Women in the new democracy
Women in Parliament. The opening of Parliament 2005. © GCIS
Soon after the election in 1994, the new Minister of Justice, Dullah Omar, proposed the idea of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The commission was set up in 1995 and statements were heard by more than 20 000 people, including women. No women applied for amnesty. In 1996 a new constitution (with provision for women's rights) was introduced and importantly for women, a Commission for Gender Equality was set up. The first 10 years of democracy have been remarkable in many ways but there are still a number of crucial challenges to be met.
The first female Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa
When Thabo Mbeki announced in 2005 that the newly appointed deputy president was to be Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, history was made. She became the first woman deputy president of South Africa. The appointment was certainly well-deserved. She is a woman who believes that women need not feel disadvantaged, or need to defer to men, simply because they are women. She has an impressive record not only of welfare work among her people but also as an educator, a campaigner for women's rights and a senior politician.
Phumzile Mlambo was born in Durban in 1955. She matriculated from Ohlange High School in Inanda and thereafter enrolled at the National University of Lesotho. After graduating in 1980, she taught in Natal until 1983. She is currently working towards an MA at the University of Cape Town.
When the Natal Organisation of Women (NOW), an affiliate of the UDF, was formed in December 1983, Phumzile became the organisation's first president and subsequently, when the UDF was restricted, NOW spearheaded some of the front's activities in Natal.
From 1984 she worked as a youth director for the World Young Mens' Christian Association (YMCA) Board in Geneva, where she was involved in the promotion of development education in Africa, Asia and Middle East. Between 1987 and 1989 she was the director of Team, a development organisation based in Cape Town and was involved in helping women in squatter camps and African independent churches. She helped to promote economic self-reliance and ran skills training programmes. In 1990, in a similar welfare capacity, she began working for the Cape Town-based World University Service South Africa (WUS) that supports organisations promoting literacy and rural development, and was involved in university outreach to marginal communities. In 1993 and 1994 Phumzile was management consultant at Phumelela Services in Cape Town, where she was responsible for promoting race and gender sensitive organisational development, general change management, restructuring of institutions and linking change with productivity.
On the 4 April 1996 she was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry and was promoted the cabinet as the Minister of Minerals and Energy in June 1999. In 2005, following the allegations made against Jacob Zuma, and his being instructed to stand down as Deputy President of South Africa, Phumzile was appointed in his place.
Phumzile is a prominent member of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) Select Committee and is the chairperson of Public Service Select Committee. She is also the deputy chairperson of the Western Cape ANC Provincial Executive Committee and on the board of Women's Development Foundation, of World University Services and of Just Exchange, a body that promotes locally made products to European Union (EU) countries.
She is married to Bulelani Ngcuka, the National Director of Public Prosecutions, a high-profile ANC figure who has on occasion been accused of abusing his power. Although he has been involved in controversy over the past few years, Ngcuka has been cleared of all the allegations of spying for the apartheid regime that were levelled against him. His wife has skilfully refrained from being drawn into the debate about her husband, and while supporting his career has consistently maintained that she is an ambitious and competent politician in her own right - which is in itself a statement on just how far women in South Africa have come since their restricted position at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Women in the ANC government: Ministers and Deputy Ministers 2006
South African women, across racial lines, have been the source of courage for the entire community in the struggle for democracy. President Thabo Mbeki stated categorically in his book of 2004: ‘No government in South Africa could ever claim to represent the will of the people if it failed to address the central task of emancipation of women in all its elements, and that includes the government we are privileged to lead'. The government's record in this regard is impeccable.
The number of women in official posts at all three levels of government is impressively high. This bears out the terms of the Women's Charter (see Appendix) that there will be no discrimination on the basis of sex. Currently women make up 33 percent of the cabinet. Women are also prominent in the diplomatic service. This is indeed a far cry far cry from the days under the minority white government when Helen Suzman stood alone as a woman in parliament.
Female ministers and deputy ministers at the beginning of 2006 are as follows:
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Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka: Deputy President and Minister of Minerals and Energy
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Naledi Pandor: Minister of Education
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Dr. Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang: Minister of Health
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Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi: Minister of Public Service and Administration
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Brigitte Mabandla: Minister of Housing
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Stella Sigcau: Minister of Public Works
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Angela Thoko Didiza: Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs
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Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula: Minister of Home Affairs
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Dr. Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma: Minister of Foreign Affairs
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Buyelwa Patience Sonjica: Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry
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Lindiwe Benedicta Hendricks: Minister of Minerals and Energy
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Ntombazana Gertrude Winifred Botha: Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture
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Cheryl Ellen Gilwad: Deputy Minister of Correctional Service
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Susan van der Merwe: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
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Lulama Xingwana: Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy
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Nomatyala Hangana: Deputy Minister of Provincial and Local Government
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Nozizwe Madlala- Routledge: Deputy Minister of Health
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Susan Shabangu: Deputy Minister of Safety and Security
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Elizabeth Thabethe: Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry
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Dr. Jean Benjamin : Deputy Minister of Social Development
South African women: The challenges ahead
HIV (Aids) protest at an Aids conference. Durban. 2000.
© Paul Weinberg, South Photographs, The Bigger Picture.
South African society remains a pluralist one with huge cultural diversities, and there are many challenges ahead. Furthermore, in modern-day South Africa women are faced with a wide range of issues such as the high crime rate, domestic violence, child abuse, HIV/AIDS, poverty, poor local government delivery and unemployment. Motherhood is still central to most women's lives across the board and women's role in family life is still the basis of a morally sound, orderly society. Although great strides have been made, gender discrimination still takes place in the workplace, and while there are notable exceptions, women are as yet poorly represented in top managerial and executive posts country-wide.
However, women have shaken off the shackles of the past and in their determined struggle against political oppression and gender inequality they have earned themselves a place in the sun in the new South Africa. As this piece is being written, in Jnauary 2006, there is the news that Africa's first female elected head of state, Ellen Johnson-Surleaf of Liberia, is about to take office in Monrovia. In this the 50 year commemoration of the Women's March of 1956 we celebrate the role that women have played in the making of modern South Africa and look towards their future role with confidence.
Related:
Naledi Pandor
Mamphela Ramphele
Outside link: Women in parliament
