Capitalism has made life in SA a war zone for women
9 August 2022
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) salutes the brave generation of women who on the 9th of August 1956, marched in their thousands to the nations capital, the Union Buildings, to protest against the oppressive Apartheid government. According to sahistory.org.za. at least 10 000 and up to 20 000 women delegates marched to hand over a petition to JG Strijdom, who was the Prime minister of the country at that time. The mass march was to protest against carrying the Dompas, which was a pass book imposed exclusively on African men and women, which they had to carry on them at all times, or else, they could be arrested.
The Dompas was part of battery of racist legislation which the Apartheid government imposed on African people as a form of subjugating and oppressing them. The Dompas was a dehumanizing document which dictated where a Black person could live or work, and it entrenched the notion that Black people were foreigners in the land of their birth. On this day we salute the bravery of women like Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Albertina Sisulu and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn for leading this historic march and for laying the foundation for an end to the Apartheid system.
The last 28 years of so-called democracy have not created the kind of free society which we envisioned when we were fighting against Apartheid. The negotiated settlement which gave birth to this ‘democratic dispensation’ has not created a genuinely free and equal society for all. In 2022 the African working class majority is still suffering under the burden of crippling poverty, the highest inequality in the world, and high unemployment. According to StatsaSA Quarterly Labour Force Survey of the 2nd quarter of 2021, women were more likely to be exploited through unpaid labour, than men. The rate of unemployment among women was 36,8% in the 2nd quarter of 2021 compared to 32,4% amongst men. The unemployment rate among African women was 41% during this period compared to 8,2% among white women, 22,4% among Indian/Asian women and 29,9% among Coloured women.
Research conducted by Time magazine found that in South Africa, the richest 10% of the population owns more than 85% of household wealth. The World Inequality Lab Data found that,
“While Black South Africans have outnumbered Whites in the richest 10% of the population for about 7 years, the gap between South Africa’s richest and poorest hasn’t narrowed as the decline in racial inequality has been driven almost entirely by a surge in the top Black incomes rather than increased wealth for the poorest”.
Under the leadership of the governing ANC we are the most unequal society on earth, and the report found that wealth inequality has not decreased since the end of Apartheid. The article goes onto say the ownership patterns of the economy continue to benefit the white minority as it did under Apartheid, “3,500 adults owning more than the poorest 32 million people in the country of 60 million”. Basically, NUMSA has been proven right when it characterized the ANC government as security guards for White monopoly Capital, because they left the architecture of apartheid largely intact.
At the same time working class women are under siege and they are not safe anywhere in this country. Recently we have been besieged by reports of shocking attacks against women. South African women are living in a war zone and it seems the authorities are paralysed to stop it.
We are shocked by recent reports of eight women who were gang raped by armed men at an abandoned mine in Krugersdorp. The women were shooting a music video when an armed gang of men approached them at gun point, robbed them of their personal belongings and raped multiple times. Police have arrested 82 men in connection with various crimes illegal mining, possession of explosives and firearms, attempted murder and other charges. The National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said so far none of the suspects, arrested after the Krugersdorp gang rape attack, have yet been positively linked to the crime. The police are still doing DNA tests to see if they are connected to the rapes in any way.
A week before that horrific incident, the community of Kalksteelfontein in the Western Cape, protested outside the Bishop Lavis Magistrates court over the murders of Daffidol Faro who was aged 65, and little Aseeqah Erasmus her 10-year old niece. They were murdered allegedly by Faro's son, Ashley Faro – in their home. It is alleged that Daffidol Faro the mother of the alleged perpetrator, had gone to court numerous times to get a protection order against her son because he was violent. Unfortunately, she was unsuccessful and she was never granted one. She was murdered by the very person she hoped to be protected from. The courts failed her and her 10 year old niece.
From January to March 2022, Businesslive reported that 6,083 people were murdered in the country, an increase of 22.2% from the same period in. The number of sexual offences reported to police in the first three months of the year also increased by 13.7% to 13,799, an increase of 1,666 from the same time in 2021. Rape cases increased 13.7% to 10,818, an increase of 1,300 cases. This is abnormal! Women in this country are under siege and we need radical interventions to be implemented to keep women safe.
The suffering of women cannot be isolated from the crisis of the Capitalist system. The brutality that we are seeing, where there are increased levels of violence, are all examples of the failure of capitalism. Capitalism has failed to guarantee equality between the sexes. It has reinforced the false idea that women are inferior. Capitalism strips women of their humanity and reduces them to objects of exploitation, degradation and violence.
The violence which is meted out against women everyday is a sign of a society in a crisis. We have reached the highest state of barbaric behaviour because Capitalism is barbaric. Since its inception, capitalism has generated profits by exploiting and undervaluing women in the workplace to a greater degree than men. This directly affects economic status of women by justifying underpaying women and by excluding them from higher paying positions. It also leaves them vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and violence.
Capitalism prioritizes the safety and well-being of the rich against that of the poor. For years communities have complained about armed gangs operating in abandoned mine shafts and for years they have been ignored. That’s because the state, and all its machinery, including state security, is used to benefit the rich, and it is not used to assist the poor and the working class. So these communities have suffered with little or no intervention from the SAPS. We should not be surprised to see a rise in vigilantism, because the police have routinely failed the working class and the poor.
When crime is reported in working class communities the police fail to act, or they are very slow to respond. There are numerous accusations against the SAPS about how some of them are complicit in criminal activity, or how some of them enable criminals through bribery and corruption. Many of these complaints have landed on deaf ears. The government focused on keeping the suburbs and the homes and families of the elite safe, at the expense of the working class masses.
The ANC government has spent more than 20 years bending over backwards to please capital at the expense of the well-being of the masses. It implemented disastrous neo-liberal economic policies, and lately it has been rolling out austerity measures and major cut backs on social spending. It has done everything possible to protect the wealth of the minority, instead, of eradicating the architecture of apartheid, and creating a truly equal society.
The ANC government dumped the Freedom Chartar and it has refused to drive an agenda for the African working class majority to own and control the means of production. This failure means the African majority will remain at the bottom of the food chain and the struggle for gender equality will continue to lag behind.
What is to be done?
NUMSA supports the demands for increased funding for shelters, community-based services, greater mental health interventions, and increased economic support for victims of abuse and sexual violence. We support demands to eradicate income inequality between the sexes and we will continue to fight this battle in workplaces all over the country. We also support calls for increased policing in our communities so that ordinary women can feel safer. We demand that those who are arrested for crimes of a sexual nature must not be granted bail.
The reforms we are calling for are temporary and will offer only short term relief. If we want a permanent end to the suffering of women, we must also fight for the destruction of the capitalist system. We need to establish a society which places humanity first, ahead of profiteering. NUMSA will continue to fight for the total emancipation of women and the establishment of genuine socialist society where all of us, particularly women, can be free. We are inspired by the words of Thomas Sankara who said, “There is no true social revolution without the revolution of women”.
Issued by Puleng Phaka, NUMSA 2nd Deputy President, 9 August 2022
