At least 15 women hold senior municipal positions

LOBAMBA – The target to increase the number of women holding senior positions in local government is promising; with at least 15 women occupying these positions.

Eswatini had a total of 12 women occupying local government leadership positions.

This has been made possible through the Jo Cox Project Summit, which was implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, in partnership with the Eswatini Local Government Association, CLGF and Gender Links, through funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), represented by the British High Commission in Eswatini.

The project is expected to increase the participation of women in local politics and economic development in four countries in Southern Africa; Eswatini, Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) Project Manager Colisile Tfwala said the project had three main targeted results in the country.

Increasing

These included increasing the number of women holding senior positions in local government by 15 per cent.

Another objective was increasing the number of young women aspiring to be counsellors against the baseline and increasing the individual monthly incomes of women entrepreneurs.

According to Tfwala, when the project started, the country had 12 women in local government leadership positions as mayors, deputy mayors, finance chairpersons, ELGA presidential committee and also town clerk.

“Our target was to at least get to 14 women in leadership positions and after the internal elections last year, we actually had 15,” she said.

Tfwala said currently, there were three women mayors, three deputy mayors, four finance chairpersons, two ELGA presidential committee members and three town clerks.

Furthermore, Tfwala said there were 27 members of the Young Women in Local Government (YWLG) who indicated that they were interested in participating in elections after the project.

She added that the only target that they were not able to achieve was the increasing of incomes of Women in Local Economic Development (WLED) by 30 per cent. This, she said, was with good reason due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began right after they collected their baseline information.

As a matter of fact, she said the incomes instead went down by 28 per cent.

Tfwala noted that COVID-19 affected the administration of some of the activities that were done under the project.

These activities, Tfwala said, were those that required face-toface interaction through platforms such as the Young Women in Local Government mentorship and meetings.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane, who was represented by Principal Secretary Clifford Mamba, commended the British Government for the support with the Jo Cox project which was launched about two years ago.

The minister said the project had gone a long away in supporting women in realising their potential both in business and in politics.

“We are grateful that the project also focused on the female youth,” said the minister.

He said what was exciting was the fact that young females were encouraged to participate in the local government elections.

This, he said, would boost development within local government as the youth played a very critical role.

(Pics: Sithembile Hlatshwayo) As part of increasing individual monthly incomes for women entrepreneurs, the Commonwealth Local Government Forum awarded E10 000 to five women who participated in the Women in Local Economic Development (WLED) programme. They will use the money to advance their businesses. Posing with the women is Colisile Tfwala (C), the CLGF Project Officer.

Some of the participants following proceedings during the Eswatini Jo Cox Project Summit which was held at Happy Valley Hotel yesterday. (R) Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Clifford Mamba, who was representing the Minister, Prince Simelane.