Justice

After weeks of countrywide public hearings on which hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ rands were spent, the department of justice and the select committee on security and constitutional development received a rude wake-up call on the controversial Traditional Courts Bill, reports City Press. Most of the provinces either rejected the bill or asked for massive changes. In what can be described as a victory for rural women, who have waged war against the bill since it was tabled in 2008, the department of justice will have to go back to the drawing board.

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It’s back to the drawing board for justice department as most provinces reject proposed legislation

The controversial Traditional Courts Bill is still with us – albeit mortally wounded and limping painfully towards the parliamentary cupboard.

After weeks of countrywide public hearings on which hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ rands were spent, the department of justice and the select committee on security and constitutional development received a rude wake-up call this week.

Most of the provinces either rejected the bill or asked for massive changes.

The Traditional Courts Bill currently under discussion in South Africa’s parliament and due to be enacted by the end of 2012 could undermine the basic rights of some of the country’s most vulnerable inhabitants: the 12 million women living in remote rural communities across the country.

The bill aims to "provide more South Africans improved access to justice" by recognising traditional authorities and laws. Through it, traditional leaders in remote areas would be given unilateral power to create and enforce customary law.

The bill sparked an outcry in 2008 when it was first tabled in the National Assembly. But with it due to come into effect at the end of 2012, civil rights groups are becoming increasingly vocal in their demand to have it declared unconstitutional.

The bill will allow traditional leaders to hear civil cases including disputes surrounding contract breach, damage to property, theft and crimen injuria or "unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another," if such assault does not result in grievous bodily harm.

But many civil rights groups have slammed the proposed bill. According to Jennifer Williams, director of the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, the bill would "place all power in the hands of a single individual – in almost all cases a man – and effectively make him judge, jury and implementer."

In a district that cannot be named for fear of reprisal the traditional leader unilaterally controls community resources and access to land. In most instances, where there are projects that rural women have initiated without him, for example a sewing machines project, he tries to undermine the projects and threatens to remove the resources needed for the project, e.g. sewing machines. His ‘justification’: he feels like he has no control over the project and the money involved.

At amaHlubi, RWM is working with an elderly woman who is a widow living alone. Her only source of income is the state social grant. She compliments the grant by growing food in her garden. Cattle from neighbouring eMangweni kept destroying her food garden. In trying to support her, we encouraged her to report the matter to the eMangweni traditional court. She approached the eMangweni traditional court, which is about 10 kilometres from her home, but was sent away because the court “does not speak to a woman”. The court demanded that she be represented by a man. As she does not have a man in her home she cannot return to the court and has stopped growing food in her garden. As RWM, we regard this as an example of the feminisation of poverty

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, many campuses across the United States were relatively quiet while new political ideas were taking shape. The women's movement was gaining momentum as issues of unequal pay for men and women, unequal access to managerial jobs and other aspects of gender inequality and sex discrimination became national issues.

Women in Egypt have started to "challenge their abusers and force their nation to be more vigilant against sexual harassment".  In a recent study by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, it was revealed that nearly 97% of Egyptian women do not alert the police.