About 300 widowed women from all provinces converged in a widow’s summit today in Polokwane, to officially launch the National Widows Forum and the Widows South Africa Dialogue. The launch also commemorated the newly declared International Widows Day, which falls on 23 July.
“Our spouses left us with responsibilities, one of which is that we are now managers of our families,” said Meriam Sekole of Limpopo. The gathering was organised by the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities.
“Life is difficult for us widows because our families always turn against us when husbands die, we need to be strong enough to overcome this challenge” said Khethiwe Dlamini, KwaZulu-Natal president of Widowed Women South Africa. “Our key responsibility is to take care of our children, we must take care of our children,” – Sekole said.
The forum’s discussion aimed at coming up with support systems and advices for widows to raise their children alone and manage the finances that have been left behind by their deceased husbands.
The forum also discussed difficulties that unemployed widows face when they deal with the banks regarding their deceased husbands’ finances. Traditionally, government had implemented programmes that sought to address women in business; rural women development and gender equality.
However, in recent years, the current government administration resolved to give special attention to widowed women and single mothers – a sector that had previously been neglected and not thought about. Widows have added significant social responsibility to government’s service delivery programme, hence the decision by government to open platform for widowed women to form themselves into an organised sector, so that this can become an official channel that government liaises with a recognised association that represents the interests and concerns of government.
The newly launched National Widows Forum is planning to enter into partnerships with Childlife and Save the Children, which are non-governmental organisations that protect the interests and rights of children, and promote their responsibilities.
The Limpopo Department of Rural Development and Land Reform supported the launched and encouraged unemployed widows to form cooperatives and be involved in the rural women development programmes that the provincial government is currently running.
The widows came from Mafikeng, Pietermaritzburg, Mankweng, Sekhukhune, Lebowakgomo, Mbombela, Mangaung and various places in other provinces. The women expressed concerns about harmful traditional practices that widows in rural areas are subjected to, “In the Eastern Cape we are still having difficulties dealing with the traditional practice of Ukungenwa,” said a woman from the Eastern Cape delegation.
Ukungenwa is a common practice of a woman being taken as a wife against her will by her husband’s unmarried brother or cousin when the husband passes away. “We have created a support forum for widowed women to share experiences, create awareness on laws and policies that protect them, such as estate management and economic empowerment,” said Phuti Mabelebele, spokesperson for the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities.
