The non-existent department Bathabile Dlamini will head

The department of women, which got a new political boss in the form of Bathabile Dlamini last night, is not a delivery department but an advocacy initiative, according to its communications boss, Shavana Mushwana.

The most effective approach to ascertain the work done by departments before contacting employees in the department is by checking their websites, where information such as annual reports, policy documents and key milestones can be found.

Below is the information you find when you visit www.women.gov.za, which is to say, nothing useful.

The department, whose ministerial offices are located in the East Wing of the Union Buildings, according to the Government and Communication Information Services (GCIS), was previously headed by anti-apartheid activist Jenny Schreiner as director-general.

Schreiner famously smuggled a letter out of Parow Police Station in 1987 after she was arrested in her Wynberg flat.

The minister was Susan Shabangu, who has been reshuffled to social development, Dlamini’s former gig.

Mushwana explained that at the moment Dr Clarence Tshitereke, a former head of the Old Mutual Foundation and director in the office of thr University of Venda vice-chancellor, is the acting director-general. Dlamini and Tshitereke will oversee a department that Mushwana defined as primarily tasked with “socioeconomic empowerment of women”.

“The department is not a service delivery department, we are more of an advocacy unit. We have got various programmes in the department, one of which is making sure that there is gender-responsive budgeting across all the departments.

RELATED: Throwback Thursday: Bathabile Dlamini prepares us for ‘smallanyana skeletons’

“The aim is to make sure that whatever programmes, budgeting and related services that every department is tasked with takes into account the emancipation of women. You might well understand that some of these things take time because of the legislative environment; they need to be legislated and pioneered, it is still a new department,” said Mushwana.

Previously known as the department of women, children and people with disabilities, it was reconfigured in 2014 to become a department for women’s affairs exclusively. Mushwana said part of their mandate included “negotiating with other departments”, as the department itself was not expected to deliver any services to the public.

Mushwana cited “an initiative called sanitary dignity” as one of the key achievements of the department. He said the initiative, currently “still being refined and going through the legislative process”, will ultimately assist women and young girls who cannot afford sanitary pads. He added the department would make sure that the sanitaryware was supplied by black, female and rural-based suppliers.