According to Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth, and Persons with Disabilities, candid discussions need to be had about the socioeconomic empowerment and progress of women, young women, and women with disabilities in South Africa.
Our department’s primary responsibility is to ensure that women, young people, and people with disabilities are effectively represented and have ownership and control over assets that generate income for the economy.
We must see their involvement as essential to achieving the goals of the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan.
Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Resilience was the official topic of Women’s Month 2022, which was started on Monday in KwaZulu-Natal.
The National Women’s Month programme is built on continuing initiatives throughout the activities of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, all of which are taking place in the framework of the government’s stated national priorities.
The Minister explained the strategic focus of this year’s theme to attendees at a Women in Waste Management workshop as being the advancement of women’s socio-economic empowerment toward the realisation of gender equality by 2030.
The latest floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, according to her, provide a horrifying picture of what happens when we choose to ignore climate change.
“The green economy now more than ever offers the required sustainable foundations in which we may reconstruct our economy in a way that is inclusive.
We must investigate the green economy’s potential to advance gender equality on the economic, social, and environmental levels.
The Minister stated that despite 28 years of democracy, women are still marginalised from the nation’s development agenda.
Millions of women are now suffering from extreme poverty, rising food and fuel prices, climate change, unemployment, and high incidence of gender-based violence and femicide as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic (GBVF).
We are at a critical situation where we must work together to protect the democratic advancements that the women of 1956 toiled so arduously for.
While filming a music video last week in Krugersdorp, several young women were assaulted and raped.
“It is disgusting to learn that these young women were approached by a bunch of men who raped them and stole their possessions while unemployment is high in South Africa.
“We appreciate the SAPS’s efforts in helping to apprehend the suspects, and we anticipate swift convictions.
We are grateful that the young women are receiving psychosocial support so they can get through this trauma with their families, the minister added.