Fifty years ago, Sophia Williams-De Bruyn helped lead 20 000 women in a march on white-ruled South Africa’s capital in one of the first major demonstrations against the tightening of apartheid laws. Now 68, and having lived more than a decade under South Africa’s multiracial democracy, Williams-De Bruyn’s outrage has barely dimmed.
”Today, I’m not happy with what is happening. This is not what we struggled for — raping of babies, rampant poverty, trafficking of children and so many ugly things,” she said in an interview. ”What we must do is keep pushing.”
This week, South Africa will hold a series of events commemorating the Women’s March of August 9 1956, which for the first time brought thousands of female protesters to the front doors of the country’s male-dominated white establishment.
But for many women in Africa’s economic powerhouse, the battle continues in the face of sky-high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault, along with the grinding toll of HIV/Aids, poverty and lingering sexism.
The 1956 protest in Pretoria, now marked by a national holiday, was against a new policy that forced non-white women to carry passbooks, or internal passports, when travelling in areas designated ”whites only” by the apartheid government.
Photographs from the event show singing marchers, some with babies on their backs and many wearing the gold, black and green colours of the African National Congress (ANC) — the liberation movement led by Nelson Mandela that brought about the end of apartheid in 1994.
The end of white rule, however, was still decades off in 1956, and the march had little effect: the passbook law came into effect about two years later.
Halting progress
South Africa’s women have received some reward for their part in the anti-apartheid movement. Under Mandela, who became the country’s first black president, and his successor, Thabo Mbeki, the ANC-led government has pledged to respect women’s rights and further their interests in its economic and social policies.
Women occupy close to one-third of the seats in South Africa’s Parliament and more than 40% of the Cabinet, holding key portfolios including the deputy presidency, foreign affairs, minerals and mining and home affairs. The government has established a gender equality commission that investigates public complaints, and an office that oversees the status of women is housed within the presidency.
But there are still some black spots where progress is proving slow. Only 6,2% of top executives and heads of boards are women, according to a survey by the Businesswomen’s Association South Africa. However, the fact that the suit-and-tie corporate world is gradually welcoming women into boardrooms, however slowly, is encouraging, said Namane Magau, the association’s president.
”It is encouraging that many corporate executives are talking about how women are helping the business grow and have an impact on the bottom line,” she said. ”I think this focus on results is helping change the culture.”
Violence
Women must also cope with the fear of rape in a country with one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world, and face the danger of contracting HIV, the virus that causes Aids. Young women are among those most vulnerable to contracting Aids because they become involved with older male partners who may hide their infection, said Richard Delate, of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/Aids.
About 55 000 rapes were reported last year but since only one in nine women who are raped actually report the crime, according to one activist group, the true figure may be closer to 450 000 in a population of 45-million.
Lisa Vetten, an analyst for Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre in Johannesburg, said the government’s good intentions towards women often do not yield results in reducing rape levels, sexual violence and other social ills.
”We raise hopes with laws and then undermine the effort with shoddy implementation. If people see that nothing happens, it stops having a deterrent effect,” she said. ”We need more emphasis on the justice system and welfare services.”
Activists point to a deep-seated misogyny in South Africa where rape is often dismissed as a private matter and many accuse women of bringing violence upon themselves. Some experts say cultural changes will help redress the balance of power between men and women as the male-dominated beer-and-barbecue culture slowly gives way to a more sophisticated approach to gender relations.
”Some men feel alienated by the way women advanced in society. It’s contrary to how they were brought up — the man rules and the woman serves,” said John Simpson, director of the University of Cape Town’s Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing in Cape Town. ”But the reality is of greater gender equality. Nearly 30% of nappies [diapers] are bought by men. Ten years ago that never would have been the case.”
Williams-De Bruyn, a provincial legislator in Gauteng, also welcomes the changes of the past 50 years but says politicians must now deliver on promises of equality for everyone.
”Those days it was different because of the oppressive laws. Now we have a good Constitution, but we are not taking responsibility. Politicians can’t let down the people who put them in power,” she said. — Reuters