African National Congress Women's League
DISCUSSION DOCUMENTS
ANC WOMEN´S LEAGUE CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE
11-14 OCTOBER 2001
Venue: Shaft 17, Johannesburg
Table of Contents
Draft Programme of the Consultative Conference
Delegates
Conference Documents:
Challenges facing the ANC Women´s League
Towards a non-sexist South Africa
Status of the Women´s Movement
Challenges for Women´s Economic Empowerment
Women challenges in the 21st Century - Declared as the African Century
Organisational Democracy
Through the eye of a needle - Choosing the best cadres!
Day One: 11/10/2001
Co-Chairpersons: Thandi Nosipho & Modise Ntwanambi
Day Two: 12/10/2001
Open Session: 9h00 - 12h00
Closed session 12h00 - 19h00
Day Three: 13/10/2001
Closed Session: 9h00 - 19h00
Day Four: 14/10/2001
Closed session: 9h00 - 19h00
12h00 Closure delegates leave to their respective provinces
PROVINCIAL DELEGATES
Total 600
FACILITATORS
CHAIRPERSONS
Challenges Facing the ANC Women´s League
In its January 8th Statement, the national Executive Committee of the ANC designated the year 2001 as the Year of the African Century - for Democracy, peace and Development!
It then went on to spell out the tasks facing our movement as a whole, during this year. The National Conference of the Women´s League takes place during this Year of the African Century - for Democracy, Peace and Development, as did the Congress of the ANC Youth League.
When he presented his State of the Nation Address at the opening of parliament in february, the President of the republic and of the ANC also spelt out the principal tasks which the Government would seek to carry out.
It is therefore important that the National Conference of the Women´s League should focus on the tasks spelt out in both these major national statements.
In this context, the National Conference of the League will have to answer a number of questions. the most important among these are:
what are the principal national tasks of the Women´s League during the current phase of our struggle;
what are the principal Continental and International tasks of the Women´s League in the context of the current and evolving situation in Africa and the rest of the world;
what should the Women´s League do to ensure that it has the political, organisational and administrative capacity to carry out these tasks;
what should the Women´s league do to ensure that its membership understands the tasks of the League; and,
what should the League do to mobilise the masses of the women of our country to be involved in united action for change, in keeping with the tasks set out the January 8th Statement and the State of the nation Address.
Before we discuss any of the matters stated above, we have to reflect briefly on the issue of - the Women of South Africa.
The women constitute just over half of our population. on the basis of gender, they are therefore the majority of the population of South Africa.
At the same time, because of the combination of race, gender and class oppression and exploitation, they are the most disadvantaged section of our population.
Accordingly, when we speak of a better life for all and of people-centred development, the progress we make must be measured by the impact our programmes of social transformation have on the women of our country.
This requires that our national programmes consciously focus on the issues of women´s emancipation and development. We must also closely monitor the impact our programmes so that we are able, continuously, to assess the problems we experience and accurately determine the advances we make.
From the point of view of the statutory institutions, this means that the Office on the Status of Women and Gender Commission should have the necessary capacity to carry out this work.
The Women´s league and our movement as a whole must themselves ensure that they have an independent capacity to carry out this work.
The Women´s league and our movement as a whole must themselves ensure that they have an independent capacity to do this work so that we are able to exert our influence on what happens in our country with regard to these matters.
What all this means is that, consistent with policy positions we have espoused for many years, we have to mainstream the issues of gender equality, women´s emancipation and development.
Specifically, we have to understand that we cannot realise the democratic objective that the people shall govern unless the women of our country are part of this democratic process.
In this regard, one of the immediate challenges we face is to ensure that the Women´s League mobilises women to be involved in the work of the ward committees.
The League must also mobilise women to participation all popular structures focussed on such issues as rural development, urban renewal, enhancing the culture of learning and teaching, health delivery and safety and security.
We must also understand that we cannot achieve the constitutional objective of creating a non-racial society unless we address, simultaneously and as part of this objective, the emancipation of women.
Quite correctly, our country´s Human Rights Commission (HRC) has taken up this matter of the struggle against racism and racial discrimination in our society. To achieve its objectives, the HRC has to work together with the gender Commission to ensure that gender equality is handled as a goal that is an inherent part of the struggle to create a non-racial society.
Our government must also continue to ensure that in all its transformation programmes, it incorporates the issues of gender equality and women´s emancipation.
The league and our movement as a whole must keep a score card with regard to this so that we take any such new initiatives as may be necessary.
This must include study and popularisation of all the legislation that has been enacted since 1994 that addresses the issue of equality and therefore gives the women of our country a new legal platform from which to proceed as they continue the struggle for their emancipation.
Equally, the struggle to overcome the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment must result in the radical improvement of the conditions of life of our women in both rural and urban areas.
The government must therefore ensure that its programmes focus specifically on the challenge of ending poverty among women. All existing transformation programmes of the government provide the possibility to do this.
Both the Office on the Status of Women and the Gender Commission will have to assist all government institutions to integrate the issues of gender equality and women´s emancipation in these programmes.
At the same time, the Women´s League and our movement as a whole will have to activate the masses of our women to participate in these programmes targeted at the eradication of poverty.
In this way, we will ensure that the women help to set the agenda for the struggle against poverty and influence the allocation of resources to programmes that impact directly on the upliftment of women at the local level.
We have highlighted the issues of entrenching democracy, building a non-racial society and eradicating poverty because of their relevance to our challenge to build a non-sexist society. There are other transformation areas that are relevant to this critical matter.
It will be the responsibility of the structures of the League, from the branches upwards, to identify these nd to determine the specific interventions that the League and the rest of the movement must make to ensure that we do, indeed, mainstream the issue of the emancipation of women.
For example, we must consider even such areas as sport and recreation. In this regard, we must answer the question - what else needs to be done to ensure the greatest number of women in sport and recreation!
There is one last general point we would like to make about the women of South Africa.
Without doubt, they are among the frontline fighters in the struggle for the fundamental social transformation of our country. they constitute the largest part of the electorate that has returned the ANC to power in the national, provincial and local government elections of 1994, 1995/6, 1999 and 2000.
Similarly, they feature prominently in all the public campaigns of our movement and play a critical role in the work of strengthening the structures of the movement, including the ANC, and in defending and popularising the programmes of our movement and government.
Accordingly, when we speak of the motive forces for the fundamental social transformation of our country, that are engaged and must remain engaged in this process, we speak also of the women of our country, across the colour line.
They have demonstrated both during the period of the struggle against white minority domination and during the current phase of reconstruction and development and the eradication of the apartheid legacy, that our revolutionary processes cannot succeed without conscious involvement of the women of our country.
Whether they are members of the Women´s League or not, these millions of women respect, admire and support the League and accept its leadership.
Accordingly, they have high expectations of the League as their own organisation that provides them a political home, and gives them the capacity to make an impact on the important struggle to determine our destiny as a people and a country.
All these matters, that bear on the critical issue of women of South Africa, emphasise the critical place that the ANC Women´s League occupies in South Africa today and tomorrow.
The leaders and members of the League and our movement as a whole cannot fail the masses of our women and the revolution itself, by treating the League other than as the vanguard organisation for the achievement in our country of the historic tasks of gender equality and women´s emancipation.
All of us, from individual members and branches, upwards, have to ensure that the League discharges its obligation to lead the women of our country in the continuing struggle to create a new, people-centred and non-sexist society.
We must therefore address the question of what we do with the League, which belongs to the women and people of South Africa, so that it remains the strong and principled instrument of progressive change that it has always been.
As we work to defend and strengthen the Women´s League, we must never forget that here we are talking of the organisation of heroines that our country and people will celebrate into eternity - Charlotte Maxeke, Queen Regent Labotsibeni, Lilian Ngoyi, Dora Tamana, Helen Joseph, Frances Baard, Florence Mophoso, Ruth Mlangeni and others.
The very memory of what they represent and the struggles they led must tell all of us that in the construction of the leadership of the League today, we have a responsibility not to betray the tradition of selflessness, honesty, humility and commitment to principle that these leaders built.
Before we come to this matter of building the League, we must return to some of the main points made in January 8th Statement and the State of the Nation Address to which we have referred. This is because these are relevant to the issues that we must now discuss.
We will quote from these documents extensively because they set an agenda which all of us, inside and outside the League, must take seriously.
In its January 8th Statement, among other things, the NEC of our mother body, the ANC, said:
“We are confident that this year, acting together, we will achieve new victories in the continuing struggle for the reconstruction and development of our country and the renaissance of our continent Africa.
As you know, last year we said that we should observe this year, 2001, the first year of the 21st century, as the year of the commencement of the African Century.
Your movement, the African National Congress, has always been a movement for the liberation of all the peoples of Africa, including our own.
it has always seen itself as a fighter for the freedom and independence of all African countries and peoples. It has always waged struggle for the restoration of the human dignity of all Africans and the equality of all races and nations.
Loyal to that humane and patriotic tradition, the ANC is convinced that Africa´s time has come.
The time has come that we launch a sustained offensive to wipe out poverty in our country and continent. Millions of our people are still condemned to suffer from hunger, from malnutrition and its diseases.
they are prey to deprivations that result in homelessness, inadequate clothing and lack of access to jobs and other ways and means by which they can secure an adequate standard of living.
Millions of our people are still condemned to lead miserable lives, to suffer from physical and mental ailments and to die young because of preventable diseases.
These include respiratory diseases, malaria, AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, venereal diseases and others. once again, the ANC is convinced that we need to confront this situation with all the necessary determination, in a sustained struggle to translate the principle of the right of the people to health into reality.
