EFF rejects the announcement of South Africa as a global leader for the generation equality Action Coalition of Economic Justice and Rights
10 August 2020
The Economic Freedom Fighters rejects the pathetic window-dressing by the South African Presidency, which is insensitively flaunting an appointment to lead a coalition towards fighting for gender equality and women's rights. The announcement of South Africa as a "global leader" of the Action Coalition on Economic Justice and Rights is a mistake of monumental proportions because South Africa is a leader in the undermining of women's rights and has shown no coherent plan on uplifting women in the economy and defending their dignity.
SA government has not only shown its hatred and brutality towards women and children, but it has been at the centre of gross human rights violations and rampant corruption where money meant to service the very women and children has been looted over the years with no consequences. Money meant to save families and Frontline workers through the distribution of PPEs has recently disappeared without a trace, and those who are already vulnerable, women, children and members of the LGBTQI+ community will carry the heaviest burden.
It is this South African government which has been forcefully sterilising black, HIV-positive women in this country in collaboration with doctors and the South African Department of Health. It is this government, that maintains the gender-wage gap, paying women less while they do the same jobs as men.
This is a nation that has criminalised sex-work, one of the few measures women use to empower themselves economically in this country. Ironically, men who partake in the purchasing of sex are not criminalised. South Africa is a nation gripped with Gender-Based Violence, which is sustained by institutional incompetence. The judiciary of South Africa is littered by judges who hand down lenient sentences for crimes relating to sexual-assault and prioritise perpetrators above victims. It is a country with a police system that tums away victims of domestic violence. It
is the South African government that has made widows out of South African women, created fatherless and child-headed families through its brutal police. Families of Slain Marikana miners, slain protesters and slain citizens killed by the police during the lockdown are yet to receive justice. It is the South African government that has ignored all calls by women for legislative reform that will ensure women and children are safe and treated as human beings in this country.
Economically, women of South Africa are a minority in the corporate sector, legal fraternity and are the least considered when land rights are considered. We are a nation that denies women land on traditional grounds, in an attempt to keep women subjugated and participating in forms of labour we ourselves as a nation have devalued and underpay.
The very fabric of South African society is anti-women and for the Presidency of South Africa to brag about an inappropriate appointment to lead the upliftment of women reveals a President concerned with PR rather than changing the lives of the women of this country.
We reject this appointment completely as South Africa is the last nation that has the capacity to lead the upliftment of women. The posturing about this announcement by the Presidency should be telling about the kind of attitude women of this country are dealing with. An attitude of a govemment concerned with putting a plaster over the wounds of the women of South Africa.
We call on the Conveners of the Generation Equality Forum convened by UN Women to recognise that the conversations on the call for gender equality cannot continue without recognising the intersectionality. Conversations on gender equality should, at this stage, not disregard or erase the voices of the LGBTQI+ community, especially at such a global platform.
Issued by Vuyani Pambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 10 August 2020
