DELIVERY TO THE WOMEN
Section 2 Continued
Achievements of Individual Ministries and Departments
13.1 Internal Achievements
# A comprehensive Gender Policy Statement has been developed within the Department.
# The Department has an official policy of acceleration of equality between men and women.
# The Department has a policy on HIV/AIDS that seeks to achieve non-discrimination and respect for all people’s human rights. The main focus of the policy is employment rights.
@ The Department has been committed to Employment Equity since 1996, and is now exploring creative ways of accelerating female representation in the judiciary, the magistracy and senior management structures in the Department
@ The Deputy Minister is a woman who has played an instrumental role in drawing attention to the issue of violence against women.
* A decision has been taken to establish a Gender Forum. Its terms of reference are incorporated in the Gender Policy Statement.
* The Department is currently implementing a Women’s Leadership Development Programme to accelerate the integration of women and to ensure their sustained participation in decision-making structures and processes in the justice system.
13.2 Achievements for South African Women
13.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# A Gender Policy Statement has been drafted which creates a vision for gender integration within the Department as well as in terms of services offered to women.
# National Policy Guidelines for handling victims of sexual offences were developed and implemented in 1997 by Dept of Health, Welfare and Justice. This protocol on rape provides for an integrated approach by different role players.
# Victim Empowerment Policy is in the process of being developed, including a victim’s charter
# Legislation on minimum sentencing for serious crimes, including rape, has been passed.
# A new Domestic Violence Act (1998) has recently been passed by Parliament which defines domestic violence in broad terms, extends the range of relationships that are protected and places obligations on law enforcement agents to actively assist women to assert their rights.
# Justice Vision 2000, is a five year National Strategy for Transforming the Administration of Justice and identifies a number of strategic interventions to alleviate the plight of, and respond to the needs of women.
# A draft bill on succession under customary law has been approved by Cabinet and is currently with the Portfolio Committee on Justice
# Criminal Procedure Amendment Act (1996) is aimed at eliminating delays in finalisation of trials for women and children.
# Legislative amendments were introduced in 1995 to strengthen the court’s powers to refuse bail in rape cases, especially where a weapon is used or when a gang rape occurs.
# Maintenance legislation has been changed to improve the effectiveness as an interim measure pending a complete overhaul of the system.
# An Act on the recognition of customary marriages has been passed. It abolishes the minority status of women married under customary law, equalizes property and other relations between spouses, and places customary marriages on a par with civil marriages.
# The Department has embarked on the process of developing Equality Legislation as prescribed in Section 9 of the Constitution. This will aim to eliminate all forms of discrimination in public and private organisations.
13.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* The Department is in the process of establishment gender desks at all magistrates courts .
* The popularisation of various human rights instruments through posters, summaries, workshops and media work.
* A National Women’s Justice Programme has been established to promote access to justice for women.
* Managers in the Department are being trained, on an ongoing basis, in gender analysis main-streaming.
* The Department has developed a relationship with the Law, Race and Gender Unit at the University of Cape Town, which conducts training of magistrates, and prosecutors
* The Deputy Minister initiated a campaign on violence against women in her Ministry.
* A Pretrial Services project has been initiated to provide counselling and legal advice for victims.
* There are initiatives to create witness friendly courts include separate waiting rooms, counselling services, one way mirrors and closed circuit television sets to protect vulnerable witnesses. Some courts also provide refreshment facilities and change/playroom’s for children.
* A pilot project on sexual offences courts has been running in the Western Cape since 1991, and a policy decision has been taken to role the courts out nationally at regional level.
* Family Courts are in the process of being set up in several centres.
* Outreach programmes:
* Justice College is co-ordinating courses on training the trainer on the sexual offences guidelines and other aspects of violence against women.
* The Department ran national gender policy workshops with traditional and religious leaders to deal with justice issues in customary and religious marriages focusing on the fairness of substantive law and dispute resolution mechanisms.
* The Department co-ordinated the SADC Conference in March 1998 on violence against women, and produced a Declaration on the Eradication and Prevention of Violence Against Women and Children.
