This Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver his State of the Nation Address (Sona) virtually. This Sona will be taking place under National State of Disaster regulations and will be devoid of the fanfare and most of the ceremonial components that mark the event. Given how costly these are, I could not be happier about the downsizing of the event and hope that even post-pandemic, the Sona will cease to be the party and fashion parade for politicians and their spouses that it has become. But my interest in this year’s Sona is more about the substance I expect from the president, particularly on the question of women’s empowerment and gender-based violence.
The Covid-19 global pandemic has evidently been more than just a global health emergency – it has also been an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions. It has battered national economies immeasurably, particularly those of developing countries like SA. Long before the pandemic happened, the South African economy was already in serious trouble. In fact, just a few weeks before the lockdown was announced last year, our economy slipped into a recession, with the GDP having shrunk by 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter. Seven out of ten industries contracted in the fourth quarter, contributing to already high levels of unemployment.
But while all poor working-class South Africans are being significantly impacted by the pandemic, it is Black women who are on the receiving end of the most vicious consequences. This is mainly because even before the pandemic, Black women were already at the bottom of the food chain and were battling economic discrimination in the segmented labour market. In the reproductive space, they also endure gender-based violence and femicide at a disproportionate level.
It is for these reasons that I expect the president, in his reflections on the state of our nation and the plans for a post-Covid economy, to place women at the centre. The president must, as he has continuously done, define GBV and femicide as a pandemic and give confidence to how it is being fought by his government. The establishment of the National GBV Command Centre that operates 24/7 to give assistance to victims and survivors of gender-based violence must be applauded, but the reality is that more funding is needed to keep it going. The president must indicate what is being done to source this funding and give practical impetus to outcome 3 of the National Development Plan.
In his post-Covid recovery plan, I expect the president to have a job creation plan specifically for women. Last year, the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile survey report was released to the public. According to this report, at least three million jobs were lost in SA during the initial stages of the lockdown. Of the three million people who have lost their jobs and income streams between February and May, two million are women. This is a clear indicator that while unemployment is universal, women in particular are affected.
Unemployment is intricately linked to food insecurity, and in a country where more than 60 percent of households are woman-headed, the unemployment of women results in the hunger of children. I saw this first-hand when my employer, the City of Ekurhuleni, established a food bank to provide food parcels to families who had lost incomes at the height of the lockdown. Most beneficiaries were women – young and old.
This pandemic has exposed the extent to which women experience violence in many ways – including economically. The President owes it to the women of this country to centre them in his Sona and ultimately, the post-Covid recovery plan.
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