A groundbreaking gender equality training course for local government officials has wrapped up in Johannesburg.
”The course was the first of its kind in South Africa and the region involving gender and local government,” said Colleen Lowe Morna, director of Gender Links, the NGO headquartered in Johannesburg that organised the training.
The programme was held amid preparations for local government elections in South Africa, scheduled to be held within the next few months. The ruling African National Congress has pledged to ensure that at least half its candidates for this poll are women.
Currently, women account for about 28,8% of councillors in Johannesburg, while constituting 50,2% of the city’s 3,3-million population.
”We need to create a world where men and women work together,” said Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka while addressing participants at an event marking the closure of the course on Tuesday.
”We have a lot of good men and some ‘un-nice’ men,” she noted further, prompting an outburst of laughter from the audience.
Mlambo-Ngcuka called for a gender programme to be prepared for members of the South African Cabinet, and noted that efforts to reduce discrimination against women have to take place across party lines.
”We must work together and not allow our political differences to disrupt our common goals,” she said. Councillors from various political parties, including the main opposition Democratic Alliance, attended the course.
Gender disparities
A new book by Gender Links, The ”I” Stories: City of Johannesburg Councillors Speak Out, highlights how glaring gender disparities persist within local government.
”Women are over-represented among clerical workers,” it says, but are ”scarce in the professional and technical categories”. Women are only estimated to make up about 10% of managers in local authorities.
Amos Masondo, executive mayor of Johannesburg, told participants that equal representation of men and women in local government is ”an idea whose time has come” — but added that the problem of discrimination is multifaceted.
”We are beginning to understand that gender equality is both about changing attitudes and empowering women,” he said.
The Gender Links book also laments the fact that while women bear the burden of providing potable water and sanitation for their families, they are often not consulted in the provision of these services.
In addition, the experiences of 26 councillors are recounted in The ”I” Stories.
”Some of the stories are quite painful — they are told with honesty,” said Janine Moolman, who edited the book.
One of those featured is 69-year-old Shirley Ancer, who became a councillor in 2000 on a DA ticket.
”My first year as a councillor was very challenging. I spent many hours away from home and my family — and the late meetings were difficult to adjust [to],” she says. ”As a woman, I battled to juggle home, children and my council work — not to mention the fear of getting home safely.”
In the course of her work, Ancer found that antiquated ideas about women’s participation in political life persist.
”I am still amazed at how many people in the 21st century still believe that politics are not for women,” she notes. ”It makes me realise how much work we still have to do to educate South Africans to accept that women are equal to men and we can be of great benefit to the country.”
‘Male champions’
As the course organisers made clear, however, the fight for gender equality cannot be waged by women alone — and they were heartened that the local government programme also attracted a number of men.
”Some 25% of our participants are men. This was very important to us,” said Morna. ”Their presence made for robust debate and has led to a cadre of male champions of gender equality in the city [of Johannesburg].”
At regional level, the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) has committed itself to having 50% of decision-making posts in member states occupied by women. However, no deadline has been established for achieving this target.
Previously, the SADC set itself the goal of having 30% of decision-making posts occupied by women, by 2005. On the parliamentary front, only South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania met the target. — IPS