* In partnership with the OSW, the CGE and the other government departments, the Department convened a National Conference of Commitments to the Implementation of the SADC Declaration on the 25th November 1998.
* Justice College is co-ordinating human rights training to train magistrates, state attorneys and prosecutors. Clerks, interpreters and para-legals will also be trained.
* An NGO consultative forum was initiated in 1998 and is planned as an annual event.
13.2.3. Budget Allocation
$ The Legal Aid Board has set aside a special gender fund to address the gender gap in legal assistance (Women have not been able to access legal aid in matrimonial disputes such as divorce, custody and maintenance and domestic violence cases).
$ A special allocation of R7 million has been added towards the implementation of maintenance and domestic violence legislation.
$ Branches in the Department have been requested to re-prioritise their budgets to reflect a gender and child perspective in their expenditure in order to include gender and children’s issues in the mainstream of activities and priorities.
14.1 Internal Achievements
@ The Department is focussing the acceleration of equality between men and women.
14.2 Achievements for South African Women
14.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# Labour Relations Act (1995) was extended to cover the public service in 1996 to state that ‘no-one may be discriminated against on the basis of family responsibility, marital status or sexual orientation.’ The Act also now covers vulnerable sectors, including domestic workers.
# Employment Equity Bill (1997): Employment Equity legislation aims to increase the representation of women in decision-making positions in both the public and private sector.
# Basic Conditions of Employment Act (1997) was extended to cover domestic workers in 1994. The Basic Conditions of Employment Bill (1997) addresses the special needs of pregnant, lactating and disabled women by preventing dismissal or denial of employment on these grounds. It requires that alternative work be made available during pregnancy and for 12 months after birth. The Bill extends protection to workers who are temporary or in part-time posts (which affects women).
# SA rejoined International Labour Organization and SA has ratified a number of ILO Conventions:
# The Skills Development Bill (1998) has been tabled in Parliament, which identifies women as a group that requires focus skills development for entry into and advancement within the open labour market. Two units have been established to ensure that women are beneficiaries of this initiative. The aim is to increase the extent of vocational training in SA. The Bill redefines training beyond formal institutions and this will in turn benefit women who are less likely than men to find themselves in formal work situations.
# Integration of Labour Laws Act passed in Nov 1994 and came into effect in Sept 1996 which extended labour legislation to homelands
# This has a positive impact for women because they are the dominant economically active population in these areas.
# New Labour Relations Act passed in 1995 which now provides the same protection to domestic workers as it does to all other workers (The Act stipulates that a dismissal is unfair if reason is related to existing or intended pregnancy).
14.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* The Department established the National Job Creation Programme in which 13 055 people were employed.
* The Department’s five-year programme includes elimination of racial and gender imbalances in workplaces throughout the economy - women have benefitted from a number of training schemes.
* The Public Works programme targets women for employment.
* There are a number of training initiatives by the Department which will benefit a number of industries in which women predominate.
* Special Employment Programmes (target groups): A sub-directorate has been established within the Department and a budget is being developed as well as a business plan with performance indicator to ensure target groups get focussed attention.
* Chief Directorate has plans to address the female student drop-out rates, combatting violence against women and sexual harassment, information and training to women co-ordinating work and family life.
* Employment services are offered which include life skills, self help programmes, employment counselling, and placement. As a result women have been successfully placed in traditionally male jobs like motor mechanics, crane driving, painting , bricklaying and carpentry.
* Mpumalanga Employment Services is involved in the Presidential flagship programme where over 100 women have been trained in skills ranging from garment-making to running their own businesses. The Department is helping some of them to secure contracts with schools and companies
* The employment counselling division submits articles to Nokuphila magazine on topics such as ‘how to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace.’
15. Mineral Affairs and Energy
15.1 Internal Achievements
# The Department has an official policy on acceleration of equality between men and women.
@ The Deputy Minister is a woman.
@ The Senior Management, in 1994 there were 31 men and no women. In 1999, there are 38 men and 5 women.
15.2 Achievements for South African Women
15.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# A study of Government energy institutions as well as the electricity sector has revealed that women are grossly under-represented in the energy sector, constituting 11% of the total workforce and accounting for 5% of the total management. Black women are particularly under-represented, constituting 1% of the workforce and accounting for 1% of management.
