Need for united gender front

It is a no-brainer that a commission without commissioners ceases to operate. But, by the second half of this month, the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) had only two commissioners left, both with terms expiring before the middle of next month.

So it has been déjà vu at the CGE: in 2006/077, the CGE had no commissioners, for which the blame should be laid before Parliament’s door, because it failed to ensure new appointments.

During the latest replay, the number had dropped below the legal requirement of seven commissioners in 2010 already.

If the commission is not legally constituted, it could have far-reaching implications for the exercise of its powers, which include the issuing of subpoenas and holding of hearings.

As matters stand, the lack of commissioners has forced those remaining to disband internal sub-committees responsible for financial oversight and for projects on gender-based violence and other CGE work, according to Janine Hicks, whose term as commissioner ends on June 7.

The current delay in appointments seems to stem from confusion over numbers to be appointed to fill vacancies (the CGE Act provides for the appointment of 11 commissioners plus a chairperson), as well as differentiation between part- and full-time commissioners.

Parliament has placed before the Presidency a list of nine commissioners to be appointed, a process the Presidency claims to be finalising.

Among those recommended is Wallace Mgoqi, confirming that the ruling party still regards chapter nine institutions as parking spaces for loyal comrades.

Mgoqi may be known for defying the DA after his axing as Cape Town city manager but definitely not for any gender work.

Meanwhile, the successful candidates have been in limbo, not knowing if and when the Presidency will effect the appointments.

Earlier this month, Hicks, along with outgoing commissioner Kenosi Meruti, CGE chief executive Keketso Maema and management, presented the CGE’s strategic plan for 2012-17 to the National Assembly’s committee on women, children and people with disabilities.

Commissioners used the opportunity to appeal to the committee to pursue the matter of the delays with the Presidency and have also written to the speaker.

The committee promised to look into it.

It is notable that among the constitutional chapter nine institutions, particularly the CGE seems subject to delays in appointments.

The CGE has been without a chairperson since 2009, another appointment that the Presidency failed to make.

Maema acted in the position of CEO for two years before finally being appointed in 2010.

Feminists close to the process regard these problems as stemming from the ANC’s toying with the idea to have the commission disbanded, especially after public protector and auditor-general investigations of misconduct and fraudulent and irregular expenditure in the 2007/08 and 2008/09 financial years.

An independent audit recommended in 2008 that the commission be placed under “mentorship”; Parliament’s ad hoc committee on the review of chapter nine and associated institutions, which Kader Asmal chaired, recommended in 2007 that the CGE be collapsed into the Human Rights Commission.

While the commission has not been able to totally avoid controversy in recent years, as its last chairwoman, Nomboniso Gasa, left under a cloud, the outgoing crop of commissioners has worked hard to clean up the commission’s act. The commission is due to receive its second unqualified audit from the auditor-general, testimony to its return to sound governance.

It has also been applying its full powers to call hearings and subpoena government departments and companies to appear before it.

However, while the outgoing commissioners have turned things around, Parliament still has to attend to the long-overdue alignment of the CGE Act with the 1996 constitution and the Public Finance Management Act, recommended by its own ad hoc committee on the CGE forensic investigation in April last year.

Previously, the justification for pressure to scrap the commission was that the commission was dysfunctional.

Why it would make sense to scrap the organisation rather than to fix it is unclear. Particularly, as Hicks notes, as gender power relations have not substantively improved since 1996.

Some of the impetus for scrapping the CGE emanates from the new institutional kid on the block, the Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities (or “the ministry for everybody except able-bodied adult men”, as an activist joked).

The incumbent, Lulu Xingwana, is known as a proponent of collapsing the commission into the HRC.

Since the minister’s appointment in 2010, attempts by the CGE to set up a high-level meeting with her on role clarification have been unsuccessful.

Xingwana has complained about 50 percent of her “department’s budget” going to the commission, which is an incorrect depiction, as the commission has its own budget allocated by the National Treasury which is merely channelled via the department.

Previously it was channelled via the Justice Department.

She should reconsider her position.

The CGE has unique oversight powers that a minister cannot exercise in relation to her peers in cabinet.

Also, the CGE’s budget is inadequate for the implementation of its mandate, which means the ministry wouldn’t win much if it absorbed that budget.

It makes political sense to vie for more money to be allocated to gender work all around, including her ministry, instead of merely transferring a measly budget from one institution to another.

If motivating increased spending on women’s empowerment is a problem, the Treasury should be reminded of the deteriorating statistics on rape and socio-economic inequality, which affect women most.