Excerpt from Raising the Bar by Songezo Zibi

8/10/2019 Excerpt from Raising the Bar by Songezo Zibi

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C H A P T E R 8

WOME N A ND

T H E I R P R O S P E C T S

It is very common for politicians and other public gures totalk of South Africas democratic founding vision as that of anon-racial, non-sexist South Africa. One cannot argue with

the nobility of the phrase and it remains an ideal all of us needto pursue with vigour.However, it has been my observation that in many cases mere

lip service is given to the ideal. Partly this is because we are notwilling to confront the difficult questions that will arise out ofa project that truly emancipates South Africas women. We hangon to much of what keeps women in bondage, largely because wehave such an intimate relationship with it through tradition or

religion or both.Is it possible to construct a society that is truly free without

confronting this issue which, in my view, is one of our innerdemons? I dont think so. I do, however, think it is possible tosucceed in defeating our own dogmas in order to achieve realemancipation for women beyond the platitudes we repeat on

public platforms.


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In or around 1985 I overheard a conversation between my grand-parents. A cousin of my grandmothers had come to visit her about adilemma his family had encountered. His recently married, police of-cer son had died in the line of duty, leaving a young, childless widow.The cousin was concerned that she would be lost to the family and sohe had come to seek my grandmothers advice on what to do to retainher.

The solution the two of them concocted proved to be an eye-openerfor a 10 year old as I then was. They decided to ask her what shethought of ukungenwa , a process where a deceased mans wife is passedon to his unmarried brother. Grandmother was tasked with broach-ing the subject with the widow, which I later learnt ended in disap-pointment because the young woman rejected the proposal. I am notcertain what she did afterwards but I imagine she remarried in duecourse.

In later years when I became aware of gender inequality I remem-bered the incident and thought a lot about its meaning. Since I never

had a chance to ask my grandmother about her motivation for par-ticipating in the scheme (she died ve years later, when I was 14), Ican only speculate on their reasons based on what I know about themeaning of the institution of marriage in my area.

The rst reason was that the young widow was now regarded aspart of the family and could not be expected to go away just becauseher husband had passed away. She also would possibly be lonely, hencethey felt the need to bring her and the brother-in-law together as a

couple. Of course it is also patently clear that they didnt take too seri-ously any relationship her brother-in-law might have been involvedin at the time. Perhaps they expected him to liquidate it in favour of aunion with his sister-in-law.

The other possible reason would have been that the family had ob-viously incurred some considerable expense in this match in the formof lobola , and to just let a makoti go for free must have felt like a bit of


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a waste. After all, she was there to bear the family children, and sincethe person with whom these children would have been born was dead,it made sense to ask the brother to step in and do the honours. Hadthe deceased been survived by children then his brother would havebeen expected to be their father, including providing for them as muchas he could.

Whatever their reasons, it is striking now that my grandmotherand her cousin even considered the proposition. Today I do not thinkthat such a proposal would be considered, even in the environment ofmy village.

This is not the only attitude towards women where change can beobserved. Changes range from the deeply profound and spiritual tothe trivial. Women can now be ordained as priests or pastors in somechurches, which was unthinkable just three decades ago. It was alsoconsidered unbecoming for a woman to wear pants, or for a marriedwoman not to cover her head. These seemingly trivial but still power-ful symbols of male control over women through purported tradition

have also transformed signicantly.Traditionalists may baulk at this transformation and consider itsacrilege but they will not halt the momentum. I am not implying thatthere will not be communities or instances where the old habits en-dure, but merely indicating that it is possible to change things wherepreviously this might have seemed impossible. But rst change needsmovers and a conuence of other social inuences to make it possible.

In traditional institutions, in the Christian church, for example,

transformation and evolution come down to a clash between an olddenition of morality, which is largely governed by the power rela-tions at the time morality was dened, and how human experience hasevolved over time. Tradition makes little opportunity for revision soit tends to want to keep an old ethos in place while everything in theenvironment is changing.

