CAPE Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday the struggle of women in South Africa was not done yet.
“There is till a mighty struggle that still needs to be engaged. We still need to uplift the women of our country to a level where they are equal to men,” Ramaphosa said.
He made the statement when he was addressing the commemoration of Women’s Day in Richmond, KwaZulu-Natal.
Ramaphosa said progress has been made in the women struggles and it showed how far the country has come.
“In the past we did not have the types of developments we have in the form of rights and opportunities we have today,” he said, adding that girls learn alongside boys in schools and receive equal education.
“There are currently more female students enrolled at our universities and colleges than males. Many of those registered are female students. It shows a great deal of the progress.”
Ramaphosa also said close to half of MPs were female and that there were more female judges and magistrates.
“We are about to have a deputy chief justice who is a female for the first time in the history of our country and she stands there as a role model for all young women and lawyers where she demonstrated it is possible for anybody to reach that level.
“I am absolutely sure that one day we are going to have a chief justice who is a woman ,” he added.
The president also said the young women and girls of today have no shortage of role models.
“With the right support, they can become anything they want to be, from star soccer players to fighter pilots, judges, members of Parliament, businesswomen and entrepreneurs.
“But for many young women, there are several obstacles they first need to overcome.”
Ramaphosa said in South Africa, like many countries around the world, women bear the brunt of poverty.
Since the advent of democracy, policies have been implemented to address the impact of poverty on women.
“Mothers and grandmothers have access to comprehensive social services, including child support grants. To support poor families, especially those from single parent households, learners are exempted from paying school fees and receive meals at school.”
He, however, said women, who were likely to be unemployed than men, still earned far less than men.
“This was thrown into the spotlight with the victory of Banyana, where I found much as we applaud Banyana Banyana the money is far less than what Bafana Bafana would get if they won the cup. I said there should be equal pay for equal work,” he said.
“It makes no political, economic and social sense whatsoever that we remunerate men for equal work they do with women and remunerate women far less.”
Ramaphosa said law would be enacted to demonstrate seriousness about equality between men and women.
“We are going to do it whether men like it or not,” he said to applause.
Ramaphosa also said the time has come to pay unremunerated work women do at home limits their ability to earn money through employment or run their businesses.
He added that there was still the problem of young girls being taken out of school early to perform household duties, to care for younger siblings and to look for work to support the family.
“We need to change this so that young girls can finish school.”
Ramaphosa said government was working to enable women participated in the economy in a more meaningful way.
“Gender equality will not be achieved unless women are financially secure and independent,” he said.
“Government has committed to set aside 40% of public procurement spend to women-owned businesses.
“We have been holding workshops countrywide to equip women with skills to do business with both government and the private sector.”