President Thabo Mbeki should be commended for promoting the appointment of women to senior posts in his government, Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said on Friday.
”As we look forward to celebrating Women’s Day next Thursday, it is heartening to track the progress we have made in advancing gender rights in the last few years,” she said in her party’s weekly online newsletter, SA today.
A total of 42% of South Africa’s Cabinet posts were held by women, practically double that of countries such as the United States (26%), Canada (24%) and Japan (14%).
”I want to commend President Mbeki for advancing the role and profile of women. He has made a point of promoting women to Cabinet and the highest executive and legislative levels, and is on record as saying he would like to see the next head of state being a woman,” Botha said.
Among them, several were doing excellent jobs.
”Our Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, has advanced a commendably realistic and honest approach to economic growth as well as health, issues that have a direct bearing on women.
”Likewise, the Deputy Minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, has had the guts to stand up to her eccentric and erratic boss, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, on key issues.”
Unfortunately, there were others letting the side down.
”The two government departments most glaringly failing in their mandates both have women as their political heads: Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and … Tshabalala-Msimang.
”Ordinary women and men have nothing to celebrate from their positions.”
Botha warned that in other areas of national life, women were ”falling dangerously behind”.
They faced much higher rates of unemployment, earned lower incomes and had less access to capital or loans than men.
”In 2003, 55% of black women were out of work, with the rate rising to 75% for those under the age of 30.
”Meanwhile, 64% of employed black women earn less that R1 000 a month, with only 5% employed in senior positions.”
But it was in the area of health that the state ”most glaringly” let women down.
”In 2006, the Health Department found almost a third of pregnant women and one in ten teenage girls to be HIV-positive. Their chances of contracting full-blown Aids, we know, are greatly increased by poverty.
”What is needed to address these insistent problems is not only the development of a sense of personal responsibility, but that the best people be placed in key positions.
”It is only by appointing those with the appropriate skills and experience that we can overcome the hurdles that continue to hold women back in South Africa,” Botha said.
DA leader Helen Zille, who usually writes the party’s weekly newsletter, leaves on Friday for a 10-day family reunion in Italy.
Chairperson Joe Seremane will be acting DA leader in her absence, Zille’s spokesperson said on Friday. — Sapa