As the world marks International Women’s Day to celebrate women’s achievements and to raise awareness on critical and sensitive issues that are still affecting women, there is very little to celebrate today.
Very few women across the world and even in SA are enjoying human rights as many still face various issues such as gender inequality, discrimination, gender-based violence, economic exclusion, poverty, and limited participation in political and public life.
The Covid-19 pandemic that took the world by surprise has also worsened women’s struggles. Many women in various sectors have lost their livelihoods or had their salaries cut while many have been retrenched. This pandemic continues to have a hugely negative impact on women’s’ finances as most women are breadwinners taking care of the livelihoods of their families.
If you visit most government offices or institutions, most of the people queuing for money or assistance are women. This clearly shows that women are suffering, and their struggles are far from over.
There is a list of things that women need to be able to sustain themselves and truly enjoy human rights, such as financial independence, equality, justice, safety and control over their bodies.
Women want to be financially independent, but most women are struggling to sustain themselves due to the high level of unemployment. Women need to be empowered financially to be able to start businesses to support their families and contribute to the economy.
In Gauteng, many women cooperatives are registered on the government database and are now struggling to stay afloat, and some are closing their doors. This is because these cooperatives were solely dependent on the government to provide work for them; now that government, due to Treasury regulations, cannot finance cooperatives, it is difficult to sustain themselves.
These women cooperatives must be transitioned into businesses that are incubated so they can bid fairly for the work that they do. For almost four years, the Gauteng department of social development has told the legislature’s social development portfolio committee that it is busy appointing a company that will sub-contract cooperatives. This is not happening and this is denying women the opportunity to become financially independent.
This department also failed to allocate the early childhood development (ECD) stimulus package to ECD beneficiaries across the province, which is another contributor to the lack of financial independence among women because ECDs in the main are run by women.
The lack of financial independence has also resulted in women being dependent on their male partners for survival, which is associated with GBV and lack of control over their bodies. Most women who are victims of GBV have been forced to stay with their abusive partners because their partners support them financially.
GBV and femicide continue to be among the issues affecting women and girl children.
The Gauteng department of health recorded 23,226 teenage pregnancies from April 2020 to March 2021. Of these teenage pregnancies recorded, most of the girls are victims of sexual assault and many of these cases have not yet been reported.
All these challenges facing women can be corrected if our government is serious about protecting them.
For the longest time, the DA has been calling for the capacitation and equipping of the SAPS family violence, child protection and sexual offences units across the province to ensure that they can thoroughly investigate cases and provide tangible evidence to be used for prosecutions of the suspects in court. This will also ensure that the victims get the justice they deserve.
We also demand to know the progress and how successful is the initiative by President Cyril Ramaphosa of the R1bn action plan to combat GBV and how has it helped Gauteng to deal with issues of GBV.
Until a girl, a woman, a mother, and a grandmother are protected, the DA will continue to fight against GBV and for women to have control over their bodies.
It is the men who we look to to protect us as women that hurt us. Above all, women are the real architects of society and no nation can succeed without a woman.
Women want financial independence, control over their bodies, protection, love, peace and appreciation, Happy International Women’s Day!
* Nt’sekhe is DA Gauteng shadow MEC for social development
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