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IS ‘VOTE FOR WOMAN’ CAMPAIGN DOOMED?

14/05/2018 00:30:00 By Vusi Sibisi

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GIVEN the somewhat discordant narratives leading to this year’s general elections, it seems the ‘Vote for a Woman’ campaign is unlikely to fare any better than its predecessors – of course the campaign has been there for as long as I can remember albeit it has hardly made any impression on the political landscape of this the Kingdom of Eswatini long before she formally assumed her new identity.

But before weighing in on the ‘Vote for a Woman’ campaign let me detour briefly to the subject of renaming this country. I would have thought by now this would have been formalised in Parliament, at least to give the superficial semblance that it is people-driven and democratic as opposed to being an arbitrary imposition.
This could either have been achieved through a legislative process spearheaded by the Executive or a motion by lawmakers in Parliament.

As I see it, it cannot be that the subject matter is cut and dry, there still has to be interventions towards formalizing the name change as it happens when people or institutions rebrand and change their identities. Perhaps I’m being overly too simplistic in my view of the world and that this matter is now a closed chapter.

Yet it is not even clear or agreed (national consensus) – if there is any room for that since decrees are neither debated nor outcomes of consultations and consensus since they are not democratic by their very nature – what the inhabitants of the kingdom are now known as; plural either being Swatis, as suggested by government if its spin doctor Percy Simelane’s utterances are anything to go by, or emaSwati, which seems to make sense to me; singular being Swati or umSwati rather than liSwati – a stick for punishing the insolent; the language they speak either being Swati or siSwati.

The same applies to the subject matter of today’s column.
There is a discernible absence of national euphoria illuminated by energetic discourse over the ‘Elect a Woman’ campaign just as the case was during constitution making. Ah yes, there are haphazard pockets of discussions and in many instances these are discordant. The more pronounced of these are those happening within the institution of the Legislature and some from those organisations promoting the total emancipation of women within the Swati polity.

The national apathy over the matter – or is it the overbearing culture of patriarchy – probably best mirrored by the fact that almost 13 years after the Constitution was promulgated into the supreme law of the land, it is only now that an enabling statute has been tabled in Parliament that would ensure 30 per cent women representation in the Legislature as articulated by the Constitution.

The question that follows naturally is why this lengthy delay in implementing the dictates of the Constitution. It could well be that women and society at large are still shackled by patriarchal traditions and value systems. Generally women themselves have not been visible activists and crusaders for their own cause, which begs the question if they were waiting for favours.
Why, some of the pronunciations of women lawmakers cast aspersions on the very thought of emancipating women and remain in favour of retaining the patriarchal status quo clothed in cultural attire.

As I see it, it would be unfortunate if the campaign to elect women was driven by the need for a politically correct composition of the Legislature since that would be nothing else but tokenism. Indeed anything based on a quota system is most likely focusing on quantity rather than quality.

I’m not sure if this is what women want, just to fill up the numbers other than being at a place because of owning the correct credentials such as education, skills and competency. The country’s body politic is at such a critical crossroads to accommodate tokenism and gender balancing and in fact calls for radical paradigm shifts on many fronts.

I am sure there are many women who fit the bill but in most instances have still not emerged to stake their claim initially at micro level. A good example of this is the local government in which women representation remains negligible.
I recall a few years ago a lone woman challenging, in the courts, the political establishment on the election of the four women lawmakers from the four regions of the country as dictated by the Constitution.

But what I cannot recall is the number of women who supported this cause, in whatever way, owing to the underwhelming apathy. She subsequently lost the case that, ironically, was before a female judge of the High Court. In my book that woman was the victor for standing up and daring the State when all her female peers were coiled by fear of the unknown to the extent that they failed to openly support her cause, which she apparently abandoned without seeking a second opinion from the Supreme Court ostensibly because she lacked the financial muscle to do so.

I am a feminist in an ocean where females are apparently embarrassed to stand up for themselves to challenge the patriarchal hegemony that is at the apex of our social and political disorder. And the last thing women should be looking for and accepting is pity, sympathy and tokenism as if they lacked in anything relative to their male counterparts because, where I am, this looks like they are currying favours.

This gives the impression that generally people are much more inclined to put premium on currying favours or getting something as an entitlement other than patenting their successes to a high work ethic and impeccable morals.

Women have the power and intellect to achieve whatever they set themselves to achieve without becoming objects of pity whose upward progression is motored by politically correct overtures and tokenism.