# In line with the White Paper on Affirmative Action Policy, the Department is intent on increasing support and access for women-owned businesses providing services or contracting with the Department and energy parastatals.
15.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* The Department has participated in research that is concerned with ensuring that gender aspects are considered in the development of energy policies and in planning energy projects.
* In the Mine Safety and Rehabilitation sector, programmes have been developed to employ women, in particular, in participating in the rehabilitation of asbestos mines by developing and implementing agricultural projects.
16 Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development
16.1 Internal Achievements
@ The Department has an official policy on acceleration of equality between men and women.
* A Gender Committee has been established with representatives from all sections of the Department to deal with strategic issues pertaining to internal (departmental) and external (line function) gender planning and implementation.
16.2 Achievements for South African Women
16.2.1 Policies and Legislations
# The White Paper on Local Government (1998) stresses the important role that women play at local government level. The Department is therefore committed to promoting greater representation of women in local government and in promoting greater understanding of the needs of women in its planning and delivery of services.
# The Municipal Demarcation Act (1998), the law that will redraw the apartheid boundaries, stipulated that the CGE would form part of the Demarcation Selection panel that will ensure gender sensitivity in the appointment of candidates for the Demarcation Board.
# The Municipal Structures Act (1998) encourages political parties to make provision for a 50% gender quota on party lists, and provides that lists must be drawn up in such a way that women and men candidates are evenly distributed through the list so as to promote female candidacy within political parties.
# The Municipal Systems Bill, currently being drafted, will deal with the administrative transformation of local government and will include gender-specific provisions.
# The White Paper on Disaster Management (1999) outlines a new approach to disaster management and seeks to reduce the vulnerability of communities most at risk, especially women and children, through improved access to services, development opportunities, information, education and empowerment.
# The Status Quo Paper on Traditional Affairs clarifies the role of women in tribal authorities. Women in leadership are marginalised. There are fewer than 10 female chiefs and hundreds of male chiefs.
16.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* The Department assists in the development of women in rural areas and informal settlements. Considering that local government is the level of government that is closest to the people, and therefore is in the best position to involve women in decision-making about local living conditions.
* The TV programme ‘Khululeka’, a departmental initiative, is broadcast every Monday evening (1999).
* The Department has co-operated with other departments and NGOs on issues related to the Beijing Commitments, CEDAW and women generally.
* The Department participated in Constitution Week 1998, with the theme: Abuse of Women and Children is a Violation of the Constitution.
* The Municipal Infrastructure Programme presents participatory planning processes where women and people with disabilities are provided with temporary employment as construction, administration and supervision workers.
* Local government focuses on violence against women. A letter was sent to all Mayors, from the Minister, to inform them of recent local government gender developments.
* A symposium on Sexual Harassment was held with NGOs and government department in 1996.
16.2.3 Budget Allocations
$ Each chief directorate draws a budget plan for community projects from the Department’s budget, and women benefit from this.
17 Post, Telecommunications and Broadcasting
17.1 Internal Achievements
@ A Gender Desk has been established staffed with 2 employees (manager and administrator).
@ Women represent 28% at management level (Telkom: 11%; SABC: 32.46%, SATRA 28.2%, Universal Service Agency 25%, Independent Broadcasting Authority 45%m South African Post Office Services: 15.8%).
17.2 Achievements for South African Women
17.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# SABC has adopted a policy on women which aims to ensure increased coverage of crimes of domestic violence and child abuse; to reflect in a non-stereotypical manner the place that South African women occupy in society and to not distort cultural and historical circumstances in ways which perpetuate stereotypes and past misrepresentations. Sexist language will be avoided.
# The IBA is in the process of formulating a Gender Equity Policy.
# White Paper on Postal Policy has been published which embraces gender main-streaming.
# Advertising Standards Bureau completed a policy document on Susceptibility of Consumers to bring it in line with the South African Constitution, to eradicate racism and sexism in the advertising industry.
