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IT’S ABOUT TIME

08/09/2017 01:09:00 By Martin Dlamini

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ONE of the key highlights of this year’s successful Reed Dance Ceremony is that new song urging women to vote for women at next year’s elections. A majority of the maidens may be too young to vote next year but they will hopefully sing the song to their mothers, elder sisters, aunties, female teachers and grandmothers until they all elect in unison at the polling stations.

Numerous attempts have been made to raise the level of gender equality or women empowerment in governance, the workplace and other spheres. Our Constitution also guarantees them equal rights. However, there is only one elected woman member of the current Parliament locally to show for it - rendering our target of a 50/50 gender representation in government a pipe dream. This is a shame really considering that a majority of our voters are women.

At global level, Sustainable Development Goals No 5 calls for achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls. Attached to it are various initiatives targeted at achieving this goal; one of which is a call for the adoption of seven principles that can be used to empower women in the workplace, marketplace, government and the community under the theme; Equality Means Business.

The principles call for the establishment of a high-level corporate leadership for gender equality; Treating all women and men fairly at work; Ensuring the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers; Promoting education, training and professional development for women; Implementing enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women; Promoting equality through community initiatives and advocacy; and Measuring and publicly reporting on progress towards achieving gender equality.

Well the song sung by the maidens speaks to these principles but the reality is that it will take a Parliament full of women to get the necessary policies and legislation in place. It may need more than just a song for women to embrace the full meaning of independence by liberating themselves from a male dominated governance that is struggling to get us working in one accord to raise this country above lower middle income status. Women have the power to change this.

Forget the talk about women being too emotional to be good leaders because the number of dead women in the hands of their male partners suggests that men are weaker at controlling their emotions.

Given the state of our economy, one is inclined to think that a woman dominated Parliament could probably do a better job in allocation of our financial resources towards national priorities as they would be more sensitive to human life by ensuring people’s needs come first.

Look no further than the opening of schools next week where pupils will probably go to class on empty stomachs because government can’t afford to feed them. Sadly some of these children come from homes headed by their grandmothers who are also forced to go for months without social welfare grants. Some of the elderly are not even on the list of beneficiaries because our cash strapped government can’t afford to take on any more.

We know and trust that women with integrity and good morals would rather go hungry than to approve an unsustainable salary increment at the expense of providing for essential needs like drugs in hospitals and clinics and school feeding schemes.

Perhaps our women would be less corrupt and save the country’s resources for other urgent needs like infrastructure in our schools, many of which have no science laboratories or libraries. The lack of teachers’ houses and basic amenities like water and electricity has rendered some schools strictly for the have-nots. Trying to get to these areas using the unmaintained roads is a nightmare.

We would also like to believe that legislation such as the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Bill would not have taken more than a decade to get through Parliament where it is currently stuck while women and the girl child abuse cases rise by the day.

Businesses would be paid on time and none would need to lay off staff to add to the already high levels of unemployment in this country.
As we start the search for these future women leaders to usher us into 2022 and beyond, we ought to be certain of the future we want, the Swaziland we want and ultimately the Africa we want. Our level of seriousness should start with the local government elections where many people are being rendered homeless due to loss of property.

We take for granted the role of councillors in ensuring a balance between development and people’s well-being. Municipalities, as an extension of government, are there to improve the lives of the people not to destroy them. However, it takes a well informed citizenry to make the distinction. It is such a citizenry that will be able to identify good role models in both men and women that deserve to lead. No tokenism please!