Viewpoint| Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya
Let us work together to ensure that we make a difference and improve the lives of ordinary women in our country

Our goal is to ensure that women are liberated from the constraints of many centuries of land deprivation. We also have to ensure that the 500 000 jobs created through the public works programme primarily benefit women.

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Viewpoint | BY NALEDI PANDOR
How does science and technology contribute to decent work and sustainable livelihoods?

Our best policy is to protect and promote our investment in science, to make it easier for students and entrepreneurs to exploit their patents and to form companies, and to provide a regulatory regime in which SME companies find it beneficial to commercialise their ideas. >>> MORE

Viewpoint | by Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya

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.

>> Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya is an ANC NEC Member and Minister of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities

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Viewpoint | BY Naledi Pandor

How does science and technology contribute to decent work and sustainable livelihoods?

The 2009 ANC election manifesto sets out a framework for building a prosperous, inclusive and dynamic economy. The framework is based on a vision of a fair and just society in which our diverse talents are nurtured in innovative and thriving communities. Innovation means both new ways of doing things that have actually been put into practice, as well as developing patents or good ideas that have yet to be put into practice.

 

The ANC manifesto focuses on jobs and livelihoods

At the heart of the ANC’s election manifesto is a commitment to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods. The manifesto commits an ANC government to use all means at its disposal to create jobs and livelihoods.

It commits the government to targeting labour-intensive production sectors, to the strengthening of sectors - like mining, clothing, and automobiles - vulnerable during the global economic crisis, and to promoting beneficiation programmes to ensure that the natural wealth of the country is shared and developed locally.

It commits the government to expanding investment in public infrastructure, to broad-based economic empowerment and affirmative action, and to focussed job interventions for young people among whom unemployment is particularly high.

And the manifesto specifically commits the government to create large numbers of ‘green jobs’ in industries and facilities that are designed to mitigate the effects of climate change.

How does science and technology contribute to decent work and sustainable livelihoods?

We invest in science for jobs now and in the future

World Bank research tells us that over the next two decades there will be as many as one billion new jobs in science, engineering and technology. While the old economy based on extractive industries and resources will continue to shed jobs, many more new jobs will be created in the new economy based on services and knowledge.

So we invest in science to ensure that South Africans have the best opportunities to fill those new jobs.

This year, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) budget is R4.2 billion. But the DST does not manage the whole science budget. The Department of Trade and Industry also invests in science (nuclear energy, small enterprise development) and the Department of Higher Education and Skills invests in science at universities as part of the higher education budget.

Taken as a whole, the national science budget is close to R10 billion a year. Nearly ten years ago the government set a target of a 1% GDP spend on R & D. South Africa has nearly reached that target, but countries that have successfully built knowledge-driven economies are now spending more - much more - than we are.

The average Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member state’s Research and Development (R&D) investment is over three times our own. And OECD countries are increasing that investment. For example, this year President Obama doubled America’s basic science investment and his economic stimulus package includes over $21 billion of once-off investments in federal R&D.

This is not the time to cut back on South Africa’s investment in the future. It’s the time to invest in key sectors where South Africa is well placed to lead.

It’s also a time to strengthen the relationship between business and our universities. It’s a time encourage start-up hi-tech enterprises so as to prepare our economy for the future.

Science is contributing to local beneficiation

South Africa is better positioned to weather the current economic recession than most other countries, owing to the public commitment to large-scale infrastructure development.

This commitment provides a unique window of opportunity for South Africa to improve science, technology and innovation infrastructure, and to assist South African companies to progress up the value chain to become globally competitive suppliers.

The DST has designed a technology localisation strategy that will provide tailor-made technology-assistance packages to companies that are potential suppliers to original equipment manufacturers or their first-tier suppliers.

The first areas of focus are the foundry industry, as part of the Eskom and Transnet infrastructure programmes, and the electronics industry in relation to the mass roll-out of set-top boxes that will be required as we moved to digital broadcasting.

Innovation is the springboard to emerging stronger from the crisis

Our best policy is to protect and promote our investment in science, to make it easier for students and entrepreneurs to exploit their patents and to form companies, and to provide a regulatory regime in which SME companies find it beneficial to commercialise their ideas.

The key to achieving sustainable economic development and long-term success for South Africa lies in our ability to use science and technology to create wealth.

If we build on our recent success in expanding investment in research and experimental development, we will be able to build new industrial processes that are both locally innovative and internationally competitive. Most local innovation is technology upgrading of core processes - most of our enterprises operate far below the technological frontier - rather than basic research that is internationally competitive. Yet both create jobs in industry and manufacturing.

Our future growth (more jobs, greater wealth) lies in increased research and development, accruing new patents and trademarks, developing new technologies for transforming traditional industries, creating new products, training and developing an acute knowledge of markets and their new needs.

>> Naledi Pandor is an ANC NEC member and Minister of Science and Technology

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ANC says; Human Trafficking is a crime against Humanity.

To describe human trafficking in any polite way is to diminish the horror that accompanies this form of slavery for the entertainment of people who purchase sex for their entertainment.

The relationship between poverty and the sex trade industry is one which is the most exploitative relationships mankind has allowed with a caste away of the eyes. The “let us not get too involved” principle has applied. That tourism increases sex slavery is a true indictment on any person who travels to another country and advances the enslavement of a human being.

The true horror of human trafficking is that it is damaging directly to an abducted person or a person lured into a cycle of destruction. It is damaging to families who lose a dear one. Child labour and sex slavery are just in plain English, slavery.

The ANC urges every member of our organisation to become activists against any forms of exploitation and to call Human Trafficking by its name. Slavery. To name and shame those involved and above all to become the front line in the protection of women and children against this scourge.

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Let us help keep H1N1 influenza (swine flu) out of South Africa

Cases of human transmission of flu have been confirmed in many parts of the world with the epicentre being Mexico. The rapid spread of the disease across the world is a major cause for concern and South Africa government has implemented a detailed plan, in line with recommendations of the World Health Organisation, to protect the people of our country.

What are the symptoms of swine influenza (flu)?

The symptoms of swine flu include:

• fever
• fatigue
• lack of appetite
• coughing
• sore throat
• pain in muscles and joints
• headache and chills
• some people with swine flu have also reported vomiting and diarrhoea

How does a person get infected with swine flu?

It spreads in the same way as seasonal flu through coughing and sneezing. It is an airborne disease. You cannot catch it through eating pork.

Prevention transmission of swine flu by:

• Coughing and sneezing into a tissue or hanky
• Washing hands thoroughly
• Avoiding crowded areas especially if you have symptoms of flu

Are there any medicines to treat swine influenza?

Swine flue is treatable with antivirals. These are available in South Africa but may only be used under the direction of a medical doctor. Should you have symptoms of the flu and have travelled recently to areas that have swine flu please consult your nearest health facility.

There is no need for panic but each of us can take simple precautions to ensure that South Africa is free from swine flu.