Orlando Chauke
LIMPOPO – “The issue of women empowerment is central to our plans to redress the past mistakes by way of providing equal opportunities and programmes which favour women in our municipality.”
This was according to Greater Giyani mayor, Pat Hlungwani, during a Women’s Month event held at Jim-Nghalalume village recently.
He said the municipality has achieved a lot in terms of addressing gender equality in the workplace. He said the municipality has a gender office that oversees matters related to gender such as men’s and women’s forums, therefore it was at an advanced stage when it comes to women empowerment.
“As we speak, our ANC councillor representation is 50/50. On top of that, we have women’s forums, which not only deal with issues that concern women, but also oversee the issues related to gender equality,” he said, adding that the number of women employed by employee wellness programmes was another example that the municipality believed in women empowerment.
The mayor also indicated that despite the gains that democracy in South Africa has achieved so far, women were still under oppression in the form of abuse by men. “As we mark 59 years since the 1956 women’s march to the Union Buildings to protest against the pass laws which restricted their freedom of movement, it is with regret that we still have women who are being abused by their partners,” he said.
“We therefore condemn any form of abuse meted out on women by men, whether at the workplace or at home,” he said, urging men to respect women’s rights and treat them well at all times in order to help build a better society.
Vongani Chauke, who represents a gender forum in Giyani, said the abuse of women occurs in many ways, some which are ignored until it is too late to act. “It may be through financial starvation, sexually, verbally or physical beatings that end up with him apologising to you, but the fact is that he will never change until you take an action that will force him to,” she said.
She urged women to report any form of abuse at the early stages rather than dwell on false hopes that the perpetrator would change for the better. “In some cases people end up killing each other because of tolerating abuse for far too long with the hope that the perpetrator will change,” she said.
