KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Finance, Ms Ina Cronjé in partnership with Ilembe district municipality empowered hundreds of socially challenged women with financial literacy and engaged them on socio-economic issues, in a gathering to educate and to enlighten elderly women, widows and women with disabilities of this district at Glandale sports field today.
The Provincial Treasury decided to take its Financial Literacy campaign to this target group as part of the Women’s Month initiatives in order to offer them with skills that will empower them. The department in partnership with Ilembe district municipality are in a bid to recognise this group, empower them and to honour their contribution to the country's economic and social development.
Addressing hundreds of women who attended this historic gathering Cronjé said that, “it is no secret that in most developing nations’ women work well beyond the normal retirement age and they remain the poorest of the poor all their lives, which makes it crucial for us to include this specific group in our financial literacy campaign which aims to educate the citizens of this province on how to run their finances and to intensify the culture of saving”.
“Most women here are from the rural areas and it goes without saying that negative conditions in rural areas have a greater adverse effect on women than citizens working in the cities and elsewhere. Women are more affected by unrewarding seasonal work. The circumstances of women are not often helped by traditional views on women's roles” said Cronjé.
“This government prioritised rural development and a critical part of the rural development strategy is to stimulate agricultural production with a view to contributing to food security. We have already launched One Home One Garden programme in this province which is in line with this initiative,” continued Cronjé.
People were encouraged to save money and to avoid credit at all cost. “Stokvels are good initiatives to save money if they are done with right partners. Co-operations are also good for upcoming business people but you must choose your partners carefully because you can easily fail if done with people who want to be rich in a day not ready to work as a team,” advised Cronjé.
Elderly women were encouraged to participate on Masifundisane adult campaign so that they can always empower themselves with knowledge through education. They were also encouraged to choose healthy life style and were cautioned about H1N1. Those who had identity document problems were assisted on site; mobile clinic was also on site for eye and other diseases testing. They were also informed about programmes that they can partake in and have business opportunity with the government. Agencies including the Justice Department advised the women on issues relating to estates, maintenance and legal advice.
For more information contact:
Musa Cebisa
Cell: 071 687 8777
Issued by: Department of Treasury, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
27 August 2009
