Women’s Day: time to look at good, bad

ON AUGUST 9, South Africans will once again celebrate the annual National Women’s Day.

During August, many groups will highlight and raise awareness of the plight of women living in desperate poverty and women who are subjected to violence and abuse.

With 124,526 rape cases reported in the last three financial years (with children the victims of 41% of these cases) and violence and abuse by intimate partners, relatives or strangers being commonplace, the vulnerability of women in SA is being increasingly amplified.

We need to take action to ensure that women are empowered to such an extent that they are able to walk out of abusive relationships.

We need to take action in ensuring that women achieve economic independence and that they are respected in their own right. We need to ensure that domestic violence no longer remains “a dark secret of shame” and that those affected by it can find a way out. Crime hampers and affects all the people of our country, regardless of gender, and conquering this spectre which has, over the past years, managed to gain a terrifying foothold in South African lives, can only benefit our women.

Let us not, as this day approaches, only focus on that which negatively affects the lives of women. Let us also take time to celebrate that which is amazing about South African women – their tenacity, their kindness, their strength and their prowess.

The examples of Komani women who have flourished and reached great heights abound. We can take pride in those we nurtured on home ground and work actively to encourage and embolden the next generation of women.

National Women’s Day should take on many forms – highlighting that which needs to be addressed and focusing on that which needs to be celebrated. Our women deserve nothing less.