In-Depth – #Elections2019

With the national elections taking place next month, we investigate if political parties truly care about addressing gender inequality

Held up high on placards, written boldly on bodies, worn unabashedly on clothing, the slogans carried the impassioned pleas of women. From statements of: #mybodynotyourcrimescene to conversation starters such as ‘We are human and not rocks. If you strike me I will bleed’, the #TotalShutDown saw women and men take a stand against gender-based violence. On 1 August 2018, a Memorandum of 24 Demands was presented to Government. Addressing Parliament, the Supreme Court of Appeal and other provincial and regional structures, it listed action steps; with stipulated deadlines to deal with gender-based violence. This collection of requirements was made with the intention of making the country safer for women, children and gender non-conforming people.

In response, President Cyril Ramaphosa held a Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide on 1-2 November 2018. Reminiscent of the 1956 Women’s March, the #TotalShutdown demanded the attention of political leadership to hear and respond in clear marked ways. However, unlike the apartheid era protest against passbooks, the more recent march featured a range of issues and frustrations that cannot be corrected through overturning any one law.

GATHERING IN THE FORCES

Every five years, political parties go into a mad scramble to make sure their achievements are highlighted and promises promoted widely. National elections are their opportunity to grow their voter base; and consequently, power in the country. So, they write and share election manifestos, that have become an acceptable vehicle to speak to a potential electorate. Because of the gravity with which parties treat their manifestos, the documents have also become a really interesting way to assess if and how parties are responding to the issues of that time.

Comparing the 2014 and 2019 manifestos of the ANC, reveals a marked difference in the language and rhetoric around women. In the 2014 manifesto, the ruling party headlines their paragraph covering this topic, with a very positive tone: “20 Years of Championing the Struggle for Gender Equality”. Subsequent sentences celebrate achievements such as that “Institutional mechanisms have been established to protect women’s rights and dignity. Progress in meeting basic needs such as housing and access to water has especially benefited women, redressing past inequalities. Women continue to benefit from economic empowerment programmes and they are the major recipients of social security programmes.” The positive performance review continues on the topic of violence: “We have continued to confront the challenge of violence against women and children and prioritise it in our strategies directed at creating a safe and secure society.”

Fast forward just five years, and the approach is very different in this year’s manifesto. Instead of a paragraph, a whole page is dedicated to the topic of women and violence; and the very topical phrase of ‘Gender-Based Violence’ is the simple headline. In the opening letter, President Ramaphosa gives a sobering acknowledgment of the scourge. “Genderbased violence has reached crisis proportions and drugs, violent crimes and gangsterism are wreaking havoc in many communities,” he said.

Opposition party EFF delivered its first election manifesto ahead of the 2014 polls and has replicated the conversation on women. Both manifestos have a section dedicated to addressing the challenges faced by South Africa’s female population. In fact, they both have this exact opening paragraph: “Women have suffered most from the neo-liberal reality of the past 20 years. The vicious circle of triple oppression has not been broken for black women in particular, who continue to be discriminated against on the basis of race, class and gender. The EFF recognises that while patriarchy and sexism is pervasive in our society, it is black women who suffer the most from gender-based violence.”

When it comes their policy documents, it seems political parties may know the right words and declarations to make. But are the declarations and promises bringing the hoped-for change?

RAISING MORE HANDS

For entrepreneur, public speaker and facilitator, Nizenande Machi, the shortfall between promise and reality is marked. As founder and managing director of Karani Leadership, she’s faced a gender-specific dynamic of being constantly belittled. “Female entrepreneurs are often positioned as lacking, as recipients of programmes and not financial investment, as apprentices on a journey of constant grooming,” she says. Policies, programmes and projects may be in place to support women entrepreneurs, but the narratives are so often male-dominated that they break down the very subjects they’re trying to build.

Born before democracy, Machi has found that, in adulthood, her personal politics have become more established. And when she votes, the fact that she’s a woman weighs prominently. “I am fighting to centre the woman agenda in both public and private spaces – it emerges as quite a revolutionary, but necessary act – to change the political story from ‘history’ to ‘herstory’,” she adds.

When we head to the polls next month, Machi says her gender will heavily determine which party she supports. “Simply put, it’s baked into it. It’s the flour for the dough, not the cream for the icing. My political discourse now is centred around asking what’s this individual organisation doing to remove women from the periphery and into the centre of change, empowerment and freedom…on women’s terms.”

What’s this individual organisation doing to remove women from the periphery and into the centre of empowerment and freedom?

While men are important allies in the move to champion the female agenda, it’s important to have women in leadership positions who can instinctively push it forward. Once one of the top women in government, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, recently spoke at a #MeToo, Now What? event in New York, where she shared how holding a leadership position enabled her to work towards gender equity. “In my previous career, before coming to the UN, I was Deputy Minister of Trade in South Africa. I became a Minister of Mines and Energy. I became a Deputy President. There, I had to affirm the authority of women and demonstrate that when women do have power they exercise it. It was important for me to demonstrate that actually every issue is a woman’s issue. Energy is a woman’s issue. The mining industry in South Africa is a woman’s issue. And being a Deputy President of a country is about addressing the issues that impact on women as well as the issues that other people saw as the mainstream issue.”

Former head of the DA, Helen Zille was also once one of the top women in South African politics. She headed the party from 2007 to 2015, and after the elections in May, will vacate her position as Premier of the Western Cape. While she has been a controversial leader, Zille’s absence from prominent politics has meant that men will now solely lead across both the ruling party of the ANC, and the two leading opposition parties – the DA and EFF. Currently, the country has five male premiers and four female premiers. If Zille’s replacement in the Western Cape isn’t a woman, it will skew the leadership figures to be even more male-dominated. This possible imbalance makes it evident that political parties need to put more women in positions of prominent leadership so they can represent and advance women’s causes.

REMOVING BARRIERS

Promising to make improvements is a common political strategy, but it’s only one side of the equity conversation. If political parties are to truly demonstrate commitment to women and children’s rights, then it’s not just a matter of introducing new laws and initiatives. Behaviour, practices and ideologies that are harmful need to be challenged and stopped.

Lerato Motsamai, founder and CEO of Petrolink, has faced two major frustrations as a woman in business. She says, to address these, government doesn’t have to start anything new, but instead, needs to stop being destructive. “The damage that mismanagement and corruption at state-owned enterprises has caused for women-owned businesses in my field and across the board, cannot be overemphasised,” she says, adding that she wants the country to stop bringing in goods that are available locally. “As a Proudly South Africa manufacturer, the reduction in the consumption of imports is so critical to the livelihood and longevity of our enterprises because it increases the opportunities for producers within South Africa. Given the key role that women-owned businesses play in stimulating economic activity and employment, I feel that there needs to be a regulation in place concerning marketplace competition. We need the opportunity of competing on equal footing with multinationals,” she says.

Living in a patriarchal society has been detrimental for both men and women. Every five years, though, citizens get a chance to determine whether they want to entrench the system, or uproot it. Machi is clear that her mandate is to overturn and overthrow. At the polls this year, she, and many other women, will be voting for change. They’ll be voting with the hope that the pro-women agenda will become a national reality. “I wish all political leaders would take the time to understand feminist principles and ideals, and advocate for their empowerment so women can realise their freedom. That way, political leaders can begin to identify how they operate in a system of privilege, whereas women operate in a system of disenfranchisement. As vague as it may sound, the lens through which political leaders should engage their politics should be feminist. Maybe it’s a tall order, but I may as well make it with cream on top!”