liberation struggle and the ANC has continued to encourage this, with particular women having held top positions. Aside from the cabinet, Gill Marcus was the first female Governor of the Reserve Bank and the Democratic Alliance, the country's main opposition party, was effectively led until recently by Helen Zille.

Yet, by contrast, South Africa has one of the highest incidences of reported rape in the world and traditional customs die hard. Their discouragement is not helped by the fact that our president has at least 21 children by at least 10 different women, four of whom he married. The lot therefore of ordinary South African women is still hard. But as one important analyst said - it is getting distinctly better and a growing number of South African women are doing very well.

Stacey Farao - Managing Editor

Upcoming Event: The UK/South African Investment Workshop

Wesgro, the Western Cape's tourism, trade and investment promotion agency, in association with Omega Investment Research, the South African and London-based investment facilitator, are organising an investment workshop for British companies. This will be held over two days in Cape Town on the 24 & 25 November. The British Chamber of business, which has its head office in Cape Town, is supporting the initiative.

The UK/South African Investment Conference in Cape Town will focus specifically on the following sectors: renewable energy, business services, tourism, hotel and real estate development, agribusiness and agri-processing. Investment interest in all sectors and all projects will be welcomed during the two - day event.

For workshop details please contact Stacey Farao at Omega on –staceyf@omegainvest.co.za or Andre van Rooyen on andre@capemedia.co.za

By Sheila Camerer - is a lawyer and former South African Ambassador to Bulgaria (2009-2013)                                          

INSIDER COLUMN:  UNDERWHELMING WOMENS’ MONTH

9 September 2015

Dear Insight Reader,

Women’s’ Month has come and gone as it has for the past several Augusts, along with Women’s’ Day on 9th August  so it is appropriate to ask how much has been achieved for women  by this annual commemoration. Sadly, not a lot.

At the outset let me confirm my support for Womens’ Day which I believe serves to affirm womens’ equality and sensitize the Nation on a regular basis as to the importance of this. It of course also commemorates the brave women who marched on the Union Buildings to protest against the pass laws in 1956.

However it seems Government is more interested in the event as a propaganda tool than an opportunity to deliver incrementally support for women and womens’ issues. (The private sector inevitably focusses on the commercial opportunities it presents).  Annually Government claims that womens’ representation in Parliament has gone up massively, from 2,7% pre-1994 to just under 30% in 1994 and  to just over 40% today  and of course points out that over 40% of cabinet ministers are women.  All this is true but it has nothing to do with Government’s efforts for women and even less with these commemorations.  It had its roots in the insistence of women and womens’ organizations in the early 90’s – chief among them the Womens’ Coalition – on having a voice in the constitutional negotiations. The Coalition was formed by women from all political parties and led by a feisty Frene Ginwala - her subsequent admirable tenure as Speaker of the National Assembly much missed nowadays – with the goal that women should play an important part in order to secure full equality and gender rights in the Constitution.  This solidarity proved to be important in facing down the chiefs and traditional leaders who were vehemently opposed to full equality for women.

Moreover all political leaders at that time were mindful of the 8 million first-time female voters soon to go to the polls.  To its credit the ANC lead the charge with a 30% quota for women on its lists of MP’s for the new Parliament, with most of the other major political parties following suit so resulting in the large increase in 1994. Things have moved on from this platform.

When one looks outside Parliament at the leadership of state institutions there are some outstanding women such as the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and Brigalia Bam, former Head of the IEC. However more recent Zuma appointees like National Police Commissioner Riah Phyegha and Deputy NPA boss  Nomboniso Jiba are less of a success. Women account for only 28% of Judges. In the private sector  women account for 17% of company directors, 21% of executive management positions, 5,5% of chairpersons and only 3,3% of CEO’s.  In other words there is a long way to go.

While President Mbeki established an Office on the Status of Women in the Presidency the achievements of which, if any, were nebulous to say the least President Jacob Zuma went further and established a Womens’ Ministry in 2009. This August the current incumbent Susan Shabangu (formerly a failed Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs) seemed to be running out of ideas when she announced that this year’s Womens’ Month would focus for a week on Women in Film and then a week on Women in Fashion, getting more real thereafter with a week focused on Trafficking in Women and then Women in the Economy. Why all this flummery when the needs of women in South Africa are so great?

To our shame we are the rape capital of the world; we have extraordinarily high levels of domestic violence – experienced by at least a third of all women in our region, to the extent that this dominates coverage of women in the media – Reeva Steenkamp and Jayde Panayotou are cases in point ; Statistics South Africa announced this week that there were 99 000 teenage pregnancies annually in our schools - with teachers and principals often identified as being responsible - with the negative effect this is having on the education of young women. Women are the majority of our unemployed, with a corresponding poverty headcount of 58, 6% as opposed to males at 54, 9%.  Women own only 10% of the land and their access to it in the former homelands  strongly depends on their relations to local power – usually vested in men and little or nothing is done about the fact that customary laws and practices often run against constitutional provisions on gender equality.  South Africa has the highest proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS anywhere in the world and the majority of them are women.

Instead of futile and often expensive parties and events in Women’s’ Month those responsible for improving women’s lot such as the Ministry and the Commission on Gender Equality should rather be put in a position to announce real improvements in women’s’ lives but instead their resources and capacity remains weak.

Women’s Month would become meaningful if Government used the occasion to announce new initiatives to alleviate at least some of these disadvantages, for instance properly funding abortion services throughout the country; rolling out enough specialized sexual offenses courts and police units to cope with the scourge of violence against wome, and making funds available for an adequate number of refuge centres for the victims – there is a dearth of all these facilities.  None of this happens.

Womens month has left me seriously underwhelmed. Hopefully Government will do better by next August which will include the 60th anniversary of the womens’ march.”

I hope this is what you wanted.   I could also do a piece on the current state of the NPA and how amendments to the law governing the NPA (rather than the Constitution) could improve matters substantially.  Maybe for future?

Written by Sheila Camerer, a lawyer and former South African Ambassador to Bulgaria (2009-2013)