Ramaphosa woos businesswomen with firm promises

President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to dedicate his presidency to women empowerment and urged SA women to participate in the global economy by trading with other countries.

Speaking at the Business Women’s Association of South Africa Presidential Dialogue held in Johannesburg yesterday, he asked businesswomen to accompany him on international economic forum trips to oversee the signing of trade deals between countries.

The trips would give an opportunity for businesswomen to create networks that would allow them to participate in the global trade markets, he said.

“It is important for the government to implement policies and structures that would assist women in participating in the economy. I am irrevocably committed to the empowerment of women and as a country we need to support them. I can safely say I will dedicate my presidency to the empowerment of women. My objective is to see more women succeed. We want to remove obstacles that keeps them away from success.”

One of his priorities was the safety of women. “Women must be protected and not live in a country that is at war with them.”

He said he was prepared to do anything and everything in the fight to address pressing issues faced by women.

He urged women to take the constitution and use it in the fight against gender-based violence and all kinds of abuse.

“We have set up quite a number of ways to tackle women related issues. First, we have set up the budget to be gender sensitive, to focus on how we can help and facilitate women empowerment. We are going to have a clear women led business empowerment mandate and discriminate in favour of women,” Ramaphosa said.

He called upon the private sector to support businesses owned by women because women were more innovative, productive and had distinctive profit growth.

As an incoming African Union chair he would be glad to see women getting involved in manufacturing, taking advantage of opportunities to be created by the newly established African Continental Free Trade Area.

Turning his focus on gender-based violence he mandated his governance to take the safety of women seriously.

“We are a country that has seemingly declared war against women. We need to enhance the safety of women and create a system that will ensure that they are taken care of.

“We have to train our police officers to have the ability to deal with sensitive issues and to equip better our Thuthuzela centres to be able to facilitate women who have been abused.”

Businesswomen raised the issue of non-payment by government to services rendered, which they said was destroying their businesses.

Ramaphosa acknowledged the continuous issue of non-payments to businesses was a difficult one to pin down. He said he was in the process to develop a way to systematically solve the problem effectively.

Women also raised issues of the lack of prosecution of some state-owned enterprise executives in sexual harassment cases and them getting away with it through playing political games.

Basetsana Kumalo, former president of the Business Women Association of SA, called upon the president to send women in spheres where they could grow the economy of the country and redefine their roles.

She said the president needed to create a safer country for women.

“I want to wake up to a South Africa where gender is not a boundary for success, where woman can fully participate in economic spheres. We want women-owned enterprises prioritised in the public procurement of goods and services so that the decentralisation of the economy is realised,” Kumalo said.

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