RAMAPHOSA – MASTER OF THE LONG GAME

His cabinet choices show that the president will work at a slow but steady pace, writes Justice Malala on

President Cyril Ramaphosa made a bold move last week by announcing that 50% of his cabinet would be women. This is a step in the right direction, considering how this country is battling to deal with gender-based violence. A year ago the president, showing commitment to turning South Africa into a non-sexist society, which is free of women and child abuse, created a steering committee to focus on gender-based violence.

The move came a few months after an ANC member of parliament, Mduduzi Manana, appeared before a joint ethics sub-committee in parliament in July last year.

He resigned as a member of parliament after being convicted of three counts of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, all of them related to attacks on women.

A few months later Ramaphosa head-hunted an elite group of 30 individuals from across South Africa whose work it will be to reduce the incidence of violence against women throughout the country.

One of them was the Eastern Cape’s Lesley-Ann Foster.

Foster is the founder and director of East Londonbased Masimanyane Women’s Rights International.

Foster, along with the rest of the committee, have been assigned to shape and establish a national council on gender-based violence (GBV).

The inclusion of Foster on this committee was just the beginning of better things to come in giving a voice to victims of gender-based violence.

To firm up the state’s commitment to dealing with gender-based violence, the Daily Dispatch reported at the weekend that University of Fort Hare’s Prfessor Pumla Gqola was among a host of academics in the country chosen to tackle and find solutions to the scourge of sexual harassment and gender-based violence at universities. This is another welcome development.

She says part of the problem is that most universities have inadequate “tools” to deal with this matter and to create safe campuses.

Her comments confirm how deep-rooted the problem of gender-based violence is in our society.

We hope the move by President Ramaphosa and members of his cabinet to help root out this scourge is indeed the start of a new dawn in SA.

We hope the move by Ramaphosa to help root out this scourge is indeed the start of a new dawn in South Africa