17.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* Media Gender Sensitising: agreement entered into through Department of Communication with United National Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation to promote participation of women in media industry to address gender stereotypes portrayed through media. Funding has been secured for $450 000 - and the project has just begun. This project aims to focus on public service broadcasting, community media, print media, research, publishing and monitoring and human resources development to create the critical mass to increase access to media by women.
* The Department has committed itself to providing resources to assist with training for community radio stations in which women play an active role.
* Many homes have been provided with postal addresses.
* Telecentre Pilot Project has been established to provide access to telephones and internet in more remote areas - organisations who apply for subsidies to establish telecentres are being asked to state explicitly their programme for the empowerment of women in the telecentres (70% of telecentre managers are woman, 30% of approved telecentres belong to women or women-based organisations).
* Two licenses for broadcasting were awarded to women-owned companies.
17.2.3 Budget
$ Telkom has pledged R105 million to improve quality of life of historically disadvantaged communities including women in those communities.
$ Telkom will also install 120 000 public phones and 2.81 million new lines. Abused women will be prioritized for installation of new lines.
$ R190 000 has been budgeted for seminars, conferences and workshops on women and technology, media and gender education, etc.
18.1 Internal Achievements
@ The Minister is a woman
@ Of the 40 posts in the Department, 21 are filled by women and 5 are vacant.
* A Gender Committee has been formed, chaired by the Chief Director: Office of Public Enterprises. The committee is in the process of forming a gender policy and related legislation.
* Members of the Committee attend meetings with other organisations and institutions concerning gender issues.
$ Attention is being given to budget matters to enable the Committee to function effectively.
19.1 Internal Achievements
@ The Deputy Minister is a woman.
@ Women make up 36.2% of the workforce, and occupy 47 positions at middle and senior management level.
# A gender and sexual harassment policy is being developed.
* A gender desk has been established to mainstream gender issues in departmental programmes.
19.2 Achievements for South African Women
19.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# The Department has an affirmative action policy aimed at empowering women and disabled people.
# The Department had committed itself to
19.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* The Department is co-operating with the Department of Welfare to assist in providing employment opportunities for poor women who do not qualify for state maintenance grants.
* Community-Based Public Works Programme aims to provide basic infrastructure-schools, clinics, creches, roads and temporary jobs in poverty-stricken areas. Women are targeted for employment and in early 1996, they occupied 41% of jobs under this programme.
* National Public Works Programme (NPWP) aims, amongst other objectives, to provide education and training to unemployed people, especially women, youth and rural communities to increase their opportunities of becoming self-employed or entering the formal sector. The Community based Public Works Programme and the Pilot Projects Programme together comprise the NPWP.
* Community Based Public Works Programme: 41% of workforce is female. 29% of the completed projects have been preschools and water supplies with benefits deriving to women as a result.
* Pilot Projects Programme was set up to test the extent to which labour could be substituted for equipment: on all the projects women have accounted for 28% of the work days created and received 25% of the total number of training days provided.
* Community Employment Programme: women are involved in project selection, planning and management. 38% of those trained under this programme are women.
19.2.3 Budget Allocations
$ The Community Based Public Works Programme has a budget of R250 million.
$ The Pilot Projects Programme has a budget of R140 million.
20. Public Service and Administration
20.1 Internal Achievements
@ 49% of public servants are women.
@ 37 women out of 265 are at senior management level (12% as opposed to 3% after 1994 election)
@ 5 out of 25 Director-generals/HODs are women.
# The White Paper on the Transformation of the Public Service (1995) aims to transform the public service within four years to have 30% representation of women in middle and senior management.
# Women in service of government qualify for up to 84 days maternity leave on full pay, limited to two pregnancies.
# Public service makes some provision for establishment of child care facilities which are privately run but subsidised by government.
# The White Paper on Transformation of the Public Service aims to improve conditions of service for women and people with disabilities in relation to pensions, housing, flexible working time and childcare. The objective of equity in housing and pensions has been achieved as
# The Department has an affirmative action policy which affirms women in the public service.
# All women now qualify for the Home Owners Allowance irrespective of marital status.
# Pension discrimination has been removed: the pension contributions of the employer is now equal for both men and women.