An example in this regard, as Ive mentioned, is the evolution of the


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church. Over the centuries the church changed and grew by splitting.These splits were largely caused by differences over the interpretationof church doctrine, and over the years several incremental changesto the churchs approach to certain issues were adopted. These wereinformed by science as well as by social and political issues. This evo-lution continues today.

One issue that has been engaging the churchs mind in moderntimes concerns homosexuality. This wasnt a topical issue in the 1970sand 1980s because back then there was no contradiction: same-sex re-lationships were an abomination. That position is increasingly beingchallenged, with some priests in the US now routinely performingmarriage ceremonies for gay couples. South Africa has seen similarshifts and although opposition continues, when it comes to this issueit is really not feasible to expect that the tide will be stemmed or timerolled back.

Gender issues continue to be mired in conict. But it is men whobenet from many of the traditional structures. Even when these no

longer have relevance in todays world, none the less men want tohold onto them because fundamentally they do not want to acquiesceto anything that is gradually going to erode their hegemony.

Actually, some of these traditions are quite silly and illogical. I maybe wrong but I nd the expectation that a man should open a door fora woman perplexing, when at the same time it is considered unmanlyfor a man to carry her purse or serve her tea. Its a small thing and itmay seem unimportant, but such little courtesies form part of a big-

ger cultural and traditional repertoire that seeks to dene women interms of certain roles, often roles that are very diminishing in nature.For example, even in corporate environments where there is supposedgender equality, some male colleagues I know still tend to expect anywoman who might be present in a meeting to take the minutes orserve the beverages.

So what is the lot of women in South Africa today? It is my opinion


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days when women were regarded as property, in many parts of SouthAfrica and indeed the world this has not changed. Women are alsonot regarded as potential holders of property because men are avail-able for the privilege.

In 2007 a family friend of ours died in a car accident, leaving awife and two children. In December of that year his widow was foundstabbed to death near her home. Five suspects, the deceased familyfriends siblings and cousins, were arrested. Three were found guiltyof her murder. They had killed her because they did not believe sheshould have been the executor of their brothers estate because shehad married into the family.

The extent to which they felt about the matter was demonstrated inthe manner in which the murder was explained at the trial. First theyassaulted the woman and then her sisters-in-law held her down whiletheir brother, her deceased husbands brother, stabbed her to death.It was a most sickening crime made more astonishing by the involve-ment of women who should have defended another womans right to

inherit the property she shared with her late husband.Theories abound to explain the dominance of the male in genderpower relations. Some are an attempt at a scientic explanation andothers have their foundations in religion.

Among the scientists agnation, which is the tracing of the familylineage through the male, may have been the original cause. Thistheory says that when the time comes for a woman to marry, shehas to leave her own family and join that of her husband where

she has no automatic right to property or inheritance. These arereserved for the males in the bloodline. Even her sisters-in-lawdo not have similar inheritances in their own homes because theyare expected to leave the family when they get married. But, asAmerican scholar Francis Fukuyama says, this does not explainwhy even in matrilineal communities, power and resources are stillcontrolled by men. 2


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Numerous religions entrench the primacy of the male in the devel-opment of human society. Christianitys position is that God created aman called Adam, whom after a while he realised had no help, so hecreated Eve.

So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky andall the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; andwhile he was sleeping, he took one of the mans ribs and then closedup the place with esh. Then the Lord God made a woman fromthe rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, This is now bone of my bones and esh of my esh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. 3

Conservative Christians believe that because of this version of howhuman beings were created by God there is absolutely no basis to be-lieve that males and females can be equal. The primary reason for the

creation of the woman, it seems, was to help the man. Even in modernChristian speak this principle remains unshaken, although much haschanged in the direction of equality.

