Councillor’s gender workshop walkout slated

ACDP Mossel Bay councillor Jeanette Gouws, has been accused of intolerance after she left a virtual gender mainstreaming workshop, saying she “did not agree” with what was being talked about.

According to Gouws, the workshop that was presented to councillors by the Western Cape government recently was a “waste of taxpayers' money”.

“Naming a workshop as Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Equality is not only disingenuous but also an oxymoron.

“How are you promoting equality for women in the workplace when any biological male can ‘identify' as female and usurp the role of biological women?

“What then is the purpose of setting gender equity targets if this can be circumvented by the use of delusional gender ideology?” Gouws said.

“According to the presenter, gender is a choice that is influenced by societal expectations and parental influence.

“The ACDP strongly objects to the promotion of this delusional and abusive critical theory and distances ourselves entirely from the unscientific approach to sex and gender.

“We object strongly to the use of taxpayer money to promote an ideology that is at its core anti-science, anti-family and anti-Christian.

“This DA driven agenda undermines the values of most of the electorate, who entrusted them with their vote,” she said.

But DA finance chairperson for the East Region, Dirk Kotze, said Gouws chose to do her constituency a disservice, by pre-emptively jumping to conclusions concerning the content of the workshop.

“Councillor Gouws chose to leave the virtual meeting even before the end of the introductions.

“A very strong argument can therefore be made that councillor Gouws was in dereliction of her duties.

“Her diatribe was therefore based on her preconceived ideas and the gender intolerances of the ACDP.

“Had she applied her mind objectively or engaged with the facilitators, she may have realised that Gender Mainstreaming is legislated as a process of integrating all individuals.

“It is therefore essential to comply, enable and promote equality between sexes, also within the Mossel Bay Municipality,” he said.

UWC political analyst, Keith Gottschalk, said the Western Cape Provincial workshop appears to have been about mainstreaming LGBTQIA+ persons.

“The ACDP represents a Christian fundamentalism that is anti-gay. This workshop appears to be following Section 9 of our Bill of Rights and Constitution, which is accepted by both the DA and ANC,” he said.

Sisonke Gender Justice slammed the ACDP for being “ignorant”.

“These are fundamental matters embedded in our Constitution.

“To relegate the City's leadership on such a crucial matter can only display the ignorance of the ACDP on this important matter in our society,” it said.