Staff

 On 23rd March 2011, I had to fly down to Cape Town for the UNGASS meeting to be held on 24th and 25th March. To cut the story short, let’s just say it was a memorable and yet stressful experience getting down to the Mother City, which proved to myself how far one can go to get what they want (lol).

On Friday July, 09th I attended a demonstration organised by the One in Nine Campaign held outside the Johannesburg Magistrate Court. It was my very first appearance to an event as a Women’s Net employee. In fact it was my very first experience to a march. The march came about because the South African government created specialized 2010 World Cup courts aimed at delivering a speedy judicial process for foreign nationals. In doing so, they spent R45 million. While on the other hand, they claim lack of resources when asked to increase court for sexual offences.

Polygamy that exists in a context of inequality is not an expression of 'choice'. Where women are poorer, subject to violence and harassment daily, are 60% of HIV positive people, and are killed by their intimate partners at a rate that is unmatched in the world - choice is a relative term.

The Film and Publication Board released results of a study on 'The Role of South African Organisations in the Fight Against Child Pornography' This is a groundbreaking study that reports findings on perceptions of child pornography and its relation to the workplace. For a further look into this pertinent issue, visit the fpb website: www.fpb.gov.za

Lebo and I were facilitating the citizen journalism workshop this week in Cape Town. The venue for the workshop was the Saartjie Baartman Centre in Manenburg. Although the venue was slightly far from the CBD, we chose it because of the many different female organisations that are based there. Sadly, none of the organisations based there were part of our training but it was still nice interacting with them.

 

This past Saturday I attended the National Summit of Women hosted by SAWID at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg. The aim to "provide a platform for inter-generational dialogue from a woman's point of view".

It was made clear to the women attending the workshop that there would be no talk of the state of the South African politics and that none of them were to wear t-shirts representing any political party. This was a pity because I would have loved to hear what the diverse multitude of "imbokotos" had to say about the elections.

The Centre for the Study of Violence Research (CSVR) Domestic Violence Act conference ended on Friday with little uncertainty that the Domestic Violence Act has been progressive over the past ten years.  The delegates only seemed to agree that it only provided protection if implemented correctly.

The purpose of the DVA conference was to reflect on the ten years of the DVA by looking at what has worked, what is not working and the way forward.  When asked to list what has worked in the past years, the delegates did not have much to say but they had a lot of recommendations.  

On Friday at the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) conference, Sithokozile Thabethe from the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZALWA) spoke about the role of traditional leaders in domestic violence cases in Zimbabwe.  The act permits the chiefs to adjudicate psychological and economic domestic violence cases.

Yesterday was the first day of the CSVR Domestic Violence Act Conference.  The conference is held at the Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein and will continue for the next three days.

According to Adele Kirsten the director of CSVR, the purpose of the conference is to reflect on the past years of the implementation of the DVA by looking at what has worked, what did not and what the way forward is.

When thinking about the way forward, Kirsten said that we should keep in mind that the external climate differs completely from ten years ago.  

A session that was supposed to be about experiences of hate crimes, and remembering people we have lost due to homophobia, ended up into an emotional session. The session started well with presentations from the panels. Chan from Zambia, who identifies as a transgendered man said, he feels and has seen that there is no unity within the feminist movement. When issues affecting women are addressed, it is not very often you hear trans people mentioned.