Many of the so-called charismatic churches have redened themeaning of help to include allowing the wives of pastors to leadchurch services, many of whom do this without a hint of incompe-tence or doubt. It is also common now for various divisions withincharismatic churches to be led by women, but the traditionalism of

religion still puts the male in an almost automatic leadership role.What appears universal in countless communities and nations is

that the primary function of the woman is to bear children. Wherethe union is not able to produce any children, her position becomesprecarious. I can call to mind many cases of which I personally becameaware, some as recently as 2005, where a woman was blamed for thefailure of a couple to have children, without any scientic basis. Even


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in cases where the man had a very low sperm count, the woman wasstill blamed for being barren.

Different communities have their own ways of resolving this quan-dary. Sometimes this involves the procurement of another wife in or-der to save the situation, itself an act that disperses any pretentionsof affection for the new woman, although she would generally be seenas a new favourite. When children cannot be produced out of thenew union either, it is not uncommon for the rst wife to be accusedof bewitching the new wife because she was said to be jealous. Thereputation of the man has to be protected at all costs.

In Malawi there is another solution for the childless couple quan-dary. The broader family will ask the wife secretly if the husbandperhaps has a problem. If she is able to identify the problem (if, forexample, the man has been failing to get an erection), a conspiracycalled calling the hyena is hatched. This involves identifying a suit-able male relative who will agree to have sex with the woman, andthen sending the husband away on some business so that the sexual

encounter can take place.While the woman is consulted about the whole arrangement, usu-ally the conditions are such that she cannot really say no. The generalexpectation is that she will agree. If she refuses, then she is likely tobe blamed for not allowing the family bloodline to continue. Eitherway, the entire scheme demonstrates a utilitarian approach to women,and is an example of how practices and traditions premised on thisapproach have developed over time.

What I nd striking is the high number of instances where womencollaborate in the further enslavement of fellow women in the nameof tradition and social mores. It is very difficult to question practicespeople have come to believe are Divine inventions and therefore notto be questioned by mere mortals. Yet they are not Divine inventions.Traditions change and social structures evolve over time. Sometimesthe shift is triggered by a change in material conditions; sometimes it


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happens through constant, individual rebellion by those who feel, andare, oppressed.

In cases where women actively participate in the victimisation ofother women, the central drivers are usually social disintegration andperverse politics. There is probably no better example of the latterthan the reaction of the African National Congress Womens League(ANCWL) to the case in November 2005 when President Zuma, thendeputy president of the ANC, was accused of rape. His accuser wasthe 31-year-old daughter of a late comrade of his. She was a child ofthe struggle as she had grown up in exile and knew Zuma from there.

The case would have presented many difficulties for any organisa-tion in the ANCWLs position. On the one hand it involved a leader ittrusted and on the other the seemingly vulnerable child of a comradewho had dedicated his life to the struggle. Logic appeared to suggestthat the ANCWL would offer at least some support to the complain-ant, especially in the context of rampant sexual violence against wom-en in the country. It did no such thing, however. Instead it became

patently clear that it supported the defendant even though it did notknow what the outcome of the case would be.In fact many woman supporters of Zuma who kept vigil outside the

Johannesburg high court sang songs that proposed violence againstthe complainant and even burnt effigies of her. Zuma was later acquit-ted and the ANCWLs leadership was jubilant. I am not aware of anyprominent ANCWL leaders who offered any support to the complain-ant and she subsequently went into exile for several years.

This was an astonishingly perverse response on the part of an or-ganisation whose aims and objectives are to struggle for women to berecognised as equals and to ght all forms of violence against them. 4 It appeared that the organisation had decided to ditch its principles inorder to support its candidate for ANC president at all costs.