# Public service Act and Public service staff code have been amended and redrafted to reflect non-sexist practices.
21.1 Internal Achievements
@ The Department has an official policy of acceleration of equality between men and women.
* A gender equity seminar for top management of the SAPS was held in 1997 and a booklet was published.
* Women are being trained in order to participate more in the functional stream of specialised policing areas.
21.2 Achievements for South African Women
21.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# The White paper on Safety and Security (1998) advocates a representative, democratic and accountable Department, aimed at delivering a professional service to all citizens. The policy interventions of active and visible policing, and victim empowerment, as well as effective crime prevention programmes will benefit women and children in particular.
21.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* The implementation of the policy will prioritise the prevention of violence against women and children
* The Department will implement the Batho Pele White Paper.
* The NCPS has programmes that focus specifically on women.
* The National Equity Office of the SAPS is implementing the Beijing Platform of Action.
* The SAPS are working together with the Department of Justice and CGE to prevent violence against women and children.
22.1 Internal Achievements
@ The Department has an official policy of acceleration of equality between men and women.
22.2 Achievements for South African Women
22.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# The Department’s policy sets out a number of objectives which include promotion of programmes that empower and develop women and girls in sport; the creation of greater awareness and raising the profile of women and girls in sport; according recognition and promoting leadership and representation among women the recognition of the benefits of sport; liaising and creating networks at local, national and international level; ensuring that sport and recreation needs of women and girls are reflected in policy and ensuring that safe and accessible facilities are available.
22.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* 1994, the Department held a workshop on women and sport in order to develop a national strategic plan to encourage participation by women at all levels. Result of workshop was a regional workshop in which structures were established to implement proposed programmes.
* The Minister launched a national Women’s Advisory Council in 1997, the Women in sport - South Africa (WASSA). their main function is to advise the Minister and to fight for female representation at decision-.making levels in all sport codes and structures.
* WASSA also has an advocacy role.
* WASSA has organised self-defence training for women and girls in an effort to combat violence against women and girl-children.
* WASSA has launched provincial structures in all 9 provinces to promote and campaign for the empowerment and development of women and girls at regional and provincial levels.
22.2.3 Budget Allocations
$ 16% of the budget for sport development and programmes is targeted specifically at women.
$ R1 600 000 has been allocated for affirmative action programmes which will include initiatives focussing on women.
23.1 Internal Achievements
@ A Gender co-ordinator has been employed by the Department.
@ The Department appointed three women in motor assembly, patent and trademarks and regional industrial development.
# A Gender Policy document is being completed to provide guidelines for gender main-streaming.
# Internal policies include an Affirmative Action policy and a Sexual Harassment Policy.
* A Gender Unit has been established.
* A Gender Forum and a gender Executive, made up of nominated representative from all directorates, have been established to fast-track gender equity in the Department.
23.2 Achievements for South African Women
23.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# All departmental policies seek to facilitate women’s economic empowerment and inclusion.
23.2.2 Programmes and activities
* The Deputy Minister has taken up issues of women in business, in particular in small and medium-scale enterprises.
* The last five trade missions included 32 women, of whom 20 were black.
* Tax Holiday Scheme: 42 projects were approved which created 1707 jobs for women.
* Small, Medium and Micro-Enterprise projects have been established to ensure that small businesses have access to information, training, counselling, markets and technology.
* The Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme to increase the skills of women in technology, of which approximately 500 of the 2200 targeted students are women.
* KHULA Start Programme caters for the needs of rural women by providing training and access to micro credit schemes and provides loans from R300 to R3500 to individuals to help start a business. 14 projects have been set up as pilots in rural areas including in KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Province and Mpumalanga.
* Technology for Women in Business matches technology with women owned Small and Medium Micro Enterprise Projects and currently focuses on the textile, clothing, craft food, agro processing sectors. This project aims to link the science councils and the women entrepreneurs and to entice young women into the commercial sectors of science and technology.
* Small Scale Industry Promotion for Women Groups is a project aimed at encouraging and facilitating access to training opportunities for unemployed women who want to learn a range of non-traditional skills courses in order to start group-run businesses.
* Product Development Project is a project which provides a combination of technical and business training, product design and marketing advice and focuses on the production of crafts. This project targets newly formed groups of women as well as more established groups.