Millions of our people continue to survive in conditions of illiteracy, non-numeracy, poor education, ignorance and poor skills.
This exposes these masses to superstition and an inability to access especially the great store of scientific and technological knowledge that drives the evolution of modern society.
The ANC is convince that this situation can and must be corrected. New steps will have to be taken to ensure that we move faster towards the realisation of the goal stated in the Freedom Charter, that the doors of learning and of culture shall be open for all!
Over the centuries, slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism have ravaged the African economy. This has guaranteed that generally throughout Africa, including South Africa, the material base for the provision of an adequate standard of living for the millions of our people has been very weak.
This situation has to be corrected by rebuilding Africa´s economies to ensure that they are able to generate the necessary volumes of wealth, work for the people and the capacities that will ensure that we take full advantage of the possibilities provided by modern science and technology, including those achieved in the areas of biotechnology and information and communication.
As the peoples of Africa, we share a history that stretches from the very beginning of human existence. We have brought our own inputs into the ever-evolving organisation of human society. We have contributed to the common human experience enormous riches in culture and the arts.
As part of the African Renaissance, we must celebrate these contributions, which are of universal relevance and also define our Africanness.
This we must do as an essential part of the continuing struggle for the assertion of the dignity of Africa´s peoples and the reinforcement of their confidence in their own capacity to free themselves from a terrible and dehumanising past.
The African Century must also mean that our continent occupies its rightful place among other continents, other peoples and nations. This challenge will have to be addressed within the context of the ongoing process of globalisation and the emerging system of global governance.
We must strive to arrive at the situation in which Africa is no longer treated as marginal, if not irrelevant, to the determination of the future of humanity, an object of pity, the inevitable destination of charitable contributions.
The new world order that is being born must be defined, in part, by the fact that Africa and her people play an equal role with other people in shaping that new and more equitable global political, economic and social order.
The achievement of all these goals of the African renaissance, of the African Century, requires that we transform ours into a Continent of democracy, respect for the human rights of all our people, peace and stability.
The people-centred society we seek to build throughout our Continent requires, among other things, that we should aim to ensure that every single African, regardless of age, gender, class, race, ethnicity or belief should live in conditions of freedom, dignity and absence of fear.
This means that we should end all dictatorship on our continent, ensuring that all our people exercise the right freely to determine their future.
We should create the conditions such that we banish violent conflict from our continent and end the tragic spectacle of millions of our people driven out of their countries as refugees or as displacees within their own countries.
Democracy, peace and stability are both a condition for the realisation of the goals of the African Century and will be one of the outstanding outcomes of our Century.
It was to ensure that all of us join in struggle to achieve all the objectives we have mentioned, that your organisation, the African National Congress, issued the clarion call that we turn the 21st century, the first century of the 3rd millennium, into an African Century.
Compatriots:
As you can see, these tasks have as much to do with the future of our own country, as they have to do with the other sister African countries.
In previous years, the common African agenda was defined by the fact that the bulk of our continent was under colonial domination. The continental struggles for independence constituted the cement that bonded the people of Africa into a mighty movement for the freedom of our peoples.
In the last quarter of the past century Africa united to confront the most stubborn legacy of colonialism on our continent, the system of apartheid in our country.
Being an insult to all people of our continent and a direct threat to their freedom, the struggle against apartheid came to be one of the fundamental factors defining the purposes of Africa´s freedom.
The victory over the apartheid crime against humanity correctly became the central objective of the united efforts of the peoples of our continent.
We are now in our seventh year of our liberation, our people and continent having won a historic victory in 1994, when power passed into the hands of our people as a whole.
That brought to a close a period of five hundred years of colonialism and white minority rule in Africa.
As it ended, this opened the door to our continent to take the necessary additional and urgent steps to address the legacy of colonialism and racism and to build the better life for all that is due to the millions of the people of Africa.
In the short period of its existence as a free country, apart from what she has done for her own people, South Africa has also begun to make her own contribution, however small it might be, to the rebuilding of our continent as a whole.
Thus, as we begin the African Century, we must ensure hat we unite in action both within our own country and throughout Africa, bringing together our resources and acting in solidarity to achieve Africa´s Renaissance.
This means that, as a movement and country, we have both national and international tasks.
The January 8th message of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress to all our members, the broad democratic movement and our people as a whole seeks to focus on theses tasks. In particular the issue we have to address is the involvement of our branches and the masses of our people in a sustained people´s offensive for the success of the African Century.
We have to organise ourselves to ensure that this century is a people´s century. Accordingly, we can only succeed if the people themselves understand and accept that the African century is a people´s project and not a matter reserved for governments.’
The January 8th Statement then went on to spell out the tasks we have to address as a movement. These are some of the issues that the Women´s League must seriously address at its National Conference.
For this Conference to be successful, it is important that by the time the branch delegates get to the Conference, they must have discussed these issues in their branches.
In this way, they will ensure that their organisation, the Women´s League, the vanguard of the struggle for the emancipation of the women of our country, is able to discharge its historic responsibility.
Consistent with the traditions of our movement, we must emphasise that it is the responsibility of this membership, and not merely the leaders, to decide what the League is and to determine the content, form and direction of its policies.
The January 8th Statement continues as follows:
“Let us now proceed to deal with the tasks ahead of us during this first year of the African Century.
For your movement, the ANC, to meet its challenges this year, a number of things must happen.
One of these is that we must ensure that we have strong and functioning branches of the ANC, the ANC Youth League and the ANC Women´s League.
We have to focus on this task with all necessary determination and not be patient with those who, for any reason whatsoever, work to undermine our work in this important area.
We must implement the decision of the NGC (the PE National General Council) and not hesitate to weed out opportunistic and self-seeking elements that have entered the movement merely to advance their personal interests.
That NGC issued a directive to all of us to build new cadres who are capable of assisting the movement to discharge its historic responsibilities. We must respond t this through a combination of political education, the involvement of our members in the movement´s activities and in ensuring that all members report regularly to their organisational units, especially the branches.
The second task we have to accomplish is to ensure that our structures are in regular contact with the masses of our people. It is critically important that these structures enjoy the confidence of the people, that they are sensitive to the needs and feelings of the people and are able to respond quickly and correctly.
There can be no such thing as a good branch of the ANC that is cut off from the people. Contact with the masses of the people must therefore be an integral part of the regular work of all our branches, including those of the Leagues.
This contact with the masses of our people must also seek to involve them in activity directed at the reconstruction and development of our country so that they become, truly, their own liberators.
This means that we must have a clear and sustained programme of action, which our people must understand and support because it is directed at ensuring that they move further away from poverty and suffering, towards a better quality of life.
The third task we have to accomplish is to ensure that the new structures of local government function properly, that they serve the people and that they do not allow for any corrupt practice.
These structures of the movement st the metropolitan, district and local levels have to assist to ensure that the councils function effectively and efficiently.
The movement will not allow that any of our structures, as has happened in the past, disrupt the work of the councils and councillors, as a result of the attempt by some of our own members to replace our sitting councillors for purely selfish reasons.
All our structures at the local level will have to assist to ensure that we succeed to meet our commitment to our people so to organise ourselves that our mayors and councillors keep regular contact with the people to report and be accountable to them.
It will be the task of our structures at the local level to ensure that this happens. These structures will also have to work among the people to ensure they too, support the councillors they have elected, so that these are able to carry out their own functions.
To be able to carry out this mission properly, it will be necessary that the relevant organs of our movement are fully familiar with the programmes of the councils.
This will enable them to popularise these programmes among the people, help in their implementation and assist in ensuring that the councillors account regularly for problems experienced and progress achieved.
Our movement will also have to strengthen its relations with its allies, the SACP and COSATU as well as the organisations of the mass democratic movement.
The challenge to mobilise the masses of our people into action for the advancement of the objectives of the African Century requires that the progressive movement as a whole should be involved in this work.
Accordingly, the ANC will have to play its role as the leader of this movement to engage all its elements to encourage them to focus on their fundamental mission of the progressive transformation of South Africa and Africa.
As a movement we will also have to strengthen our links with other progressive forces on our continent and the rest of the world.
The accomplishment of our task of the transformation of our country and continent will require the involvement and support of progressive forces throughout the world. It therefore belongs among the most important tasks of the international progressive movement.
This puts an obligation on us to organise this movement to act together with us to meet this task. At the same time, we also have an obligation ourselves to act together with and as part of this international progressive movement, to address all other issues that have to do with the creation of a people-centred society, globally.
As a movement we have an obligation radically to improve our communication with the masses of our people, with the rest of Africa, and the international community.
It is clear that those opposed to our programme of social transformation are determined to sustain a campaign of misinformation aimed at denying the progress we have and will achieve, at discrediting us as a movement for people-centred change and plunging the people into paralysis born of disillusionment.
This requires that we organise ourselves to conduct our own campaign to inform the people at home and abroad, and to defeat the political and ideological offensive aimed at strengthening the positions of right wing forces.
Accordingly, this year we will have to pay particular attention to the strengthening of our communication capacity and actually improve the access of our people to our information, our views and our programmes.
Compatriots:
We have already spelt out our political, social and organisational tasks whose pursuit will ensure that we respond properly to the challenge of launching the peoples´ offensive for success of the African Century.
However, we also have other sectoral tasks that we have to accomplish this year. Our aim must be to reach and mobilise into action as many of our people as possible.
We will now turn to these tasks.
The government will begin in earnest to implement both its multi-sectoral integrated and sustainable rural development strategy; and; its urban renewal strategy.
In this context, we will have to ensure that the system of governance ensures that all three spheres of governance co-orporate very closely in the implementation of these programmes.