Ever since then the ANCWL has had repeatedly to obfuscate and ef-fectively abandon one or more of its aims and objectives in an attempt


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to justify its continuing support for problematic male colleagues inthe ANC. The times when it has taken action on the side of womenseem to have been when the culprit did not have the level of cloutZuma carries in the party as its president. This appears to have beenthe case with one Mbulelo Goniwe, at one time the partys chief whipin the National Assembly. He was expelled from the party for tryingto force himself on a female staff member but was reinstated with analleged R1.7m payout a few years later. 5

Oddly, the organisations members hardly ever fail to sing outsidecourt when one of South Africas numerous brutal rape cases goes tocourt, especially if the media is going to be there. In essence this hasbecome its main public programme and little else. There also appearsto be very little visible attempt to reinvigorate the ANCWL beyondthe now cheap and tired slogans it mouths from time to time aboutgender equality. The organisation has failed to produce a single docu-ment incisively analysing the continued dominance of patriarchy inSouth Africa, or recommending what needs to be done by institutions

and individuals to ensure that this is rooted out.It may point out the ANCs resolution to enforce a 50% genderquota for its electoral lists but that on its own is problematic. Whathas been consistently true over the years is that the members of theANC themselves, pretty much like the rest of society, would mostlyprefer males when it comes to electing leaders. This explains why allprovincial chairpersons of the party are males. The only reason somepremiers were women before the 2014 elections is that the ANC had

decided to enforce a 50% quota. This changed in 2014 as seven of theeight ANC premiers appointed were men. True transformation willonly occur when ordinary members nominate and elect women at thesame or better rate as men.

I would say the ANCWL has become a very pale shadow of its for-mer self but I doubt anyone even remembers any more what it used tostand for. It is a mere conveyor belt to canvas women to vote for the


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ruling party, and in doing this it only perpetuates the oppression ofwomen. It is failing dismally when it comes to using its position andvoice to pursue a cohesive programme of action to ensure that institu-tionalised gender discrimination is removed from society.

Sometimes the presence of women leaders can be misleading, suchas in the Democratic Alliance. Just like the ANC, the DAs rank andle have a preference for males, although the party is also increasinglypushing women. It is just of no help that its leader, Helen Zille, chosean all-male cabinet when she was elected premier of the Western Capein 2009. Zille has refused to acknowledge the irrationality or explainthe meaning of this act. In 2014 she did better, appointing two otherwomen to her provincial cabinet but she still received heavy criticism.

In essence Zille and the DA continue to suggest that in the entireDA, in the entire Western Cape province, they could not nd a singlewoman who was capable of taking up a post in Zilles cabinet. Even ifwe assume that this is true, the party has very serious questions to askand answer about why such a situation developed in the rst place and

what it means. So far the party has failed to address these questionsand instead continues to trumpet its belief in the principle of meritand tness for purpose noble in an equal society but utterly disin-genuous in a gender-unequal country.

Am I advocating a brand of affirmative action where people who arenot suitable are placed in positions of leadership such as in the cabi-net? Of course not. The country has suffered for long enough underthe yoke of ministerial and government incompetence over the decades.

What I am saying, however, is that parties cannot ignore the reality ofmany brilliant, capable women being suppressed through allocation tomeaningless tasks instead of being placed at the forefront of our politicsand government. If one looks diligently enough, one can always ndthem. Either the DA was just not too enthusiastic in their pursuit orthe Western Cape really is a barren enclave for women development,something in itself that should concern Zille and her colleagues.


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It would be dishonest to place the blame for the continued domi-nance of patriarchy in South Africa on political parties. It is a symp-tom of a society that, for various reasons, continues to relegate womento secondary roles while denying at an individual level that this iswhat is happening. Many of these gender roles beliefs are entrenchedin us from an early age, and this is how gender inequality and dis-crimination is normalised. It will take much more than political partypolicy to change this as I will demonstrate when I make proposals forchange later in this chapter.

The attempt to nd true freedom for women therefore has to becentred on a fundamental belief that all human beings are absolutelyequal, not just before the law but in every corner of humanity andsociety. We may be different in our talents, strengths and preferencesbut fundamentally men and women have the same rights and virtuallythe same obligations, the most fundamental of these being to respectthe inherent dignity of every human being regardless of gender.

