The African National Congress will review the progress the country has made ”in the pursuit of the goal of the emancipation of women” at its national general council meeting in June, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. An immediate issue is parity of representation of women in the upcoming local government elections.
Writing in his regular internet newsletter, ANC Today, the president said the national general council — which considers policy direction and implementation — will consider the progress made since the last national conference of the party in 2002.
”Among other things, our membership will also consider the proposal that we should achieve gender parity with regard to the people we deploy to our legislatures, starting with the municipal councils that will be elected during the next local government elections,” said the president.
The elections are scheduled to take place later this year or early in 2006.
”We must point out that the July 2004 assembly of heads of state and government of the African Union resolved that all member states should work to achieve gender parity in all public decision-making bodies. Our movement should take the lead in ensuring that our country moves forward decisively towards the accomplishment of the goal set by the AU.”
Mbeki also said the national general council will consider the progress made towards the socio-economic upliftment of the women of the country.
Mbeki said the government’s 2004 report on the review of the first decade of liberation had noted that one of most significant changes since 1994 was the increased participation of women in governance.
The public service had also demonstrated an improvement in the participation of women in management, although the state had yet to achieve its targets for women and people with disabilities. In the economic sector, it was evident that women were making progress in the professional and technical categories but were still lagging behind when it came to senior management.
Quoting the report, Mbeki said: ”Other evidence from the social theme indicates that health and education services are now strongly focused on women and children. Indeed, South Africa has already surpassed the millennium development goals for gender in education.”
The report stated that progress had been made with regard to the employment of women in the public service. The most recent reports on the representivity targets indicate that the percentage of women in the public service now stands at 24%.
”In terms of employment, women have seen some slight gains, although the changes have not yet changed the structural gender legacies of apartheid … In particular, it can be seen that the proportion of women over 60 with no income has declined by almost 5% from 20% to 15%, and the proportion of women over 65 with no income has declined by almost 4% from 16% to 12%, largely due to the increased provision of social grants.
”It is also noticeable that this improvement is also more pronounced for African women,” the report said.
Mbeki said: ”Of course, our movement will have to look at much more than this when it considers the progress we have achieved and the tasks we still face.
”This would include an assessment of the impact on women of such interventions as the provision of free medical health care, clean water, electricity, housing, jobs through our public works and other programmes and the special focus on violence against women.” — I-Net Bridge