The task of our movement´s structures in this regard will be to gain a full understanding of these programmes as they impact on particular localities, so that they are able to mobilise the people to participate in their implementation.
This will be of particular relevance to our branches, zones and regions.
The aim of our intervention as a movement must be the activation of the people so that they themselves work as conscious agents for reconstruction and development.
We will also have to mobilise particularly community-based organisations to be involved in this important and exciting work.
The NGC drew our attention to the importance of ensuring that our population as a whole is educated and armed with the right skills. We must therefore intensify our work in this area this year.
We must make the necessary interventions at all levels of education, to encourage the culture of learning, teaching and discipline, as well as interest in and study of mathematics, science, technology and engineering.
We will also have to ensure that we involve teacher´s unions, education NGO´s and organisations of the mass democratic movement in this work.
We will also have to pay continued attention to the issue of the education of the masses of our people on health questions. We have to respond to the urgent need for the strengthening of our system of primary health care.
This entails not only building clinics in areas which previously had no health care facilities. It also entails raising the consciousness of our people about various issues such as safe sex, clean water, nutrition and cleanliness in general, so that we reduce the incidence of various diseases, including STD´s, tuberculosis, cholera and AIDS.
The further improvement in the quality of life of all our people requires that we continue to do our work to reduce the levels of crime and violence against women and children.
The reality of the matter is that this negative phenomenon is largely concentrated in poor, black working class areas. It is therefore precisely in these areas that we should carry out the most extensive and sustained mass mobilisation against crime and violence.
We must work to get he people themselves involved in ensuring safety and security in their families and neighbourhoods.
We must, in particular, integrate this work within the urban renewal strategy and again seek to involve not only our structures but also all other relevant community-based organisations.
This year we will be hosting the United nations World conference on Racism. the Conference will bring many people from everywhere in the world to our country. They will come with the expectation that as a country, we will make a meaningful contribution to the outcome of the Conference.
Accordingly, we have an obligation and the possibility once more to focus on this issue, utilising the results we achieved at our own national conference last year. In our situation, this must also include the important question against sexism.
All the structures of our movement will therefore have to reach out to the masses of our people to involve them in the further deepening of our national response against both racism and sexism.
This work should enable us to interact better and more extensively with people drawn from our national minorities to encourage them to be involved themselves in a common offensive to create a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.
Once again, we will have to do our best to encourage other organisational formations to be involved in this work, genuinely to achieve national mobilisation and to be able to present as united a national point of view as possible at the UN Conference.
We should also use all our campaigns, including the latter, to improve the level of organisation of the Women´s League and the progressive women´s movement in general as well as the mobilisation of the masses of women.
These millions of our people, together with the rest of our society, have to be carried out to promote the emancipation of women and to act to ensure that these tasks are pursued.
This year we will be marking the 25th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising. National Youth day this year will therefore assume a special significance.
The fact of this anniversary should help us to pay particular attention to the task of raising the level of political consciousness among our youth. This is an urgent and important task.
The Youth League, supported by the rest of our movement, will have to pay particular attention to this matter.
Innovative ways will have to be found to ensure that the youth get engaged in their own development and the development of society in general.
Apathy and a carefree attitude in this sector of our population means that the next generation that will take charge of the country will be motivated largely by self-centred objectives, with little sense of the larger objective of the creation of a caring and people-centred society.
The country and our people as a whole cannot afford this outcome. To avoid it means that we must intensify our work among the youth without ignoring and being insensitive to their youthfulness.
We must also bear in mind that the apathy we have observed is also an outcome of the democratic victory. This success has created the assurance among the youth that they do not have to do anything among the youth that they as the government and society have an obligation and are committed to address their needs and aspirations.
In the past we have spoken of the need for us as a country to work for “the RDP of the soul’ and for the emergence of a new patriotism.
The need to work for these outcomes has not diminished but has strengthened, if we are to have an African Century, one of whose products must be a new African man and woman.
The movement will therefore have to attend to this work seriously, working with other formations, to ensure the spiritual emancipation and elevation of all our people, in conditions of the sustained improvement in their material conditions of life.
As a movement, we expect that this year our government will adopt new measures aimed at giving further impetus to the growth and expansion of the economy, the creation of more job opportunities and further strengthening the material base for the provision of a better life for all.
However, these objectives cannot be achieved by the government working alone.The private sector must also be fully involved, from large to medium, small and micro enterprises.
We also need to achieve concerted efforts between organised labour and organised employers in all sectors. The Millennium labour Council can play an important role in this regard.
On the occasion of this 89th anniversary of the ANC we therefore call on the business community and labour to respond strongly and positively to the economic challenges we face as a country and a people. We are convinced that there are many opportunities waiting to be exploited.
We will have to act to increase the levels of investment in our economy, to raise efficiency, productivity and skills levels, to de-racialise the offices and the shop-floor and to ensure that we increase our international competitiveness.
At the same time, business will have to act consistently to ensure that the rights of the workers are fully respected. The situation should never be repeated which resulted in the death of workers in the Lenasia chemical factory: the circumstances must end that have led to persistent violence against farm workers.
We can no longer afford the hesitation we have experienced among some business people in the past with regard to raising our growth levels and the adoption of a wait-and-see attitude, driven by false and unfounded pessimism.
During the past year, we have also experienced instances of some groups of workers acting in a manner that did a disservice to their cause, however justified.
This has included the use of violence against other workers, thrashing of streets, inducing workers to lose their jobs and blocking of diversion of resources to uses that would directly improve the lives of the ordinary people.
We would like to emphasise that the ANC counts on the progressive trade union movement of our country as one of the principal motive forces for the victory of the African Century.
We are committed to work in a strong alliance with this movement and its principal federation, COSATU. But, as before, this must continue to be a principled alliance.
It must act in a manner that adds impetus to the progressive social transformation of our country and continent and is not driven merely by narrow and immediate interests.
The ANC will therefore continue to work closely with COSATU to identify areas of common action, especially as these relate to the mobilisation of the masses of the workers themselves to be involved in a vigorous people driven process of reconstruction and development.
With regard to our continent as a whole, our government will have to intensify its work to make its own contribution to the strengthening of the continental movement for reconstruction and development.
This work must be driven by the two fundamental principles that as Africans we share a common destiny, and that mutual solidarity among ourselves is a necessary condition for our common success.
As a movement we will also work to strengthen our links with other progressive forces on our continent. Together with them, we will have to work on a programme of action focused on the promotion of the objectives of the African Renaissance.
In this work we should both draw in other mass and popular organisations as well as aim to ensure that the masses of the peoples of our continent themselves engage in struggle rather than wait for somebody else to bring about the change they yearn for.’
Later, in the January 8th Statement, the ANC NEC said the following:
“It is the responsibility of the progressive movement on our continent to mobilise the masses of our people themselves to act to further the continental struggle for democracy, peace, stability and people-centred development.
To bring about the African Renaissance during this African century requires that these masses continue to be their own liberators.
As genuine vanguard movements of the people it is our task to go out and ensure that these masses are indeed mobilised to to act in unity and to unite in action.
The NGC issued the call for us to use our structures, especially the branches, to reach out to the people to reactivate them as the principal motive force for progressive change.
Members of the Women´s League and our movement as a whole, must also keep in sharp focus the fact that ours is the governing political force in our country.
We have to take responsibility for cleaning up the hopeless mess that was left behind by the forces of white minority domination.
We have to unite the people of South Africa and the world behind our programme for the creation of a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, peaceful and prosperous society. This must include even those who do not understand this perspective and remain suspicious and fearful of the future.
As we already said, the women of our country, cross the colour line, are confident that the new South Africa is of critical importance to their emancipation.
This includes white women, as well as women who belong to other national minorities, who share the aspirations that the society we are working to create will enable them to enjoy gender equality and social emancipation
This confidence is based on what our government has done and is and will be doing to achieve the transformation of our society.
It is therefore important the League and our movement as a whole, continue to give the necessary leadership to the entirety of our government structures, to ensure that we remain loyal to the transformation agenda.
It is partly in this context that the State of the Nation Address is relevant to the preparation of the Women´s League for its National Conference this year.
Below follow some of the comments the President of the Republic made as he announced the programme of the government for the year 2001.
“Gradually, step by step, our country proceeds further away from its painful past. We, its citizens, who are very close to the coalface of change, may not easily see the steady transformation that informs all aspects of our national life…
I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all our people, both black and white, who, in the past year and before, made a contribution, however small, towards the new advances of our country further away from its painful past…
It is thanks to their common efforts that we can make bold to say that we have continued to move forward away from our painful past. To build on these constructive efforts, we call on all our people, across the colour line to dedicate this year to building unity in action for change.’
The President went on to detail the programmes and issues around which would people, across the colour line, should unite in action for change.
He returned to this theme when he spoke on the occasion of the debate in the National Assembly on the Budget Vote of the Presidency.
On this occasion, he emphasised that the task the government and our society face is to ensure the implementation of the policies, the constitutional and statutory programmes that have already been agreed.
In part, this is what he said:
“As a result of the serious work that the Government, Parliament, the general public and the judiciary have done since 1994 to place our country on path of fundamental social transformation, the Government is firmly of the view that, substantially, we have elaborated the policy, legislative and constitutional base that will enable us to achieve the transformation of our country…
Accordingly, the central challenge we face as Government is the task of implementation. The order of the day is that we take all necessary measures to ensure that the policy and legislative measures for the reconstruction and development of our country that have already been adopted, are further translated into an actual process of the transformation of our society.