The wretched position of women today

South Africa may have a progressive, liberal constitution but thishas not led to a signicant change in attitudes towards patriarchyand gender relations. For different reasons many South Africansdo not really believe in the Constitutions founding texts, even ifthey say they do, and not only when it comes to gender issues. For

instance, there are those who believe corporal punishment shouldbe restored to schools despite a court ruling outlawing it as uncon-stitutional.

It is the same with gender equality. Many of us profess to believe inthe equality of men and women but in our private spaces we say anddo things that are contrary to the Constitution in this respect. Menwho claim to be progressive still expect their female partners and


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other women in their lives to perform certain tasks and carry specicresponsibilities in line with their gender.

Even in the new South Africa gender relations have evolved insuch a way that there is often an unspoken alliance between whitemen and black men in the workplace. This is evidenced, for example,when the rst movers for affirmative action appointments have beenpredominantly men rather than women. The black woman, just likeold times, has been rmly rooted at the bottom of the ladder with verylittle opportunity for climbing up past the men stacked above her.

There is also a culture in South Africa of extreme violence againstwomen. Many men regularly beat their female partners. Some menkill their partners and some commit suicide after they have killedthem. The police statistics in this respect are staggering. There wereover 66 000 sexual offences recorded in the year between 2012 and2013.6 All but a negligible number of these were committed by menagainst women.

This is separate from the cases where women were assaulted by

their partners either as common assault or with intent to do griev-ous bodily harm. The SAPS chose not to analyse and present thesestatistics at its 2012/2013 annual presentation. Instead it relied on aWorld Health Organization report, which itself presents somewhatvague gures. It is common cause that not all incidents of crime, inparticular gender-related crimes, are reported to the police and aretherefore not recorded.

What we know is that even the reported cases of sexual assault are

too high. The 2012/2013 gure of 66 387 is too high: it gives us a rateof 182 sexual offences per day countrywide. These are crimes that aredifficult to prevent through conventional police work such as patrolsbecause they reect social attitudes and feelings of male entitlement.

On 26 December 2013 I witnessed a crime that would be character-ised as common assault in conventional police speak but amounted toa violent sexual crime in my view. I was with some friends in Port St


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Johns in the Eastern Cape when we witnessed a squabble between twoteenagers, one male and the other female. The nub of the disagree-ment was that the youngster had bought ciders for the young ladyand her friend the day before. After enjoying the drinks she and herfriends had disappeared, in the words of the highly upset young man.

In essence he was upset because after he had bought the girl drinksshe had not accompanied him to his place for sex at the end of the day.He now wanted her to pay him back. He started assaulting her whenit became clear that she was either unwilling or unable to give himany money. A couple of us had to intervene and threaten to beat himup if he did not leave the young woman alone. He reluctantly agreedbut was so upset by the apparent injustice of our intervention that hesobbed violently for a while. It was astonishing!

This attitude of men towards women manifests itself at differentlevels of society. A great many women stay in abusive relationshipsbecause their economically vulnerable position makes it difficult forthem to make choices that protect and advance their dignity. Instead

they tolerate the abuse so that the violent partner can continue pro-viding for them.Such choices would not be necessary if women were not so econom-

ically marginalised that they bear the brunt of South Africas povertyand inequality tsunamis in many different ways.

Despite being in the majority, women earn the least income. Andblack women earn far less than their white counterparts. The major-ity of black women earn between R4 800 and R20 000 per annum.

This is in contrast to white men, the majority of whom earn betweenR76 000 and R308 000 per annum. The majority of white women earnbetween R19 600 and R308 000 per annum. 7

These income disparities socially manifest themselves in differentways. Black women are largely dependent on all the other incomegroups for their livelihoods and so they are vulnerable to abuse byall of them. Black women suffer abuse at the hands of black men who,


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despite not earning much themselves, at least earn far better thanblack women.

