/ 23 February 2007

Report slams gender watchdog

The Gender Commission is hamstrung by internal strife and has dropped off the public’s radar, according to a damning report by the Civil Society Advocacy programme, funded by the European Union.

The report — part of a review of Chapter 9 institutions — paints the gender watchdog body as long on talk but short on delivery.

Researchers found that ‘the CGE [Commission on Gender Equality] has become insulated from civil society, closed to debate and engagement with external stakeholders, unwilling to espouse a more transformative feminist agenda and therefore unresponsive to the full range of key issues which impact upon gender equality and the lives of women in South Africa”.

The report says that many respondents told researchers that the commission ‘is bypassed when there is a need for redress or advocacy particularly around complex or controversial issues”. It goes on to say that the commission ‘needs to prove to the public, and the women of South Africa in particular, that it is neither irrelevant — nor has reached the point of no return”.

‘The CGE is no longer seen as a serious political player able to push a women’s rights agenda,” Lisa Vetten, a senior researcher at the Tshwaranang legal advocacy centre, told the Mail & Guardian.

The report points out that the recommendations of previous reviews have not been adopted. The report also refers to a 2003 organisational evaluation report that found: ‘It is time to get on with the work of implementing these plans. It is not in anyone’s best interest to allow the CGE to be seen as a lethargic organisation which studies things and studies things and studies things. It is the proverbial aim, aim, aim. And never pull the trigger.”

Staffers at the CGE told the M&G that the commission is quick to comment on issues raised in the media, but does not have an active policy formulation unit. ‘The CGE has, for example, no policy on circumcision schools, but it always comments when there is something in the media about the subject,” said an employee speaking on condition of anonymity.

The report found that the commission remains a ‘hostile working environment” and that there is evidence of ‘levels of distrust that permeated many levels of the CGE”. It said efforts to correct this problem had failed because they were made in an ‘ad hoc manner without taking into account long standing blockages, resistances and perceived lack of containment” and concluded that these ‘divert energy and destroy morale”.

The organisation’s authoritarian management style also comes under fire, with the report pointing out that ‘sheer power of position” is not the same as effective leadership. Personal conflicts between the CEO, commissioners and other staff are found to have negatively affected the commission’s efficient functioning.

Sheila Meintjies, a professor of political studies at Wits University and a former gender commissioner, says that parliamentary appointees to Chapter 9 institutions in general, and the gender commission in particular, are political appointees, rather than individuals ‘who can take forward the mandates of these institutions — the state needs to take responsibility for ensuring these institutions can do their job properly”.

Meintjies says Parliament needs to appoint strong, visionary leaders who understand the broad scope of gender equality issues.

The report recommends reducing the number of commissioners from 12 to three. ‘This report could be a watershed if it catalyses a concerted effort to deal with problems in a very important institution, which needs to function effectively,” said Vetten.

The commission had not responded to requests for comment by the time of going to press.

 

AP