To summarise, the message we seek to communicate to this House and the country today is simply this - let us get down to the serious business of work - working together to create a new South Africa; working together to build a country free of racism and sexism; working together to end poverty, unemployment and the social marginalisation of any of our people; working together to give an example to the whole world, that, as a people, we have the capacity to succeed, however difficult the challenges we face. the order of the day is to get down to the serious business of working together for change.
These statements give a clear directive about where we should move our country. If necessary, our organisational structures must ensure that all members of the Women´s League read them in full.
As we have already said, the League must ensure that all its members understand these tasks and work to ensure that all its structures, members and leaders are organised and empowered to carry them out.
It is these matters that the forthcoming National Conference of the Women´s League must focus. Accordingly, the League´s branches must discuss the matters seriously so that by the time the branch delegates get to the Conference they are able to make constructive inputs with regard to all these matters.
Unavoidably, one of the issues that will arise is what we need to do to ensure that the Women´s League is the powerful organisation that it needs to be.
In this context, the membership of the League will have to carry out an objective assessment of the state of organisation of the League. This will have to be done to ensure that the National Conference takes all necessary decisions that will ensure that we rebuild the League as the vanguard of the progressive women´s movement that our country needs.
In this context, we will have to admit that the League is organisationally much weaker than it should be.
It has not attracted as many women into its ranks as it should, given the fact that millions of women in our country respect the League and rely on it to provide the leadership they wish for as they struggle for their own emancipation.
Among African women, it has failed to attract many women who constitute an important part of the working people of our country. it has also failed to attract professional and other women who belong among the middle class.
It has also failed to provide a home to the many progressive women among the national minorities who are playing a role in the transformation of our society.
It is also true that many women who are members of the ANC nevertheless decide that they will not join the League.
The members and leaders of the League will have to assess in an open, frank and sober manner why we experience these negative outcomes. Accordingly, the National Conference of the League will have to take the necessary decisions to correct this situation.
What is clear is that the members of the league will have to be clear about what the League has to do in the context of the contemporary tasks of our movement that we have indicated above. Among other things, this means that we must ensure that the League is not a vehicle for the advancement of personal interests. This objective would be pursued by people within the ranks of the league who see the League and the movement as ladders that they should use to attain positions in government, to earn incomes for themselves, and to use their positions to enrich themselves.
As we have already indicated, last year our National General Council gave all of us the mandate to rid our movement of these elements. The Women´s League has a responsibility to carry out this mandate.
Understanding the tasks that we have to carry out, the League must ask itself the question whether it is carrying out the political work among all its members to ensure that they are the kind of cadres that we need during the current phase of our continuing struggle.
It must ask itself the questions:
Any honest discussions of these and other questions will show that we fall short on all these matters. After proper discussion in the branches, the National Conference of the League will have to discuss these issues and agree on the necessary corrective measures.
In that context, we will have to recognise the reality that despite some of the good work that has been done by the leadership of the League since its last National Conference, nevertheless the League experiences many serious problems that must be addressed frankly and urgently.
The National Conference provides a timely opportunity for the members and structures of the League to do this very important work.
In this context, the members and branches of the League must feel free to state their opinions and make suggestions without fear of victimisation.
The entirety of our movement is committed to ensure that all members of the League are able to state their views without fear or favour. The movement assures all members that the exercise of their democratic rights within the movement, including the League, will not be compromised by people who, in the past, have succeeded to intimidate others.
In our assessment of the state of organisation of the Women´s League, there are certain realities that we will have to deal with frankly and openly.
Some of the negative features we will have to deal with are that:
we have experienced a problem of lack of commitment, discipline and accountability within the structures of the League;
there have been unacceptable manifestations of competition for leadership positions, leading some comrades to embark on the character assassination of some of the most hardworking and dedicated members of the League and movement, merely to secure senior political positions for themselves; and
the League and the movement as a whole has not dealt with these issues on time, firmly and decisively.
However, we must be careful to ensure that we do not present and consider these real problems as the defining feature of the Women´s League. They are not.
The League functions broadly as a proud component part of the Congress Movement, playing its part as a disciplined member of the forces organised for progressive change. However, it is precisely because it is such an important part of these forces that we have to work hard to correct any weaknesses that emerge with the League.
The League must position itself among the vanguard forces for the achievement of the task of the transformation of South Africa into a non-sexist society.
It must understand that this task is both extremely complex and of historic importance. The League must therefore seek to understand it in all its complexities. At the same time, the League has a responsibility to educate the women and the rest of the people of our country to understand all elements of this issue.
It also has the responsibility to mobilise the women and all our people to unite in action for change focused on the central issues of gender equality and the emancipation of women.
In this regard, it must ensure that both the League and the women of our country engage in practical program mes that result in change of the lives of the women of our country for the better, across the board.
The League has to ensure that the women of our country understand the practical programmes in which they must engage, including their relevance to the conditions of life of the women themselves. The Women´s League must also ensure that it plays its role within the context of the struggle in Africa and the rest of the world for the emancipation of women globally. its members and leaders must educate themselves to understand that freedom for women in South Africa cannot finally be secured and guaranteed unless the women of the wold attain their genuine liberty.
The Women´s League must also work to educate its members and the women of our country to continue to play their critical role in the transformation of our country in all its elements, beyond the gender questions that we have mentioned in this Discussion Document.
This is critically important because the emancipation of the women of our country cannot be achieved outside the context of the fundamental social transformation visualised in the Freedom charter and our Reconstruction and Development programme.
Finally, the Women´s League must seriously consider the work it has to do to ensure that it is constituted and organised as a progressive force that carry out the unprecedented tasks that have been indicated above.
As stated above, the ANC Women´s League continues a tradition that is many decades old, of an ability to meet any challenges that might face all of us as we advance in our struggle for the true liberation of our people.
The task to rise to such challenges has never been more pressing and critical than it is today. Our democratic revolution will move forward with confidence or hesitate temporarily, significantly on the basis whether the masses of the women of our country continue to occupy the front ranks of our united mass advance towards the creation of a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, peaceful and prosperous South Africa.
We also dare say that the movement towards the African Renaissance will depend on what the women of Africa do. the ANC Women´s League will play an important part with regard to ensuring whether the women of our Continent remain an object of policy or become the determinants of policy.
As we prepare for the 2001 National Conference of the ANC Women´s League, we must ensure that all the members, branches and other structures of the Women´s League discuss these important questions.
Thus will the delegates to the National Conference be empowered to discharge their responsibilities as delegates to the National Conference, in keeping with the tasks of the national democratic revolution. It is therefore important that the leadership of the Women´s League and our movement as a whole does everything to ensure that the membership of the League, in its entirety, discusses all matters raised in this document and all other papers that have been and will be distributed to the members of the League.
In the end, all these papers address the critical matter of the tasks of the Women´s League during this phase of our struggle.
These tasks focus on the issue of the transformation of our society and the achievement of the objectives of gender equality and women´s emancipation.
Without a strong and properly organised ANC Women´s League, we cannot achieve these goals.
The history of the League and the calibre of may of its members today tell us that the Women´s League will not fail to carry out its tasks during the current phase of our struggle.
It will be the task of the National Conference of the League to answer all questions relevant to what it has to do to ensure that it is able to live up to this historic challenge.
TOWARDS A NON-SEXIST SOUTH AFRICA
Introduction
The South African Gender programme is being developed and implemented within the context of a national social transformation process aimed at creating a “non-sexist and non-racist South Africa.’ By definition this means that the emphasis in South Africa is on deracialisation and the engineering of all our policies institutions and programmes.
The ANC has for many year acknowledged that true transformation of our society will only have meaning if it addresses the state of the triple oppression suffered by women. In fact the struggle for women´s emancipation has always been linked with that of the struggle for national liberation in South Africa. However, at the Mafikeng 50th National Conference, in 1997, the ANC expressed serious concerns that despite all the commitments and our resolve to have a gender perspective, there was continued failure to truly reflected these commitments in our policies and programmes.
We cannot say we are progressing as a people and a nation, unless the women of our country are truly liberated. As one organisation we must recommit ourselves to the emancipation and advancement of the women of our country at all levels of our society. We need to be sensitive to the harsh realities that face the majority of women who bear the brunt of poverty; whose lives are characterised by low levels of literacy and inequitable access to education, adequate food, health care, housing, water and fuel sources. Many women are daily subjected to various forms of violence, directed at them by virtue of the sex and gender. They experience high levels of unemployment or underemployment, with poor legal protection and representation made worse by the fact that they lack access to justice and social security: In most cases as domestic and farm workers their working conditions are generally sub human and their wages below the poverty line. These women are mainly in the rural areas and informal settlements.
Together with the ANC and the other structures of the Movement and the Alliance, the Women´s League has responsibility to intensify the struggle for women´s emancipation and anti sexist programmes to ensure that speaking of a better life for all can be positively measured by the impact our policies and programmes make on the lives of the women of South Africa.
The Enabling Environment for the Social Transformation and Gender Equality
1. The Constitution
Our new Constitution adopts equality with emphasis on non sexism and non-racialism as fundamental values underpinning the new democracy. In its founding Provisions, the Constitution states that South Africa is founded on values which include:
Furthermore, The bill of Rights guarantee equal rights for all and outlaws discrimination against anyone on the basis of gender. Indeed we have gained valuable ground towards attaining our vision of a non-sexist society.
Today South Africa Stands proudly amongst the democracies with the highest number of women in parliament. T he country boasts nine Cabinet Ministers and Eight Deputy Ministers. The position of Speaker of the national Assembly has been occupied by a woman since the outset of the Constitutional democracy. The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces are women. The System of Proportional Representation in Parliament has been an enabling factor for increasing the number of women in government. The high proportion of women MP´s, Minister and Deputy Ministers is largely as the result of the ANC policy of adopting a one third quota for its electoral list and for structures of the Movement at all levels.
