President Jacob Zuma will on Sunday, 9 August 20915, release the first Government Report on the Status of Women in the South African economy as part of the national Women’s Day celebrations scheduled to take place in Sasolburg in the Free State province under theme: “Women United in Moving South Africa Forward”.
The report which has been compiled by the Ministry in the Presidency responsible for Women serves as a baseline document for the work to promote the socio-economic empowerment of women and gender equality, and to advance their human rights.
President Zuma said there was no doubt that great strides have been made since 1994 to improve the status of women hence during the 59th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s march, South Africa would be celebrating women achievers and progress on women empowerment in the past two decades.
“However, our assessment of the past 20 years is that notwithstanding the plethora of progressive legislation, women have not advanced as rapidly in terms of socioeconomic empowerment and gender equality as we would wish, and they remain the hardest hit by inequality, poverty and unemployment, while they are often anchors in their families.
“This assessment led me, after the 2014 general elections, to reconfigure the government departments and I established, amongst others, the portfolio of Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women to focus on the promotion of women’s socioeconomic empowerment and the advancement of gender equality,” the President said.
The President said the much anticipated report will provide a step towards building a reliable knowledge base and a disaggregated data that will inform women’s socio-economic empowerment and build a non-racial and non-sexist society where women play a central role in building the economy and a strong nation.
President Zuma has further called on all South Africans particularly business sector and civil society to put more effort to radically advancing the struggle for women emancipation in all sectors of the society.
During the Month of August, a number of activities aimed at creating awareness and promoting understanding of women issues will be held throughout the country. The following websites will be updated with information on the activities taking place during Women’s Month: www.gov.za; www.gcis.gov.za; and www.women.gov.za
The national celebration in Sasolburg will be begin with a symbolic march aimed at reliving the experience of 1956 Women’s March against the Pass Laws and will be followed by an official programme where President Zuma will release the report.
The event will take place as follows:
Date: Sunday, 9 August 2015
Time: 8h00
Venue: Harry Gwala Multipurpose Centre in Sasolburg, Free State
For accreditation member of the media are requested to contact Patience Mogomotsi on 071 680 6709 PatienceMo@dac.gov.za or Sixolisa Gcilishe on 082 429 1923 Sixolisa.Gcilishe@Women.gov.za or Ishmael Selemale on 061 790 5114 ishmael@gcis.gov.za
Enquiries:
Bongani Majola
Cell: 082 339 1993
E-mail: bonganim@presidency.gov.za