Unfortunately for black women, the odds truly are heavily stackedagainst them. Not only do they have to overcome an unfounded ex-pectation of weakness and incompetence arising out of white racism,they have to endure this from almost all other races as well. As if thiswas not enough, they bear the burden of a combination of Africanpatriarchal tendencies and the effects of conservative Christianity towhich many black people subscribe. This double-edged sword virtual-ly ensures that the social and economic structures black women haveto overcome in order to achieve individual and collective freedom areimmense.

Those women who have achieved relative freedom, who are profes-sionals with income that enables them to buy property and provide forthemselves, still have many obstacles to overcome. In the workplacethey are not only thought to be inherently less competent than theirmale peers, but they also have to overcome challenges such as intense

sexual harassment by male colleagues.In a contradiction all too familiar in South Africa, the black maleswho complain bitterly about racism in the workplace are frequentlythe same people who demand sexual favours and harass black femalecolleagues at work. They seem oblivious to the double blow they aredelivering since black women are also victims of white racism.

At other times women who manage to succeed are accused of hav-ing done so only after a horizontal interview, a euphemism for offer-

ing sexual favours in return for job promotion. Such accusations aremade as much by women as they are by men. This is a persistent alle-gation against a certain female South African radio host, for example,which, given the extent of her talent, I nd hard to believe and havealways put down to jealousy.

This tendency to accuse successful women of having offered sex inreturn for recognition at work is the other side of the racist tendency


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that suggests that black people can only get promoted through af-rmative action rather than a good professional track record. In bothinstances it is a subliminal suggestion that the accusers themselves donot believe that certain people are capable of achievement unless theyare being looked after.

Interestingly, there is almost never a case where the accuser ndsreason to blame the male who insisted that the woman sleep withhim for a promotion. In deeply patriarchal societies like ours, it is thewoman, it seems, who must always carry the moral burden while theman gets away with behaviour that ought to be regarded as morallyreprehensible. Of these kinds of attitudes, black women are the big-gest victims.

All the structures that keep women, and especially black women,in such a position that they become easy targets for violence, are aform of violence themselves. I think of this as structural violence. Ifwe are to succeed in emancipating women from social and economicbondage, we cannot do this without looking holistically at the full

set of combined and contradictory values and beliefs that ensure thatwomen cannot progress beyond mere tokenism. In fact, in my viewthe changes that have occurred so far are merely cosmetic. I cannotthink of a reason why it has to take so long to achieve what is so ethi-cal, so human and so utterly logical.

While I have no desire to compare degrees of violence that existagainst women (which in any case may offend victims), the abhorrenttreatment reserved for black lesbians needs to be singled out. Its dif-

cult to nd an accurate measure of the hate and venom reserved forblack women who are gay. In addition to corrective gang rapes bymen, who are often from their own communities, when black lesbiansget assaulted or killed this is always done in the most gruesome man-ner possible.

Consider the case of Duduzile Zozo, a 26-year-old woman from theEast Rand, who was found half-naked, raped and with a toilet brush


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pushed into her vagina in July 2013. She was gay. The suspect was aneighbour who lived on the street adjacent to hers. 8

While the professional and middle-class consciousness is often in-formed by slow progression of affirmative action implementation inthe corporate sector, where white men and men in general continue todominate, this is a symptom of a larger problem that we need to tacklewith the same vigour as that with which we confronted apartheid. Ifwe are genuine about our dedication to freedom and equality, we can-not be selective.

Breaking free from bondage: A difcult road ahead

To talk of non-sexism has become cheap. Its not that easy and it cantbe accomplished at the stroke of a pen. I dont think we fully appreci-ate the difficulty, depth and duration of the task of banishing all formsof gender discrimination from our society. The task is about creating a

new consciousness, a new morality and a new formulation of tradition.Each of these things in itself will be difficult to achieve. Realistically, itwill take generations for South African women to be totally free, butthat date of emancipation will continue to be delayed if we do not starton a new foundation now.