A significant number of women occupy important political and civil service positions in the provincial and local administrations. The changes in these spheres have been accompanied by visible improvement with regard to the responsiveness of service delivery to the needs of women and the society as a whole.
Limited progress has also been witnessed regarding gender transformation of the judiciary and the private sector. Women head more than 10% of South Africa´s diplomatic missions and women chair two national commissions: Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE). The Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank is also a woman.
2. Legislation
Government has enacted laws and formulated policies and programmes that have a direct bearing on gender. All these seek to give meaning to equality between men and women. These are:
The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, is a comprehensive piece of legislation that provides a framework for the elimination of discrimination and the active promotion of equality in all areas of life. It covers the prohibition of discrimination including hate speech and harassment as well as positive obligations relating to the active promotion of equality. The Act also incorporates the convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the international Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) into Domestic Law. The Act requires officers in the Courts to undergo mandatory training on equality.
The Promotion of Equality Act presents various strategic opportunities in all areas of life, Including violence against women, land, housing, access to finance, culture, health and education to be harnessed in the pursuit of a non-sexist South Africa. The biggest challenge here is the knowledge of rights and the capacity to realise such rights.
The Employment Equity Act has a similar purpose but only confined to employment issues. Its enforcement is through a tribunal system at the lower level and a specialist Labour Court at higher echelons. With regard to positive obligations relating to promoting equality, the Employment Equity Act only covers Women, Black People and Persons with Disabilities. While the effect of the Promotion of Equality Act is yet to be tested since most of it is not yet operational, the Employment Equity Act is slowly beginning to show some impact.
Both of the above Acts prohibit discrimination on the ground of sex, race gender and various sub-issues including pregnancy and marital status. They also deal with other grounds such as race, disability and sexual orientation as well as the possibility of a combination of grounds. The Employment Equity Act goes beyond the list in the Constitution covering HIV/aids, family responsibility and nationality. The Employment Equity Act identifies women as one of the designated beneficiaries of Affirmative Action. The Promotion of Equality Act has gender equality as one of the three priority areas.
The Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act is critical for engendering equality between men and women through women´s economic empowerment. This is a new Act whose impact is yet to be seen. However, it is already clear that if the gender dimension is unmonitored or visibly sponsored it may well be overshadowed by the race considerations not taking into account the intersection of race and gender.
The Commission on Gender Equality Act no. 39 of 1996, which establishes the commission on Gender Equality (CGE) is also a critical factor in the pursuit of effective equality between women and men. The Commission plays a critical role as part of the National Gender Machinery set up over the last few years. Its role primarily involves monitoring and advocacy work. Their work is complemented by a network of related institutions across government and civil society, which includes the Office on the Status of women (OSW) in the Presidency.
We have also introduced a network of other policies and laws, which although not specifically dealing with the question of equality between women and men either have specific provisions on non-sexism or contain provisions with a positive bearing on this subject. Those with direct provisions on equality include:
Those with an indirect bearing include the Basic Conditions of Employment Act no 75 of 1997 particularly the parental rights therein, Skills Development Act and Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act. However, there have been challenges in terms of how the judiciary interpret and enforce some of the laws dealing with equality between women and men.
The question of limited and overstretched resources also poses a serious impediment to effective policy implementation. Many of the policies are driven by goodwill and dedication but resources for implementation are scarce. Having one of the most progressive Constitutions in the world has its own price. It is quite possible that the country may just not have enough resources to match all the progressive constitutional and legislative provisions. This is the thrust of the challenge faced by the country with regard to the implementation of the progressive laws that have been recently enacted on Maintenance, Domestic Violence, Access to Information, Choice of Terminations of Pregnancy, etc. The implementation of the Promotion of Equality Act has also been delayed by the same reason.
3. The National Gender Machinery
In response to the national and international commitment to gender equality the government has established a comprehensive National Machinery composed of a variety of structures, all dedicated to advancing gender equality. These include:
the Office of the Status of Women (OSW), located in the Presidency with provincial counterparts in eight of the Premier´s offices. Its role is toe co-ordinate and facilitate the implementation of government policy and programmes on gender. The Gender Focal Point units were established to implement programme in all national departments.
in the National Assembly there is a Parliamentary Committee on improving the Quality of Life and Status of Women. This committee is responsible for monitoring government´s implementation of the national and international commitment to gender.
the Women´s Caucus chaired by the ANCWL comprises of women from various political parties in parliament. The Caucus serves as a broad forum where policy and legislation are reviewed and promoted to ensure gender equality. It also establishes networks with women parliamentarians in all provinces, in the sub-region, the continent and internationally on matters of common concern to these women.
South Africa is one of the few countries to have developed a National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, in compliance with the Vienna Declaration of 1993.
The ANC Gender sub-committee reviews and monitors the policies, legislation and programmes of the Movement and government to ensure gender equality towards a non-sexist South Africa.
4. International Instruments
South Africa has signed and ratified a number of international agreements that impact directly on the lives of women:
The South African government initiated the development of the SADC Declaration on the Prevention of Violence Against Women, Children and Elderly. SADC Heads of State adopted the declaration as an addendum to the SADC Declaration on Gender Development.
5. Programmes
The government has developed a number of programmes that seek to address gender priority areas. The Women´s League has actively participated in the implementation of these programmes, sometime initiating its own programmes based on the national priority areas. These include:
Networks with many women´s organisations in civil society have served to consolidate the struggle for women´s equality. This has created a climate of active involvement of civil society in the struggle for gender equality. Examples of some of these programmes include:
5.1 Women and Poverty
Government has placed this issue high on its social transformation agenda. Women who may not be poor today constantly face the threat of being plunged into poverty suddenly as a result of divorce, loss of employment, disablement, retirement with poor or no social security, failure by men to pay spousal or child support, poor legal protection in micro-enterprises, environmental degradation and constrained access to land.
The anti-poverty strategy by government includes two components:
- meeting basic needs, and
- developing human resources
Poverty eradication programmes have shifted from a welfare approach to one of empowered development. These include:
- A Primary School Nutrition Programme that has resulted in improved school attendance.
- Child Support Grants that aim reaching children living in poverty, particularly in rural areas.
- Education and training programmes for women that are dedicated to reducing the high rates of illiteracy.
- The development of selective learning areas, eg, agriculture, tourism and agro-technology and ABET. These are linked to skills development and income generation and also focus specifically on unemployed women and people with disabilities
- Clinic upgrading and building programme especially in the poorest magisterial districts
- Free health care for pregnant women and children under the age of six
- Media programmes that recognise women achievers in their communities and further afield.
4.2 Violence against Women
There is commitment to have strong proactive programmes aimed at the elimination of violence against women. The ideal situation envisaged by the Constitution is one where everyone enjoys all human rights including the right to human dignity and security. Programmes on the eradication of violence against women include:
- The development and implementation of the integrated SADC Declaration of the Prevention of Violence against Women, Children and the Elderly which was initiated by the South African government and subsequently adopted by the SADC heads of State. South Africa held a conference on commitments to kick-start the implementation of the declaration and the use of the accountability framework and review meetings to facilitate sustainable integrated strategies aimed at ending gender violence.
- The clustering of government departments into sectors in order to facilitate the emergence of an integrated response to violence against women and to forge strong partnerships with civil society.
- Victim empowerment efforts such as the development and implementation of intersectional guidelines on handling victims of sexual offenses, the training and education of service providers and awareness raising campaigns.
- Legislative reform such as the Domestic Violence Act, various amendments to the criminal procedure act covering simplification of procedures and the Maintenance Act
- Institutional transformation such as the development of the National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the establishment of a National Coordinating Committee on gender violence, the integration of gender issues, including the challenge of gender violence, into all government services, the establishment of Joint management Centres on Crime, the mobilisation of people at all levels of government including in the parastatals and civil society in the pursuit of gender equality, Batho Pele and the Patient´s Rights Charter.
4.3 Life Threatening Diseases
Poverty, lack of information, lack of access to user friendly care and unequal power relations between men and women feature among the key impediments to the prevention and management of most preventable diseases and which continue to steal the lives of women and their loved one. Amongst the serious life threatening disease for women are:
- pregnancy complications
- menopausal syndrome
- sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS
- alcohol foetal syndrome
- cancer of the cervix and the breast
- tobacco consumption and drugs
- since women tend to outlive men by on an average five years, this means they spend longer times with diseases of old age - blood pressure, sugar diabetes, arthritis, depression, mental disorders, blindness
- other social conditions that affects women´s health negatively such as “commercial’ sex work or prostitution, trafficking in women and children, especially girl children
Programmes that seek to address some of these challenging life threatening diseases include, among others:
- confidential reporting on the maternal deaths as a result of pregnancy in order to address these with a view to decrease the high maternal death rates that stand at 150 per 100 000 live births
- the choice of termination of pregnancy and its implementation
- guidelines for managing high risk pregnancies
- training and updating the skills of doctors and nurses and in particular midwives
- strengthening the health infrastructure - blood transfusion and transport
- raising awareness of the importance of attending antenatal clinics
- training on the recognition of foetal alcohol syndrome and therefore abstinence from the consumption of alcohol during the reproductive age
- programmes on healthy lifestyle - proper nutrition, alcohol and drug abuse and tobacco consumption
- health promotion programmes on all women´s health matters
- various programmes on gender and HIV/AIDS, including the promotion of female condoms.
