Gender Bill: More window dressing and not real gender equality and empowerment
Today the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD) presented its response to last week's public submission presentations on the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill in Parliament.
Last week the Portfolio Committee on Women, Children and People with Disabilities held public hearings in Parliament and received numerous submissions from NGOs, legal experts and the private sector that supported the DA's position on this controversial Bill.
Based on their presentation today, we are pleased to see that the DWCPD have taken these submissions seriously and appears to be prepared to make some concessions.
However, the DA still believes the Bill should be abandoned in favour of an audit and improved implementation of the existing gender empowerment and equality-related legislation.
In its current form, this Bill will cannibalise the roles and responsibilities of existing bodies that are better equipped such as the Commission for Gender Equality and legislation such as the Employment Equity and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act.
The Bill only serves women who are in the formal sector, failing to take into consideration the economically vulnerable such as the un/under-employed, rural women, the disabled and sex workers. It also fails to recognise the multi-levels of discrimination based on race, economic standing and sexual orientation that women face, and how these intersect to create embedded disadvantage for women.
The Bill's proposed 50/50 quotas could also amount to a violation of the Constitution.
The DWCPD routinely complains of financial and capacity constraints, it is therefore difficult to imagine the DWCPD successfully implementing and monitoring this Bill.
This Bill is clearly a misguided attempt by the DWCPD to legitimise its continued existence through needless social engineering.
The DA's approach to diversity is centred on improving access to education and skills training in order to address the root causes of inequality and allow candidates to compete with each other on merit. The DA is the only party with female leadership in the form of party leader, Helen Zille, DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko and the Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia De Lille. Zuma's ANC and Women's League on the other hand, believe that South Africa is not ready for a female president.
South Africa cannot achieve real diversity and empowerment through the top-down manipulation of the labour market this Bill seeks to impose.
The DA therefore still cannot support this Bill in its current form.
The DA will scrutinise the DWCPD's response in depth and raise our concerns during the upcoming deliberations period.
Statement issued by Helen Lamoela, DA Shadow Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, February 5 2014
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