The following speech was delivered by Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, the Western Cape MEC of Health, at the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Woman’s Empowerment Symposium. The symposium’s theme is “Our Stories.”
Giving women a stronger voice
A good morning to you all.
The protest of 9 August 1956 was an inspiring display of female unity and strength across all colour lines. On this day, ordinary, everyday women marched because they had a vision; a shared dream.
They dreamt of a nation that would advance and preserve the rights of all its people and ensure that each and every one of us would be given the opportunity become our best possible selves. As we continue to celebrate women’s month, their example of courage and commitment invites us all to apply the same kind of courage in our own daily lives.
It has been 60 years since that iconic march. Today, we continue to strive towards the achievement of their ideal – one that remains beyond reach of many South Africans. Unfortunately, our nation’s legacy of oppression, exclusion and discrimination has left many subjected to social and economic inequality.
The worst of this inequality is carried most by women, particularly those occupying the previously disadvantaged fringes of our society. Women throughout the country not only have to contend with the collective socio – economic hangover of apartheid but also the need to grapple with a society that is still deeply ruled by patriarchal norms and notions.
We live in a world where we are told in a million different ways, that this is a man’s world. This is how to be a ‘good’ woman. This is what to expect as a woman. These ideas and notions serve to inform how we tell stories about women and become serve to form simplistic narratives about women and womanhood.
Narratives, particularly dominant ones are important. They serve to shape collective understandings and inform our responses to the world around us. That is why stories about women, increasingly need to be told by women. Without doing so, we can never capture the totality and complexity of what it means to be women in modern South Africa.
So, today, we are all here to begin telling our stories. To begin shaping narratives about women. Allow me to start us off by telling you a little bit of my own story. It is not so different to that of many young South Africa women growing up today.
Mine was a humble upbringing in Mdantsane, a township near East London in the Eastern Cape. Where I grew up, the touch of poverty and structural disadvantage coloured every aspect of our lives. Youth had little else to do but to fill local shebeens; cases of teenage pregnancy were on the rise; and virtually no opportunities existed for most young people in the area.
Few to none of my peers dared to believe they could graduate beyond their circumstances and begin to undo the shackles of poor education and subsequent unemployment visited upon them. When I voiced my dream of attending medical school, most people thought I should get my head examined rather than support, what was then, a pipe-dream.
I won’t bore you with all the little details, but the road to get to where I am today certainly had more than its share of ups and downs. When, to no few people’s surprise, I couldn’t find funding for my studies, I became a domestic worker. Thankfully, this was a short-lived experience.
I vividly recall the altercations I would often have with ‘Madam’’ in her suburban home where she would argue I behaved like ‘I didn’t belong in the kitchen’. Of course, she was right!
I would later become a tea lady – which was a more welcome improvement from my previous job. At least as a tea lady I was afforded the chance to wear my own clothes and not the pink uniform which I had started to associate with my career’s stagnation in the ‘Madam’s’ house.
Everywhere I would turn it would seem that there were structural obstacles which were excluding me attaining my objective - not only for me and my family - but also for my community.
My family needed a success story.
The young people in this community were in dire need for a success story to breathe life into their own dreams. I was happy be the example. Had I let where I come from define the totality of whom I might become, I would not be standing here today.
Now, I don’t mean to simply pour out the details of my life merely for the sake of it. I mean to illustrate the importance of sharing our life experiences and stories with others.
Where I grew up, only one story could be told of the people in our community. I was fortunate to break the mould and in so doing and the break long held notions about in my community in the hopes that someday, someone might be inspired to do the same.
After all, telling stories, exchanging ideas, is not a mere end in and of itself. The act of storytelling can be both a cathartic, reflective and informative exercise. In sharing our experiences we release ourselves from them, allow ourselves the opportunity to evolve and grow beyond them.
In exchanging stories about our experiences we also have the chance to transform ourselves and others through the exchange of ideas and knowledge. In so doing, we shape the world around us by broadening the perspective of others and ourselves.
All in all, we gain a better understanding of ourselves and are better equipped to tackle the world before us.
The theme for this symposium is thus an important one.
Today, we’re here to share our stories. We are here to share our experiences as women, mothers, daughters, leaders, health professionals and the remainder of all the different roles we hold in our day to day lives.
We are here to grow together. I hope that each of you gathered here today will embrace this opportunity, learn from each other and use that knowledge to the benefit of others back in your work places and communities. All, if not most of you us, gathered here today are in the business of saving lives through the work we do.
Yes, all of you, from the person manning the phone at the emergency call centre to the paramedic driving up and down streets within communities to provide health care. For EMS workers especially, unlike other health professionals working inside facilities, you have to find yourselves face to face with the hardships visited on patients and communities.
In a crisis, you are the first port of call and often the first moment of hope for our patients and their loved ones. That is a special role and calling.
The work you do makes an indelible difference to not only the patients you treat directly but also the countless families, friends and communities who rely on you to play your part in getting their loved ones well again.
I want to thank you for that. But, like I said earlier, working in the very heart of communities is also not without its own share of negative experiences to which you are exposed to. I am also acutely aware of the personal and safety risks to take every time you go attend to call to a patient.
I want you all to know that we are hard at work placing the safety of our EMS workers and, our staff in general, on the tongues and agenda of government, professional bodies, organized labour, political and civic leaders, the media and communities. I believe that we all have a role to play to protect you all and our health services in general.
This is what we committed to when we launched Operation Khuseleka last week. Violence and ill treatment directed at health care staff must become a thing of the past. The past Friday, I attended my first Provincial Policing Needs and Priorities meeting held by the Department of Community Safety in Khayelitsha.
The meeting brings together community leaders, representatives from the South African Police Services (SAPS), community groups and civic organisations so as to discuss the policing needs of communities, and ultimately, the province.
First on the agenda was the safety of health staff. A number of other extensive engagements a planned to go ahead so that we may tackle this problem head on, together.
It is time for the whole society to realize that the safety of communities is inextricably linked to the safety of health workers. Whether it is attacks against EMS workers, who often work at unsafe hours, or whether it involves some other ill treatment, we must unite to protect our health services.
In the current climate, I am sure this likely to come up and rightfully so. It continues to be a major priority for the Department and we are tackling it head on.
With that, I once again wish you all a happy and productive two days.
Enquiries:
Luyanda Mfeka
Spokesperson to the Western Cape MEC of Health, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo
Cell: 076 171 5978
Tel: 021 483 5862
Email: luyanda.mfeka@westerncape.gov.za