CHALLENGES FOR THE WOMEN´S LEAGUE TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY AND THE NON-SEXIST AGENDA
As indicated above the new political and democratic dispensation has created an enabling environment that is conducive to advancing the agenda for women´s emancipation. The political will, the constitutional, legislative and administrative frameworks, and the institutional structural mechanisms and processes are all firmly in place. What has been done, particularly within our real resource constraints indicates that we have done our best in pursuit of our national ideal of a non-sexist South Africa. However, much more still needs to be done in order to eradicate sexist attitudes. We need to speed up the pace of our action and delivery, and most importantly, we need to step up our efforts to change people´s attitudes through training and advocacy. We must also be honest in our admission that despite our best efforts to date, male dominance still prevails in our society. So, let us share a few thoughts on a few strategies that could enhance our pursuit of a non-sexist South Africa:
We need to integrate our policies and programmes for the eradication of discrimination against women and the creation of a non-sexist society into very facet and aspect of our daily lives. In this regard it will be important to work together with the Gender sub-committee of the NEC and the Provincial Gender Committees which are being established. WE must be ever vigilant no matter how tired we may sometimes be.
We must sharpen our advocacy skills. Open public calls by the top leadership for the eradication of sexism and the achievement of equality between men and women, have proven to contribute significantly to paradigm shifts and levels of commitment to non-sexism in the public psyche. Such calls should be encouraged. South Africa is lucky that both of its post apartheid presidents have been exemplary in these regards. Women should also attain and apply advocacy skills themselves and we can put positives plans in action to achieve this.
We must actively pursue a non-sexist agenda and implement with drive and energy the vital training programmes, developed by the ANC Gender subcommittee, within the movement and all institutional formations within the ANC and government, including civil society structures, to redefine and reorient society on gender issue.
We must co-ordinate the programmes and activities of the National Gender Machinery, focusing specifically on policies, programmes and resource sharing to avoid duplication and confusion.
We must critically examine, review and evaluate poverty alleviation programmes with the view to realistically evaluating their real impact on women´s lives.
We must popularise all legislation geared towards women´s emancipation and respond to the apparent backlash and emancipation of legislation such as the Recognition of Customary Marriages and the Maintenance Acts. There is a real need to share information in user-friendly ways, with all women, regarding the legislation and programmes that have been designed to empower them. Failure to do this renders most of our work null and void.
We must develop programmes that inform women about local government and encourage them to participate in local governance programmes. This is the interface that is vital for change because it is the closest link between government and the people, particularly women.
We must actively monitor the implementation of the international agreements to which we as a Movement are signatories:
it is only through active and intelligent monitoring that we will be able to evaluate our performance and address any shortcomings that might arise.
We must develop training and information programmes to fully understand the intersection between race and gender. This is one of the most critical areas that contributes towards the non-emancipation of women and holds us back in our overall development. Only when we all have a thorough understanding of the issues can we fight it effectively.
I am sure that there are more ways that we can engage in our liberation as women, and lead all women effectively to their full and equal place in our society. I hope that these that I have shared with you will serve as a springboard for more ideas, and above all, concrete plans of action.
Status of the Women´s Movement
The issue of gender equality, women´s emancipation and development is central to the creation of a truly non-sexist, non-racial, democratic and prosperous South Africa. Women in SA form more than 50% of our population and therefore stand to benefit the most from from the success of the NDR
South African Women are organised in various community based organisations (burial societies and stokvels), issue orientated formations (NGO), church groups, sectoral formations, in the political movements (ANCWL) and gender advocacy formations. From the range of organisation that exist we find that this is not a homogeneous sector. However there are issues of commonality that cuts across the various groupings.
At its last Conference in Rustenburg the ANCWL noted that it:
It further noted the problems with the role and character of the Women´s National Coalition and resolved to engage the alliance gender forum to develop a common approach to the WNC and a broad women´s movement.
The Challenges that face the ANCWL in ensuring the success of a broad front for women are no different from those that faced them in 1997. The ANCWL has to take stock of what work has been put in if any in terms making the WNC a success or the creation of a new movement.
Status of the Women´s Movement
Discussion Document : July 2001
Introduction
The struggle for the full emancipation of women and the attainment of a truly non-sexist society is far from being over. Women are still facing serious challenges unique to them as a group. We have no much choice but to continue to face these challenges in all spheres of our lives - be it as young girls and students, unemployed rural and urban women, as workers, professionals or businesswomen, or even as pensioners.
What can be debated is how can we act as a collective against theses challenges? What is the form and content of the struggle for women´s emancipation? At what level should we organise ourselves and what should be the objectives of that mobilisation? What are the needs of women and can we find commonality within these under which we can rally together?
The ANC NEC lekgotla in January 2001, resolved that the struggle for the empowerment of women against sexism and gender inequality - and the creation of a non-sexist society - should be intensified. The ANC NEC further called for the assessment of the balance of forces on gender equality, the form and content of a progressive women´s movement and the challenges facing the progressive women´s movement in South Africa. (NEC minutes 25 March & 25 - 27 May 2001)
Background
In 1954 organisations which were fighting for women´s rights and full citizenship for all South Africans came together and formed the Federation of South African Women. They were South African Indian Congress women, the South African Coloured Peoples Organisation, the Congress of Democrats and ANC Women. The successful march to the Union building in 1956 was the brainchild of FEDSAW which became the symbol of their unity and went down the history as a success story of women.
In 1989 - 1990 January, the ANC Women Section hosted a conference in Amsterdam that brought women from all walks of life together. The conference discussed the common goals and the structure for implementing the programme. The conference recommended that women should create a common front and advance the struggle for gender equality. In May 1990 a workshop was held in Lusaka following the unbanning of the ANC by the regime in which ANC committed itself to women´s emancipation. DIscussions amongst women continued and even included women in Apartheid government. Subsequent to this, the Women´s National Coalition was launched in 1992.
The Coalition became a forum where women could discuss and strategise on common issues and how to handle the issues within the political parties and in CODESA. ANC women were leading and managed to pull other organisations along. In 1994 the Charter for Gender Equality was adopted and handed to the State President and all Provincial Premiers. It served as a guideline for all laws the government was to pass. The Gender machinery was also discussed by the Coalition.
New Dispensation
In 1994 SOuth Africa´s first democratically elected President in his speech said: “It is vitally important that in all government structures, including the President himself, should understand this fully. That freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been fully emancipated from all forms of oppression. All of us must take this on board, that the objectives of the Reconstruction and Development Programme will not have been realised unless we see, invisible and practical terms, that the condition of women of our country has radically changed for the better, and that they have been empowered to intervene in all aspects of life, as equals with any member of society’
The Constitution of South Africa uphold the equality in a way that all other rights must be interpreted to give effect to equality. The Human Rights also operates both vertically and horizontally, meaning the government may not discriminate against its citizen and citizen may not discriminate against one another.
After the adoption of the new constitution in 1996, Coalition appeared to have outlived its mandate or what had sustained and held it together. Many of the conditions that had existed before had changed and once again a new texture of politics emerged, presenting a new set of challenges, needs and contradictions.
The adoption of a constitution which is based on the principle of non-sexism is due to the coalition and also the setting up of various structures of aimed and achieving gender equality. This includes the National Machinery for advancing Gender Equality, the Office on the Status of Women at a national and provincial level, gender units in every government department and the Commission for Gender Equality. There is also a relatively large number of women within the state - whether in government, cabinet, parliament and public service. This was not only the changing of demographics, but qualitative as well institutional changes have been effected.
But this process also raised its own questions.:
Lessons from the Coalition
We should first agree that women are not a homogeneous entity. They are divided in terms of race, economic status, social and cultural background, education, political affiliation, age, sexual orientation, marital status, etc. These differences determine individual women´s material experience of the world that is still characterised by gender inequality. These different experiences further define the different needs, aspirations and priorities of women.
In spite of these differences, women of South Africa have come together as a social group and struggled directly against apartheid and, indirectly against male domination. One of the products of this struggle was the formation of the Women´s National Coalition 1992. The WNC was founded with about 92 National women´s organisations representing different segments of women.
Right from the formation of WNC there was recognition of the diversity of women´s experience, their struggles and organisations. It was for this reason that coalition was formed, not an organisation. The coalition allowed high degree of autonomy for different organisations while the mobilising women on particular common programme that was agreed upon.
Formed amid the rapidly changing South Africa, the main objective of the coalition was to identify the needs and aspirations of women and ensure that they were integrated into the new policies of a free South Africa. The greatest achievement of the Coalition was the adoption of the Charter in 1994, after two years of countrywide consultation process. The Coalition sort of round unity in purpose amongst women who were divided by racial discrimination, class and other social divisions.
The conditions and the period within which the Coalition was formed and the Charter adopted were different or unique. They were characterised by urgency of the process of transition that was underway in the country. The fear of women and gender issues being overshadowed in the negotiation process was a concern for many women and their organisations. The debate around the commonality and diversity of Women´ Question was raised. Of course, the ANC and ANC Women´s League played a crucial role stimulating and giving direction to this debate ultimately leading to one question being asked: What kind of a new South Africa did women want?
The initial marginalisation of women from the negotiation process by most of the political parties was a source of anger, energy and coherence amongst women in ensuring that they were not negotiated their future by men, well meaning as they could be. This shared sense or fear of exclusion created some limited “shared interests’ around which unity was built.
After the historic elections of April 1994, many woman who had played crucial role in the mobilisation of women and the formation of the coalition were absorbed into parliament. The Coalition had resolved that parliamentarians could not be elected into the coalition structures. Also women in parliament had to propagate strong party centred positions as our new multi-party parliamentary system was taking shape, thus deepening division amongst women MP´s along political party lines.