* Tourism Project is working on the establishment of local and sub-regional structures necessary for linking the tourism and crafts business to the Spatial Development Initiative and other macro economic interventions.
* The Food Processing Project introduces food processing techniques to rural women to assist them to increase the value of the output and to minimise the loss from community vegetable gardens. This enables rural women to learn basic business management skills.
* Gugulethu Women and Youth Training Project in Construction assisted the development of the local economy through the training of women and youth in bricklaying, carpentry, joinery, plumbing, tiling and plastering. Graduates from this course went on to build low income houses in Gugulethu.
* Talking Beads is a project which trained trainers to enhance the capacity of craftswomen in product improvement training. Courses included costing and pricing as well as marketing. This project has been contracted to develop corporate gifts.
* Foundation for Entrepreneurial Development co-ordinated pilot projects aimed at improving women’s production and designing skills in the garment making sector. Aftercare support for the 90 trainees will be provided and contracts secured.
* Embocraft Training Centre Trust training project was supported by the Department. It is a project based in Kwa-Zulu Natal which assists rural women to produce new products out of waste material. Embocraft assists women to purchase the raw materials and equipment so that they can start their businesses and then sell their goods in craft markets.
* Amadiba Adventures is a project in Pondoland which has assisted the local community to own the tourist industry by creating job opportunities and conserving the environment. Approximately 80 people in the community are employed in this venture, of which a percentage are women.
* Small Scale Food Processing Project trains women’s groups in techniques of drying fruit and vegetables which have been locally grown. Courses on business-start up and network marketing will form part of the programme.
SUMMARY
Within the targeted assistance projects. NTSIKA provided business training for 520 women entrepreneurs and created and supported 349 enterprises lead by women.
* Local Business Service Sector provides business training for women entrepreneurs. 529 new and 525 established women entrepreneurs have received business counselling. In addition, 845 new and 804 established women entrepreneurs were supplied with various business information. NTSIKA has created 652 new women led enterprises in the first two quarters of 1998/99.
* Training and Organisational Capacity Building of Service Provider Programme: NTSIKA supported 25 women entrepreneurs during the first two quarters of 1998/99
23.2.3 Budget Allocations
$ Funds have been channelled to rural women through KHULA Enterprise Finance and NTSIKA Enterprise Development Agency, which has also provided financial assistance to the Rural Women’s Movement. Dept has also established a R7 million Women’s Fund of which R240 000 has so far gone to women involved in the craft industry and R250 000 to the development Bank of SA.
$ 70% of R2 million has been made available for the Khula Start Programme.
24.1. Internal Achievements
@ The Department is focussing the acceleration of equality between men and women.
24.2 Achievements for South African Women
24.2.1 Policies and Legislations
# The Department is aware that in South Africa. The majority of transport users are African women. Women travel great distances to get work or to shopping areas. Women who work in white areas face particular problems of access to transport. The Department is focussing on these issues.
# The Department is attending to its obligation, in terms of Article 14 of CEDAW, to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas, and in particular, to ensure, amongst other things, that women in rural areas have adequate access to transport.
# The Department is responsible for national policy development in transport. This should ensure that its gender sensitivity is passed on to provincial and local authorities who is responsible for providing transport.
# In the White Paper on National Transport Policy (1996), the Department acknowledges that transport is a basic need and a priority area for socio-economic development, including the development of women.
# The mode of transport that is most crucial for women is land passenger transport. the Department aims to reduce travel distances and times so that no person has to commute more than one hour in one direction.
# The South African National Roads Bill is the first step in the implementation of the policy as set out in the precede in paragraphs.
25.1 Internal Achievements
@ A gender policy has been developed to provide a framework for implementation of gender main-streaming.
@ The Department has an official policy on acceleration of equality between men and women.
@ The Department has issued regulations under the Water Act to specify that at least one third at least of all members of Water Services Committees should be women.
@ There has been strategic positioning of women so that they can influence debates on the conditions of service for women in the Dept.
@ Women are represented at all levels of decision-making with regards to water provision at community level because women, as primary care-givers, are the main users of water.
