PUBLIC Protector Thuli Madonsela has called on women in public life to use their positions to advance the course of justice, freedom and constitutionalism in honour of struggle heroines such as the late Albertina Sisulu.
Speaking in Polokwane, Limpopo, yesterday to commemorate Women's Month, she said it was the duty of such women to ensure freedom, justice and human dignity promised in the Constitution were not sabotaged by waste of public resources through incompetence, selfishness, greed or corruption.
She said there was a growing tendency to use public power to advance certain people's selfish interests or of those close to them.
"It is our time to act and not 'our turn to eat' [but] this is not meant to discourage women's economic empowerment," Madonsela said.
The footprints of Sisulu and many others provided a plan for a life that was not about advancing their course, but rather about leadership that advanced the course of all humanity, with special focus on the less fortunate.
Women's demands had always transcended own selfish interests and focused on justice for all. This could be traced back to the 1954 charter of women's rights.
CALL: Thuli Madonsela