Giving Women, Youth And People With Disabilities Their Dignity

The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite NkoanaMashabane, wants the advancement of women to continue to be a priority in government’s service delivery programmes.

She said in order to improve service delivery, the country must pay the utmost attention to women’s issues because improving the lives of women would benefit all of society. The advancement of women is often interrelated with the betterment of a community, she emphasised.

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane wants her department to lead the championing of women and said this will be done through existing government programmes and the planned reintroduction of the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill.

In her recent Budget Speech, she said the bill, which lapsed in the previous administration, had been praised by the committee of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for its potential to reverse the impact of patriarchy in communities.

In addition to resuscitating this bill, the minister said her department will enforce the Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting Framework approved by Cabinet in March this year.

She said in doing so, the department would ensure that 30 percent of government procurement is dedicated to women, youth and persons with disabilities.

“In discussion with the AuditorGeneral (AG), we will request that these are part of the audit outcomes, so that when the AG audits all spheres of government, they are audited on gender equality and economic empowerment of women, youth and persons with disabilities. We will annually report on the performance of government and the private sector on economic transformation and gender equality, which is a Constitutional mandate.”

She said gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting are ways to ensure that departmental programmes allocate sufficient budget to women.