25.2 Achievements For South African Women
25.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# The Water Supply and Sanitation Programmes stipulates that preference will be given to local labour and fair opportunities for women will be ensured, so that women and girls can save time in fetching water. This allows them the freedom to engage in other activities and opens opportunities for skills development and thus improves their prospects of employment.
25.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* Water has been made available to 2.1 million people in South Africa since 1994.
* Training and capacity building programmes have been undertaken to ensure that women’s capabilities are enhanced to give technical input into water services and has contributed to economic growth.
* The Working for Water Programme is part of the Water Conservation Campaign which employs local people in the clearing of invasive aliens. This improves the available water supply and provides a means of livelihood for unemployed people. The programme has created 43 000 jobs, 63% of which are women.
* Community forestry is benefiting a large number of poor African rural women.
25.2.3 Budget Allocations
$ The Department has invested R1.5 million towards community participation processes in which women are actively involved.
$ R24 million has been spent on providing water supplies to communities and women benefit directly from this.
26 Welfare and Population Development
26.1 Internal Achievements
@ The Minister is a woman.
@ In November 1996, the Minister led the SA delegation to the 5th Commonwealth Meeting of Ministers responsible for Women’s Affairs in Trinidad and Tobago. SA volunteered to be one of 2 pilot countries for testing methods of integrating gender considerations into macro-economic planning.
@ The Minister was appointed to report to Cabinet on gender affairs within government.
# The Department has an official policy on acceleration of equality between men and women.
26.2 Achievements for South African Women
26.2.1 Policies and Legislation
# White Paper on Population Policy of Department of Welfare has been drafted. (Six of twenty major strategies are aimed at girl children or women)
# The Amendment to the Welfare Matters Act ensured that poor women and care-givers are able to access funds for all children under the age of 7 years in their care.
# The Aged persons Amendment Act (1998) is designed to upgrade measures to protect elderly people, especially women, from abuse.
# Regulations were amended to provide for the effective implementation of the new legislation.
# Gender indicators have been developed to monitor and evaluate policies and programmes.
# South Africa participated in the First World Congress against the Commercial Exploitation of Children in 1996. The Department heads a multi-disciplinary task team to develop a plan of action against sexual exploitation of children, especially girl children, which will include the establishment of a register of sexual offenders.
# Welfare White Paper: proposes a focus on gender issues in training and reorientation of welfare personnel inside and outside of government to focus particularly on violence against women.
26.2.2 Programmes and Activities
* Flagship programme for Unemployed Women with Children Under Five Years has been launched in 3 provinces - the programme aims to provide single unemployed women and young children with opportunity to escape poverty and reduce dependency on state by increasing educational and training opportunities for these women, creating employment opportunities, developing their life skills.
* In 1996 the Department appointed Lund Committee on Child and Family Support to investigate problem of maintenance - recommendations were made for new child support benefit to de-racialize the old grant and to make it accessible to rural children. Programme aims to reach 3 million poorest children by 2005.
* Aged, disabled and single parents and children eligible for state grants, and 10 000 beneficiaries received care dependency grants to help them care for severely disabled children. 40 000 foster parents receive foster child grants (majority of recipients are women).
* The Department has organised a series of gender training workshops for gender units of line departments.
* Social development unit (community development programmes) provide opportunities for poverty stricken women and children who do not qualify for social grants.
* White Ribbon Campaign in which white ribbons were distributed to be worn by men as a sign of solidarity with victims of gender-based violence.
* Under NCPS, the Department is leading an Interim Steering Committee on Victim Empowerment with the aim of promoting a victim-centred criminal justice system.
* Thirteen (13) Flagship Projects are operating, at various stages of development, in all 9 provinces. A total of 997 women are benefiting from the projects which include income generating:
* The Department will launch The International Year for Older Persons (1999) and organise various activities in connection with it.
* The Department focuses on the following Special Development Areas, holding workshops and conferences and conducting training:
* The Department spearheads a vigorous Poverty Eradication Programme, largely through special employment opportunities.
26.2.3 Budget Allocations
$ Poverty Eradication Programme: R50 million and R203 million