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LET’S ENGAGE ON GBV EMERGENCY CALL - DPM

17/08/2023 11:17:00 Sibusiso Zwane

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MANZINI - DPM Themba Masuku has invited those who are calling for gender- based violence (GBV) to be declared a national emergency for talks.

The deputy prime minister (DPM) said this yesterday when launching three national policies and strategies; National Gender Policy of 2023, National Strategy on Ending Violence of 2023/27 and Strategy on Family Strengthening and Positive Parenting 2023/27. The launch was held at Esibayeni Lodge, Matsapha. While unpacking the objectives of the policies and strategies, in particular the National Strategy on Ending Violence of 2023/27, the DPM said there had been calls for government, specifically his office, to declare GBV a national emergency.

Wished

He said even if he personally wished to, he could not wake up in the morning and just do it. In that regard, he called upon all entities that had or were pushing the narrative that GBV should be declared a national emergency to approach his office, to have proper discussions over the matter. He said the discussions would include, where emaSwati got it wrong, among other things. “We cannot talk about this subject through the media, but we need to be civil by engaging each other to discuss it properly,” the DPM said. He emphasised that anybody who wanted to stop GBV like him, should contact the office of the principal sectary in his office, so that arrangements for engagements could be made. The DPM referred to GBV as nonsense.
“Do not send petitions, but come and let us engage,” Masuku added. He said he had never chased anybody away from his office.

He also added that maybe he was on the same narrative, but emphasised the importance of proper engagements on the subject. It is worth noting that a number of civil society organisations, including the Swaziland Rural Women Assembly (SRWA), have been calling upon government to declare GBV a national emergency and they went to the extent of petitioning the DPM’s Office. Their argument was that once GBV was declared as a national emergency, enough funds would be directed towards responding to the escalating statistics.
They argued that men could be well educated about same and be clear that the law, in particular the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act of 2018, was meant to protect everyone, not women alone.

Regarding the national policies and strategies, the DPM said the three documents were guiding tools for spearheading gender equality and equity in Eswatini. He highlighted that gender equality and women’s empowerment remained government’s priority agenda, as the intention was to leave no one behind. He said the Kingdom of Eswatini adopted its first National Gender Policy in 2010, which demonstrated government’s commitment towards gender equality and further providing an important step towards the realisation of gender equality and equity in the country. He highlighted that this policy was launched by the Queen Mother.

Improvements

To date, he said they noted that this policy had ushered in enormous improvements in the lives of women and girls of Eswatini, as more females were protected by national laws and lived under a Constitution guaranteeing gender equality. He added that national measurable milestones to combat discrimination against women and girls in structural and legal environment were seen. He said these included; the enactment, review and amendment of gender discriminatory legislation, as well as adoption of gender responsive policies and programme, to promote the rights and proper welfare of women and girls, including men and boys.

Again, he said in recent years, they had seen the enactment of the SODV Act of 2018, to protect emaSwati, especially women and girls, against any form of violence and abuse. Also, he said in the same year (2018), government enacted the Election of Women into the House of Assembly Act, 2018 - to increase the representation of women in Parliament and ensure their meaningful participation in politics. According to the DPM, there were also ongoing legislative reviews such as the Marriage Act of 1964 and Matrimonial Property Rights Bill, the Citizenship Act of 1992, Citizens Empowerment Bill, and the amendment of the Deeds Registry Act and the Elections Act, among others.

Advocacy

He added that gender advocacy and mainstreaming in programmes were ongoing both at national, regional and community level to ensure awareness raising and information dissemination to all members of the society. “Unfortunately, despite all these efforts, women and girls continue to remain under privileged. They continue to be more vulnerable to GBV, highly affected by poverty and unrepresented in decision-making forums,” he said. According to the National Gender Index (2017), the country had made significant strides in addressing gender inequalities in several spheres of socio-economic life of the people in the country. Based on the Gender Status Index (GSI) and the Africa Women Progress Scoreboard (AWPS), which is an African Union measurement framework for ascertaining progress made towards the attainment of gender equality, the Kingdom of Eswatini was at 75.5 per cent in attainment of gender parity in all sectors of development. The highest score was attained in the social power block with 65 per cent, while the political power block remained the lowest at 55 per cent.