By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has stressed the importance of women becoming self-sufficient and being able to stand on their own.
Nkoana-Mashabane was speaking at the launch of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec on Friday.
The launch is being held in partnership with women in business associations and organisations and included an opportunity for female business owners to exhibit and sell their products and network with other business women and potential investors.
This year’s lengthy theme is “Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment to build Women’s Resilience against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide: Connect, Collaborate, Contract!”.
“The biggest challenge for women is economic power. Let’s expose them to opportunities to generate their own income so they can walk away from abusive relationships,” the minister said.
“The call for the economic empowerment of women cannot be separated from the broader call for a violence-free South Africa. Both need to be met with urgency.
“The scourge of gender-based violence and femicide continues to undermine our efforts of building a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, and united South Africa,” the Minister said.
She said at the centre of government’s response to GBVF, is to tackle the drivers of violence in our communities.
This includes challenging the socio-economic status of women and other vulnerable groups including the youth, persons with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ persons.
“Inclusive economic empowerment remains a key priority of the government and it is a central tenet to ensuring a more equal society for all.
“Therefore, the theme for this year’s 16 Days of Activism aims to strengthen programmatic approaches to accelerate the social and economic empowerment of women.
“Our intention throughout the year has been to make the linkages between building women’s resilience through socio economic empowerment and its influence in decreasing women and children’s vulnerability to forms of violence including GBVF.
“Ultimately, we are saying that walking away from an abusive situation, must not lead women and children into poverty,” the Minister said.
Government used the launch to gather women in business across different sectors, including women’s Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), cooperatives and women informal traders.
“The rights of women to dignity, security, safety and protection is non-negotiable. We need to collaborate on developing, implementing, supporting and monitoring programs for equitable job creation, representation and ownership by women.
“This includes strengthening the public-private sector partnerships to facilitate economic opportunities for women. In addition, we must accelerate initiatives to empower our women who work the land,” the Minister said.
She reiterated calls for land redistribution and agrarian reform.
This includes funding women farmers to drive transformation deliverables through broadening ownership of SMMEs led by women, youth and persons with disabilities to build and capacitate entrepreneurship and economic resilience.