The Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill seeks to usher a new era
There is unanimous consensus among various interest groups that South Africa as a country has done well to repeal repressive laws and replace them with legislation that is reflective of the democratic society we have become post 1994.
The law reform processes undertaken over the past nineteen years resulted in the production of an unprecedented body of laws that lay the foundation for the transformation of our society.
As a result, we have seen during post 1994, how the principle of ‘gender equality’ has influenced policy formulation in many aspects of life, including economic and development-related areas. For example we have more than 40 pieces of legislation pertaining to women empowerment.
Government has taken the lead by making significant progress in promoting women empowerment and representation in key decision-making structures. Women are now actively involved in the decision making structures of society and in government: 44% in Parliament, 42% in Cabinet and 38.4% in local government. This includes progress towards achieving the 50/50 parity.
However, it is a known fact that despite the extensive and unprecedented legal framework on the empowerment of women and promotion of equality, women still live in abject poverty. The gendered nature of poverty results in women being continually subjected to abuse, hence the continued violence against women.
As a result of the failure of the current legislative framework to promote women’s economic empowerment and access to justice, women have advocated for the development of a law that will facilitate implementation of existing legislation to meet their needs.
It is in the light of this stark reality that the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities is advocating for the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill also referred to as the WEGE Bill.
The Bill which is currently undergoing a public participation process affirms the commitments to the promotion of gender equality and prohibition of discrimination on the basis of gender as provided for in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution and the International Instruments that South Africa has signed and ratified, such as CEDAW, the MDGs, Beijing Platform for Action, the AU Protocol, the SADC Gender Protocol.
It will help us in our quest to continue to influence policy positions and government programmes to reflect the imperatives of gender equality and women empowerment. Furthermore, the Bill will assist to accelerate the mainstreaming of gender in policies and programmes across the public and private sector.
The WEGE Bill is still going through a parliamentary public participation process and once the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities is done with its deliberations it will send the Bill to the National Council of Provinces where further consultations are expected to take place at grass roots level across all provinces.
This is to afford various stakeholders to make valuable inputs so that ultimately we can have a Bill that is going to move us forward when it comes to women empowerment and gender equality. For a long time poverty wore a feminine face, it stops here.
Once enacted, the WEGE Bill will become a powerful instrument to advance the objectives of gender equality and women empowerment and enforce compliance on the empowerment of women on the existing legislative framework both within and outside the public service.