The Constitution has laid a good enough basis for us. But the failureof moral consistency and courage by South African men in positionsof leadership to lead by example is the biggest problem. In failing to

produce works that begin to break down or challenge oppressive ste-reotypes about women, their championing of women is hollow. Men ininuential positions need continuously to speak out against all formsof oppression, not in the usual manner that sings the usual slogans,but one that demonstrates deep and heartfelt insight into the chal-lenges and struggles of women. An example in this regard would beto speak against the practice by powerful men in business and politics


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of treating women as commodities that are exploited to full the vicesof being in positions of power.

At the foundation of our efforts is a need to dene what we mean byequality and justice. First we need to make clear that the equality be-tween sexes, at the level of rights, is absolute and non-negotiable. Femalechildren must have exactly the same opportunities and entitlements asmale children. This means we must begin to regard the tradition of be-stowing genealogical inheritance on male children only as a heresy.

As I illustrated in the example about the family friend who left hisestate to his widow, black women in particular are still deprived oftheir birthright simply because they are women, regardless of whatthe Constitution says. Most South Africans do not have the money topursue litigation. Many do not even know that they can appeal to thecourts for relief.

Changing a tradition of inheritance is going to be very difficult. ForXhosa people it will mean asking them to change their understandingof inkulu , the great heir. This is reserved for the male child. The rst-

born girl is called umafungwashe , the one by whom all others swear.For now it is unthinkable that this tradition may be anything but whatit already is, but an elephant can only be eaten in small portions.

The clash between our modern Constitution and tradition becameapparent in the last days of the late former President Mandela. Hisdaughter Makaziwe clashed with his grandson, Mandla, by his lateson and Makaziwes brother. The dispute arose after it became knownthat Mandla, chief of Mvezo and heir to the Mandela chieftaincy, had

removed the remains of his father and other family members fromQunu village to Mvezo village where he lived.

The minute details of the case are beside the point, suffice to saythat the young chief s assertion was that as heir and chief, he wasentitled to take decisions concerning his own father and the othermembers of his family. His aunt, Makaziwe, begged to differ and tookhim to court and won.


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Had we lived in a different society, the one I believe is possible andmust be pursued, being male would not automatically have entitledMandla to being a chief. Secondly, he would not be able to easily makethe claim, as he did in late 2013 while addressing a press conference,that his aunt was no longer a full member of the family because shewas married to another.

The starting point in changing this way of thinking is to suggestthat those who have an inheritance to bestow do this on a basis otherthan gender. In other words, we should make it clear to our childrenfrom an early age that being a male accords them no special entitle-ments in the home, not ever. This must begin with the householdchores they are asked to perform and by not apportioning these on abasis of gender stereotypes, which is the bedrock of sexism and otherforms of gender dominance and discrimination.

The second important truth to absorb is to admit that while gen-der discrimination and misogyny know no race, it is black womenwho suffer the most. Among other forms of discrimination, they are

victims of tradition, religious conservatism and white racism. The ex-perience of discrimination and oppression by black women is mostlyfrom treatment and violence meted out to them by black men. So itis black men in particular who need to transform their own attitudes,towards themselves rst and then towards women.

This means no longer believing, like most men tend to believe any-way, that they occupy a genetically superior position because they aremen. Women need to be accepted as intelligent and capable as every-

one else. The notions of superiority that so many men hold on to aremerely ridiculous superstition.

In order to achieve the dubious notion of political correctness, thereare many who claim that African traditions are already sufficientlyrespectful of women. This is only partly true. Like any other societythere is a modicum of respect for women but it is always supersededby the higher position of the male in the social pecking order. In the


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case of some local cultures, until recently it was acceptable to abductwomen for forced marriage, the practice of ukuthwala I have talkedabout elsewhere. There is absolutely nothing respectful about thatpractice. Instead the opposite is true.

