Hon. LL v/d Merwe MP
IFP Spokesperson on Women and Social Development
As we prepare to mark Women’s Day 2018, we remember and honour the life of Rhodes student Khesani Maseko who died so tragically last week.
The IFP wishes to extend our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and loved ones.
We wish to pay tribute to her and hundreds of thousands of other South African women, young girls and children who have endured the brutality and viciousness of rape and gender based violence (GBV) in our society.
Ms Maseko and others are examples of how our lacklustre fight against GBV continues to fail our women.
What South Africa needs right now is for the Minister of Women in the Presidency, Ms Bathabile Dlamini to stop twiddling her thumbs and stop sitting on her hands, when a cohesive, multi-stakeholder, costed plan to fight GBV is required more than ever.
The IFP proposals to ensure greater women’s empowerment and gender equality in our society includes but are not limited to the following:
• The IFP will look at legislation for equal pay for equal work to eliminate the gender pay gap in the work place;
• We are calling for the introduction of a gender equality module to be phased into the National School curriculum;
• National Sanitary towel drive to be rolled out in all provinces without further delay; and
• We will push ahead with tabling a Private Member’s Bill for a Board to be established to take control of the day to day running of SASSA to ensure greater transparency and accountability in the management of this entity. Girl-child headed households, grandmothers, pensioners and young mothers rely heavily on this system for relief.
The IFP believes that the ANC government would do well to stop paying lip service to GBV issues and recognise that violence against women and children is at crisis point in our country. It must be treated with the urgency it deserves.
The IFP Women’s Brigade, led by Ms Thembeni kaMadlopha-Mthethwa MPL, will on Saturday, 11 August 2018, together with the IFP President Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP address the National Women’s Day celebration at Ngwelezane Sport Field.
The celebrations will kick off with a march from Ngwelezane Taxi Rank to Ngwelezane Magistrate’s Court, before the national rally will be held to honour women in our society at the Ngwelezane Sport Field in KwaZulu Natal.
We seek action, justice and equality for all our women. On Women’s Day 2018, we renew our commitment to work towards true and meaningful empowerment and equality for all women in our country.
Enquiries:
Liezl van der Merwe MP
IFP Spokesperson on Women and Social Development
082 729 2510