However the process of drafting the new constitution in the Constitutional Assembly (11994-1996) remained a focal point for mobilisation of women. There was strong focus on the inclusion of gender rights in the new constitution, new legislation and parliamentary processes. Coalition acted as a voice of women in this process, making presentations, raising questions and mobilising women to continue to fight for their rights and gender equality.
The WNC lost most of its leading figures to the state organs, affirmative action policies were drawing more competent and politically motivated women to the business and other sectors and thus impacting negatively on the calibre of leadership within the Coalition. One of the shortcomings of the Coalition was its failure to develop or strengthen individual women´s organisations especially those from rural areas. The tendency was for the National Office to run the show. This undermined the hope of the Coalition being used as a springboard for a broad women´s movement that would grow from bottom, producing its own poor activist and leaders.
However, the problems in the Coalition cannot only be attributed to post 1994 an 96 (adoption of the new Constitution) changes and movement of women activists to the state and other structures. As far back as 1993, there had been problems which included amongst others the leadership style and suspicion by some organisations that the ANC W/L was dominating the Coalition.
Since 1997, the Coalition has struggled to identify and consolidate its role and identity. During the 1997 Conference of the Coalition in which the ANC W/L played a prominent reconciliatory role, a project on Women and the Law was identified as a focal point in line with Women´s Charter to deal with issues such as;
Violence against women
Maintenance
Recognition of Customary Law and the Inheritance Laws.
However, there was a lack of trust and confidence on the ability of the Coalition to implement and realise this project.
In July 2000, the Coalitions Annual General Meeting also failed to come up with a clear vision, role and a programme for the Coalition. The Coalition was also in serious financial problems and there was a feeling that a difficult decision of folding up the Coalition should be taken.
Many organs of civil society have been trying to find a role for themselves in the new environment of democracy and women organisations are no exception. There is thus a relative demobilisation of forces that united and struggled for democracy. The key challenges continue to be; What is the role of the masses under a democratic state and government that is committed to changing the lives of the people?
Towards Women´s Movement
South African women in spite of race, class, creed or political affiliation have something in common. We are all vulnerable and have fears, a fear of being a victim of gender related violence. Even under democratic South Africa with progressive laws, discriminatory practices in the society on issues of culture and economy have not changed and this create a need for women to spearhead or drive the transformation process in the society.
There are at least two extreme approaches to the fight against patriarchy in S.A. One section is the popular struggle mainly led by women to change and improve their day-to-day lives. These are mainly working class, grassroots, poor and rural women. They organise around bread and butter issues - whether they run stokvels (saving clubs) for economic sustenance, have Masicwabisane (burial support clubs) as socio-economic support support system or organise themselves into small groups running self-help projects. These are women organisations that put focus on different aspects of the endeavour to improve their lives - their practical gender needs.
Next to these are organisations that are based on the sectoral interest of mainly working class women and thus focussing on addressing the sectoral gender needs of women. This continuum covers women sections within political organisations and NGO´s focusing on specific issues such as violence, child abuse and generally trying to improve the lives of women.
On the extreme, there is mainly intellectual women, both black and white, would be gender activists whose daily needs are not access to water, housing, electricity, etc. Their strategic objective is to change power relations in the society and therefore, focusing on the strategic gender needs. They are divided according to race and class and their approaches and ways of organising are different. Within this section there would be those who come from the democratic movement and understand the relationship between the practical gender needs and the strategic gender needs and intersection between class, race and gender. Their agenda is or should be to ensure that practical gender needs and strategic gender needs are knitted together into a vibrant and progressive popular movement for gender equality.
This movement could not be launched in a once off event as it should be a product of progressive different struggles of women. The understanding of the intersection of class, race and gender is the basis for the forging of such a movement as it would pull energies from the two extremes into a concrete action. It is for this reason Gender sub-committee correctly concluded that, in reality, it is not possible to transform the COalition into a progressive women´s movement. In fact there is no progressive women´s movement in the country.
An Alliance workshop on the subject of the Women´s Movement concluded that such a movement must;
In consultation with the ANC Women´s League, ANC NEC Gender sub-committee endorsed the centrality and the vanguard role of the Women´s League, supported by the ANC, in the struggle for non-sexist South Africa. This put the ANC W/L and the Alliance and the core of such a movement or events and programmes that may lead to its formation.
This central vanguard role will firstly require the strengthening of the ANC W/L as an organisation. WE need to identify our weaknesses with the aim of addressing them and strengthening our organisation and all its structures. This process will need to come from bottom up and thus strengthening and properly channelling the existing commitment from branch level.
A strong ANC W/L can only come out of strong and active branches. This raises a need to strengthen our branches. We need to get the quota system implemented right down to the branches of the ANC and have the implementation process monitor and/ or audited. While strengthening the women participation, the system will produce a group of cadres that are groomed and rooted within a democratic movement.
At a national level, we need a full time Secretary General that will be able to co-ordinate and administer the activities. We might as well discuss whether we need another office bearer or two to be full time at the headquarter to strengthen the activities at national level.
There is even a greater need to intensify efforts for a stronger sub-committee on gender that will strengthen the gender activities of the alliance. We need to come up or discuss a programme of action that will draw women together in a common programme - the issue of violence against women can be one of the rallying issue as it is someway affects women across race, class and other divides.
We have a great opportunity to advance gender equality and yet there are possibilities of a backlash or missing these opportunities if we do not continuously analyse and assess conditions and what they offer or threaten. This is the only basis on which we can properly strategise, organise, mobilise and act as a vanguard of the Women´s Movement.
Challenges For Women´s
Economic Empowerment
May 2001
Introduction
The struggle for liberation identified the need to ensure that the triple yoke of oppression facing women - particularly African women in South Africa - was integral to the process. Consequently in the process of political negotiations and subsequent choice of the people to the legislature, the executive and the other leadership and decision making positions quota´s were used to facilitate the appointment of women. The success of the quota system was that it resulted in greater visibility of women in leadership positions and in many cases it reaffirmed the fact that gender equity was a possibility.
The immediate challenge facing any liberation struggle is consolidating the political gains through ensuring economic empowerment. Global and past experience shows that there are no short-term solutions to poverty eradication and economic growth. This is equally true for the challenge facing women in South Africa. In this process quotas cannot be applied because of the complex character of factors that affect economic opportunity and entrepreneurship.
The recent Black Economic Empowerment Commission process has also highlighted the complexity of economic transformation in the context of an inherited dualism in economic development. Many lessons could be learnt from the process, which could serve as pointers for the development of options for women´s economic empowerment.
Some propositions for consideration
Against this background it becomes important to have a coherent and comprehensive approach to the attainment of economic empowerment for women in South Africa. The following propositions are made for consideration:-
There is a general acceptance of the fact that there is a problem in relation to the economic plight of women however the extent of this problem and the impact of current government policies in making a change are not quantified. It is clear however, that the current information sources are inadequate to develop targeted and quantifiable interventions in support of WEE. A demonstration of the weakness of the system was for example the initiative to develop a women´s budget - where it was virtually impossible to quantify where and how much of the national budget is spent on or for women.
At the same time there have been numerous initiative within government, the private sector and NGO´s that have targeted women as beneficiaries. In many cases there are amazing success stories that are often captured in isolation of the context within which they happened. The impact of these initiatives needs to be quantified and best practice built on. On the bias of such an analysis we could improve on our information sources including the census to be able to quantify progress with women´s economic empowerment.
The first proposition therefore for consideration is that the ANC Women´s League provide leadership for the establishment of a process or a project (which could be housed in one or another of the formations responsible for gender issues) that would collate and analyse the experiences thus far in implementing initiatives targeted at women. In addition a parallel process is needed to quantify and characterise the status and nature of the participation of women in economic activity in the different geographic districts of the country. On the basis of these reports some extrapolation of hat needs to be promoted can be done.
At the heart of the struggle for economic empowerment particularly in rural, isolated and poor regions of the country is the need for effective social mobilisation. This is because it maximises the chances for the community in its diversity to take up and engage on the opportunities that exists. Some examples of these include the organisation of groups for direct or distance training; the ability of the groups in poor communities to establish cooperatives, farmer´s associations and discussion groups.
The effectiveness of having well organised and informed groups who in turn develop a consciousness necessary for constructive engagement at all levels including ensuring appropriate representation and accountability of elected leadership and participation in government policy development. The synergy that should emerge between such formations and the ANC branches, as a whole should in the long term improves and sustains the level of political consciousness of our people.
A second proposition for consideration therefore is the need for the ANC WL to develop a strategy for social mobilisation integral to that of the ANC branches which supports the need to focus on the challenge of being organised in order to be able to empower themselves (a similar slogan which of the worker movement which makes sense here is “Organise or Starve’.) In the programme of political activity the specific themes referred to in proposition four would need to be incorporated and planned for.
Education, Training and Capacity Enhancement are critical areas of investment in the quest for women´s empowerment.
In relation to economic empowerment there is a need to find new ways of unlocking the entrepreneurial skills and abilities for women. The “market’ culture as currently exists in not automatically inherent in the behaviour of the various groups of people in our country. Some thought has gone into this in the context of the dialogue on access to finance in the black economic empowerment debates.
What is emerging for consideration is the recognition that intervention for poverty eradication and or economic empowerment happens at different levels. These are - the survivalist, the micro - enterprise level, the small and medium scale business level and the corporate level. All of these levels are necessary in any economy. It follows therefore that the women at the different opportunities need different strategies and abilities and the approach of the ANC should be to support the diversity of options in a balanced way. Special attention needs to be paid to improving the ability of women to networks among themselves and engage at the corporate - board level in the private and Parastatals as it is through these processes of decision making that new opportunities can be opened up for women.
