The parliamentary public consultations on the review of the 1994 Women’s Charter moved to the Free State this week. That makes Free State as the third province to be consulted after the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces.
The consultations which are held via video conferencing technology due to the Covid-19 ban on physical gatherings, will be conducted in all the provinces to gather information that will improve the Women’s Charter for the purposes of meeting the objectives of women empowerment.
Today’s session focused on women in the Free State Province’s Mangaung District and the session was Co-Chaired by the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli and the Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Ms Sylvia Lucas.
Mr Tsenoli said the consultations aim to evaluate progress made in the implementation of the objectives of the Women’s Charter and other related policies and legislation that seeks to empower women in South Africa.
“We want to ensure that all forms of discrimination of the past are dealt with and the aim of this consultation is to evaluate progress and reflect whether it was as a result of the law or its Implementation, or institutions or the budgeting processes,” said Mr Tsenoli.
He added that the fight against discrimination must also include the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (or queer), because “nobody must be discriminated upon in terms of gender however they call themselves.”
Ms Martha Selaledi, a participant in the consultation, raised a concern over the lack of gender budgeting and mainstreaming in municipalities. “Our municipal budgets do not accommodate gender issues and there is a need to do something about that and it must be done urgently as the situation is disheartening and worsened by Covid-19,” she said.
The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) committed itself to availing its services to assist the municipalities to comply with the legislation on gender transformation.
Mr Tsenoli acknowledged the inputs and comments from the participants that covered a whole range of issues regarding the lives of women and added that some do not have to wait for the finalisation of the consultation process before they could be followed up.
“Some of the things that are raised here don’t have to wait for the report to be put together, there are action steps we can take, there is an opportunity to interact with the municipality and workout a programme. The aim is not just to amend documentation, we want to take practical action from the proposals raised in this process”, Mr Tsenoli said.
The Mangaung District consultation marked the final session for this term, the next review sessions will start in August.
By Sakhile Mkoena
12 June 2020
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