Fanisa Masia

In the run up to the local government elections to be held on May 18th in South Africa, On April 15th2011, The Commission on Gender Equality together with the Independent Electoral Commission hosted a political party dialogue held at the Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The purpose of the dialogue was to engage the IEC and political parties on the 50:50 gender quotas and women’s participation in elections. The event saw a number of key political parties, media, stakeholders in gender equality sector as well as ordinary men and women in the country converging to Constitution hill. Acting chairperson of CGE, Mfanolezwe Shozi warmly welcomed everyone. He noted that MDG3 recognises that women have equal right as men on all spheres therefore it was critically that women are represented in decision-making processes. He further posed a question to political parties present as to whether traditional leaders have influence on whether women vote or not. He concluded his welcome address by saying that “progress for women is a progress for all”. Mr David Dlali, Special Advisor to the Department of Women, Children and People with disabilities gave a keynote address on behalf of the department which although was great, was not warmly welcomed by members of the opposition who felt that the minister herself is never available in discussion about women’s issues and questioned why a man was sent to talk about women’s issues and why the department had a man instead of a woman as an advisor.

As part of the millennium development goals, gender equality is mentioned as a key area to achieve other development goals. To reach the millennium goals, politicians need to have clear strategies targeted at women and girls, and address issues they face. According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for the elections to be truly free and fair, women must have the same opportunities as men to participate in all aspects of the electoral process. IEC statistics for the previous democratic elections indicate that women have been the majority voters, for instance in the 2009 elections 56,89% of voters were women, while only 43.11% men.

March 8th marks the globally renowned International Women's Day which celebrates the economic, political, and social achievements of women past, present and future. International Women's Day honours the work of the Suffragettes, celebrates women's success, and reminds of inequities still to be redressed. Suffragettes campaigned for women's right to vote. The word 'Suffragette' is derived from the word "suffrage" meaning the right to vote. The first International Women's Day event was run in 1911.

United Nation’s theme for International Women's Day this year is Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women. Given this year’s theme, “..equal access to…technology” Women’sNet will commemorate International Women’s day during its hosting of the Feminist Tech Exchange from 7 to 9th March.

7- 9 December 2010

After having recruited about 30 girls from in and outside Gauteng, on the 7th December 2010, Women’sNet, under its daughter project Girls’Net went on a camp at Stay City, a beautiful and secure hotel and conference centre in Berea. The camp lasted for three days.

Women all over the world continue to face some sort of discrimination, stigmatization, and all forms of violence. Governments, the corporate sector, non-profit and non-governmental organisation world-wide strive to work together to eliminate and bring an end to women disempowerment. Khanya College kicked-off the international celebration of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based violence by launching the Setsi sa Mosadi website and a book called Domestic Violence and International Law

Deadline: 08 December 2011

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