Being honest with ourselves, then, and working hard to removethose aspects of our cultures that keep women in bondage are goingto be extremely difficult but it is an imperative for which no effortshould be spared.

As I have said elsewhere in this book, I believe the schooling systemis the ideal place to deal with such matters in a neutral environment.It is unrealistic to expect these things to be taught in every home, atthe same time and with the same vigour, but if they fell under LifeSkills, a subject all learners have to take at school over several years,signicant progress could be made.

The third intervention is to further change the ethos of the crimi-nal justice system to cater for the vulnerable position of women. Thetime has come for the government to create special courts to deal with

crimes against women. It is unconscionable that rape and other simi-lar cases have to spend years in the courts when the entire experienceof rape and having to relive the memory is very difficult for women.Many women also have to endure the discomfort of being in the samecommunity as their abusers.

It is generally acknowledged that rape cases are not always re-ported. This is partly because the victims do not want to go throughthe second trauma of police officers who treat them with insensitivity

and sometimes show no enthusiasm to even record the case. In caseswhere women are raped by their partners, there are police officerswho refuse to regard this as rape. Special units and courts would go along way towards dealing with this problem, which has reached epi-demic proportions, something it seems we refuse to acknowledge.

The fourth intervention concerns the economic empowerment ofwomen, especially rural women. The impact of economic exclusion


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makes women particularly vulnerable to emotional abuse, emanatingfrom their complete dependence on men for sustenance. While it doesnot guarantee that women will be free from the effect of discrimina-tion in the home, an institutionalised focus on improving the school-ing and health success of the girl child will, in the long term, resultin women clawing their way into a more assertive position in societythan they enjoy now.

Affirmative action measures designed to achieve women empower-ment are in place but these are insufficient and address only the reali-ties of those women who are part of the formal economy. There aremillions of women and girls in rural areas who simply do not have theopportunity to join the formal economy, so development initiativesmust take this into account. Specic instruments and targets for suchvulnerable women need to be created.

Conclusion

I am of the view that we need to understand women emancipation asa fundamental political issue that is inextricably attached to the free-dom struggle. Clearly, since women have continued to be oppressed,we cannot legitimately claim that full political freedom has been real-ised for them.

True freedom is realised when no individual is restrained from enjoying the rights of citizenship, accessing opportunities to develop

and grow, and to be free from the fear of violence, the anxiety of beingtreated like a second-class citizen and the other terrible realities thatwomen face.

There is a tendency to call those who advocate women emancipa-tion feminists. I am not sure that this label should be used as wan-tonly as I think it is. There is a common humanity that unites us, anddemanding equal rights, treatment and opportunities for women is a


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fundamental act of justice nothing less, nothing more. It should notlead to a labelling that makes womens rights a special case.

Until women are regarded simply as human beings, the freedomstruggle is not over.

Notes

1 West, C., 1993. Race Matters . Beacon Press, Massachusetts, p.35.2 Fukuyama, F., 2011. The Origins of Political Order . Prole Books, London, p.57.

3 The Bible (NIV). Genesis 1, verses 1923.4 Aims and Objectives of the ANCWL, Rule 2.9.5 www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/sex-pest-goniwe-gets-r1-7m-from-

anc-1.1606314#.Utn8nxD8LIU (accessed 16 March 2014).6 SAPS crime statistics presentation, slide 28, www.saps.gov.za/statistics/reports/

crimestats/2013/downloads/crime_statistics.presentation.pdf (accessed 16 March2014).

7 Statistician Generals presentation of 2011 census, slides 3037, www.statssagov.co.za/Census2011/Products/SGPresentation.pdf (accessed 16 March 2014).

8 www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/murder-accused-was-slain-lesbian-s-neighbour-1.1595486#.UtpYIRD8LIU (accessed 16 March 2014).

Excerpt from Raising the Bar by Songezo Zibi

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