Women’s power to effect change
WOMEN have always played a transformative role in society, and the role of women in birthing new eras cannot be ignored or underestimated.
Women’s Month is no longer just a month of commemorative activities in winsome remembrance of the 20 000 women who, in 1956, marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, to petition against the country’s pass laws.
Women’s Month is now a context for great contemplation. Today, women have been forced to carry their bodies, and actually their dignity, as a pass – rape and violence against women continue to separate women from their constitutional right to freedom and safety.
Women’ s career movements, especially upward movements, are limited by an invisible male-biased glass ceiling in the private as well as the public sector – and millions of women continue to be imprisoned by the shame that comes from the abuse by males in society.
Women have had a lot to deal with, and fight for, still. Despite this, I believe women today have the power to effect change in our society and reclaim certain spaces for themselves.
Since Monday, August 13, I have been on a tour, inspecting the city’s swimming pools and recreational facilities with the aim of ensuring that the requisite repairs and maintenance are carried out in compliance with occupational health standards, as well as to ensure residents have a positive experience when they visit our centres.
What I have found has been discouraging – escalating incidents of neglect and a lack of pride in these facilities were common.
These facilities are meant to assist in addressing social ills but have been neglected by community members, are vandalised, and have increasingly become dumping sites.
Our recreational facilities, such as community halls, stadiums, parks and swimming pools, are there to facilitate nation-building as well as give residents, especially those in poor and marginalised communities, access to facilities that were formerly the privilege of a minority. It is thus important that we take care of these facilities as a collective, but especially as women, because women in poor communities continue to bear the brunt of child-rearing.
Our youth will have a place to relax and enjoy themselves during the holidays if we ensure that our community facilities are fully functional and cared for. By reporting illegal dumping to the police, by ensuring the surroundings around schools are clean, I believe women can set the tone of the society in which they’d like to live, spatially.
There is a lot to be done to address the atrocities committed against women in our communities, and I am in no way belittling that, but I believe women can lead the change they want to see by ensuring that their physical environments reflect cleanliness, which enables safety for all. Cllr Nonhlanhla Sifumba MMC for Community Development, City of Johannesburg