Extensive resources are spent by government and the private sector to train groups of people - what is critical once again is to identify those that are effective and do produce entrepreneurs - this analysis an form part of the work in proposition one.
At another level there is a need to quantify the number of women been trained on a year-by-year basis - in this way information on the progression of investments can start to replace the sense of despondency that sometimes prevails in terms of - “nothing is being done’. The experiences of “showcasing and making visible’ the success stories is probably one of the more cost effective ways of stimulating other people to follow and take initiatives in economic activity.
The quality and content of the training offered to women also needs to b regularly evaluated to ensure that there is no persistent bias in the choice of economic opportunity options available to women. Having said that, a complementarily of strategy is needed for those sectors where the conditions for success are predicted on the male culture behaviour.
Finally focus on the education of the girl and boy child needs to be managed in the light of the medium to long term.
Proposition three for consideration is that the ANC WL take a lead in driving a process of assessing the scope and impact of education, training and capacity building initiatives that are currently being implemented by the range of public, private, NGO and CBO organisations. Based on this analysis a strategy for changing the less effective approaches and identifying new initiatives that can fill the gaps must be developed using both ANC structure as well as structures associated with the broader women´s coalition.
Experience in the developed world in the 1970´s of a backlash against the feminist movement as well as developments in the Caribbean recently where quotas had to be considered for men in terms of high level jobs, necessitates the need for a continued education and awareness effort at the rationale for gender equity in economic development.
Such a campaign should also deal with the tensions that arise and evolve coping and adjustment instruments and interventions for the social problems that arise when women become economically empowered in a society that still assumes the superior position of men. This could be the subject of thesis at universities and dialogues at the range of public platforms and branches of the movement. It is an emerging problem in our society and could also be associated with the prevalence of rape, domestic and other violence against women, alcohol abuse and the subsequent consequences of these actions.
Proposition four is that the ANC WL be at the forefront of ensuring that dialogue continues on the issues of gender equity and economic empowerment. A fundamental point that would need to be resolved is - is the League in a position t build on the historical strategies of women´s emancipation and simultaneously address it ‘self to the “new age’ issues that emerge regarding economic development. a success of the effort will be seen in the attraction and retention of a diverse set of women into the membership of the League - who include among themselves economically, empowered women. This is probably the single most fundamental discussion that the committee will need to have.
Conclusion:- The need for continuing debate
The above propositions are made to stimulate discussion on the strategic - approaches that need to be taken to renew the effort for women´s economic empowerment. It is critical that mechanisms for identifying and exploiting opportunities and constraints to economic empowerment continuously be elevated and applied to our different situations. The effectiveness and impact of the use of quota´s for positions of leadership still requires review as the challenge to have more women and enhance the effectiveness of their positions in leadership, management and decision making positions is still great.
Finally at a conceptual level it would be important to recognise that poverty eradication and economic empowerment are the different elements of the same strategy and therefore all efforts aimed at poverty eradication are in effect about economic empowerment. With such an understanding the scope of assessment of and identification of initiatives is wider.
Women Challenges in the 21st Century - Declared as the African Century
(A Draft discussion paper for the National Congress of the ANC Women´s League)
Introduction
Today in our continent Africa, the crying battle is for the re-awakening and rebuilding of the continent. A number of challenges have been identified and the main one has always been the liberation of the people of Africa. Africa has waged struggles for the restoration of the human dignity of all it´s people and the equality for all races and nations. All nations in our continent agree that Africa´s time has come. Also this century was declared the African Century.
Background:
President Cde. Thabo Mbeki, has revived the debate and discussions or the new beginning. Why new beginning or renaissance as is popularly known, was because Africa is now free from colonialism after the freedom was achieved in South Africa. Having fought together to end apartheid and what we termed as the colonialism of a special type, Africa is now free to look at itself and take on the challenges facing it.
Some of the challenges facing our continent and raised by our President Cde. Mbeki´s and other leader´s in their speeches on the African Renaissance and of late on the Millennium Africa Recovery Programme (MAP) or the New Africa Initiative are:
Quoting President Mbeki, he said, “There exist within our continent a generation which has been victim to all the things which created (Africa´s) negative past. This generation remains African and carriers with it an historic pride, which compels it to seek a place for Africans equal to all other peoples of our common universe.’
Mbeki goes on to say, “This generation knows and is resolved that, to attain that objective, it must resist all tyranny, oppose all attempts to deny liberty by resort, repulse the temptation to describe African life as the ability to live on charity´, engage the fight to secure emancipation of the African women, and reassert the fundamental concept that we are our own liberators from oppression, from under development and poverty, from the perpetuation of an experience from slavery, to colonialism, to apartheid, to dependence on alms. It is this generation whose sense of rage guarantees Africa´s advance towards its renaissance.’
Underpinning the vision of the African renaissance is the historic context of the people of Africa struggles against colonialism, racism and patriarchy.
Role of Women:
Women have been in the forefront of the struggles for the emancipation of our society and for the freedom from slavery, colonialism, racism, sexism and against deprivation of their dignity as human beings.
The question is whether the women´s struggle for gender equality and for the emancipation has been achieved, particularly now as we move into the new millennium. In answering the question, most will agree that women are far from achieving on the women´s emancipation and gender equality.
(In this case we understand gender relations as being about power relations that are at play when it comes to gender)
Many challenges still confront women in society, such as, the patriarchy in society remains dominant under the guise in some instances of religious beliefs and traditional customs, which may want to maintain and protect.
The continent needs moral renewal for women. Women are affected by abuse against women and he girl-child. This manifests itself in terms of murder, rape, incest, sexual harassment, verbal abuse and many other forms. In African countries ravaged by war, war is accompanied with abuse women, where white police would rape black women and this dates back to the colonisation, where there is evidence of many black women who suffered sexual abuse. This history cannot be forgotten when we talk about the challenges facing women in the African Century. This is because oppression is usually accompanied with the oppression of women.
Adding to this challenges are the stereo-types mentality and thinking which continues to dominate society. Some of the stereo-type thinking is the regulation of women as incapable to lead and to think strategically.
In some situations women, are refused participation in decision making, cannot represent the people in institutions of power such as parliament and executives, are denied education and only seen as objects to do odd and domestic jobs.
In confronting these challenges women became active in the organisations and in the struggle by galvanising on issues affecting them. But they do so within a context of a broader vision. They knew that for the society to be totally liberated, freed from stereo-type thinking and break traditions that suppresses women, they have to join the forces with men folk, while at the same time taking on issues that liberated the minds of men.
The problems and challenges facing women in Africa:
As we move into the new millennium in Africa we need a strong an even stronger women´s movement to take up the challenges of the continent which expands beyond the gender and sexism issues. This challenges have been put firmly on the agenda of the continent, in the transformation of the OAU into the African Union, in the programme as we know it as the Millennium African Recovery Programme (MAP) the New African Initiative (merger of MAP and Omega Plan) and the whole philosophy of the African Renaissance. Some of the bigger challenges facing women in the century of the African Century are as follows:
In Africa, poverty remains enemy number one, millions of our people are still condemned to suffer from hunger, from malnutrition and its diseases. People are prey to depravation that results in homelessness, inadequate clothing and lack of access to jobs and other ways and means by which they can secure an adequate standard of living. The majority of the victims are women and children.
Millions of our people are still condemned to lead miserable lives, to suffer from physical and mental aliments and die young because of preventable diseases. These include respiratory diseases, malaria, AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, venereal diseases, cancer and others. Due to lack of access to clean water, poor living conditions and the many wars and conflicts that drives people from their land, women in most cases remain to take care of their families and becomes te victims.
Millions in our continent continue to survive of illiteracy, non-innumeracy, poor education, ignorance and poor skills. This exposes the masses to superstition and inability t access especially the great store of scientific and technological knowledge that drives the evolution of modern society.
Over centuries, slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism have ravaged the African economy. This has guaranteed that generally throughout Africa, the material bas for the provision of an adequate standard of living for the millions of our people has been very weak.
Africa has been ravaged by war. Ever since Africa got its independence from the colonial powers, she has never had peace. This stifles the development of Africa. Africa cannot make plans for ten years or fifty years ahead since she has to consistently worry about creating peace. When other plan for Africa, Africa cannot plan for herself. The consequences of war have affected women more. Its women who have to carry the burden of being caregivers to the sick, injured, elderly and the children.
Africa continues to be plaque by dictatorship, violent conflicts and the tragic spell of millions of our people driven out of their countries as refugees or as displaces within their own countries, majority of them being women and children.
Also our continent lacks behind in the infrastructure and development, although rich with natural resources and has weak economies, which are unable to feed its children and provide for a better life for its people.
In African countries ravaged by war, the abuse of women is experienced daily. We have seen during the struggle against apartheid women being abuses by police who raped and applied all sorts of torture in particular those detained in combat and there were witnesses. This dates back to the colonial era, where there is some documented evidence of many black women who suffered sexual abuse. This history cannot be forgotten when we talk about the challenges facing women in the African century. This is because oppression is usually accompanied with the oppression of women.
Culture has been used to oppress and suppress women and this necessitate the need for an understanding that, for the rebirth of Africa we need a cultural revolution and we need to integrate culture in all spheres of life. We should do away with the cultures, traditions and customs that are oppressive to women and treat them as subordinates.
Human development in Africa has always favoured men. Women are the ones who lag behind when it comes to education, skills and training. Culture has played a part in this under development of women.
The African Renaissance also needs the African intelligentsia. We should go as fur