Human Rights of Women
WOMEN’S movements in South Africa are weak and should find new ways of recruiting women to fight for their rights, says former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
And despite the many social ills plaguing South Africa, it is evident that the country’s younger generation “do not feel there is much to fight for, because a lot of the things are given”.
Mlambo-Ngcuka, who was elected last week to head the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), spoke to the Sunday Tribune before her move to New York next month.
A resilient gender activist, Mlambo-Ngcuka, formerly of Durban, said she got goosebumps at the thought of filling the shoes of Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, her predecessor.
Bachelet served from September 2010 to March, when she returned to her native South American country to run for the presidency again.
“I will speak to Mrs Bachelet to get advice while I learn the ropes,” she said.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said her appointment was a triumph for the continent, whose women were at the receiving end of all prejudice.
She wants to ensure that gender dynamics are addressed in all sectors of South African society, and throughout the world.
“Starting with South Africa, we have to make the women’s agenda a unified agenda for women in different political parties, ideologies and belief systems.
“When it comes to issues of human rights violations and when it comes to women, there is a lot we have in common, irrespective of where we stand,” says Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Her appointment comes at the same time as that of former public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi joining the African Development Bank as special envoy for gender, and just a year after former foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma was elected to chair the AU Commission.
The appointment, she says, is a vote of confidence in the capabilities of South African women.
She was loath to discuss why the government had no place for people like her, Dlamini Zuma and Fraser-Moleketi.
“I suppose it is politics in the real world,” she says.
“You lose and you win in politics. You serve at the pleasure of (the president). But you have to take that in your stride and not sulk, and find other ways to continue to be of service. Service and leadership isn’t only about a title.”
Although she would have liked to continue to serve in the government, says Mlambo-Ngcuka, leaving office wasn’t the end of the world.
In 2008 Mlambo-Ngcuka shocked the nation when she stepped down as deputy president in solidarity with former president Thabo Mbeki, who was recalled as president of the country by the ANC.
In what could be seen as Mlambo-Ngcuka indirectly speaking about her decision to step down, she says: “As women in South Africa, we also need to stand for what is important to women and not allow ourselves to be drowned by voices that might not enhance our agenda.
“Which means sometimes we have to argue with people in similar organisations,” she added.
“But we have to stand up for what we believe is good and right for women. We must dare to take the right stand, and ride the storm that comes with it, be consistent about it.”
In February 2009, before the general elections, she joined the newly formed Congress of the People (Cope).
“I haven’t resigned from the party, I’m still a member, but I’m no longer active in party politics,” she said.
She assumed her new role with the blessing of the Zuma government, she said.
In all the government portfolios Mlambo-Ngcuka has occupied, she has pushed for gender equality and recognition.
At the Department of Trade and Industry she was behind the SA Women’s Entrepreneurs’ Network. At the Department of Minerals and Energy she played a role in many mining associations.
But she says her encounters with women’s rights groups such as the Young Women’s Christian Association in the 1980s, where she was able to “sit on the shoulders of giants”, moulded her.
Aside from her mother, Nomkhosi Mlambo, Mlambo-Ngcuka was nurtured by the likes of Brigalia Hlophe Bam, who chaired the Independent Electoral Commission, Ellen Khuzwayo and Joyce Seroke, who served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and chaired the Commission on Gender Equality.
She was the first joint co-ordinator of the young women’s programme in the run-up to national youth year.
“At the time, the strong vision of a young person in the world was that of a young man,” she says. “So our job as the women’s lobby globally was to put the woman’s face in the programme.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka worked with young women in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and Europe to create the platform.
“I met the most amazing women. It was an exposure to the resilience of young women and the challenges they face,” she says.
As to whether women’s resilience is waning, Mlambo-Ngcuka says, “I think we saw ourselves as pioneers and we needed to push the envelope. While young women have taken the baton in their own direction, maybe they do not feel there is much to fight for, because a lot of the things are given.”
There is still much to be done, she says. “When you look at the face of poverty, it is a woman’s face. The face of HIV/Aids is a woman’s face. Women are not where they are supposed to be in leadership. In conflict, war and domestic violence, it is the woman who is a victim. We have a lot of work to do.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka believes she has her work cut out for her. When she gets to the UN, she aims to expand the support base for the women’s agenda, making it the responsibility of society at large.
“Men are fathers of daughters, brothers of sisters, husbands of wives. Those are people in their lives that they care for dearly. This is everybody’s business,” she says.
Gender mainstreaming, she says, remains an important task. Although there were policies in most countries, implementation and impact were still concerns.
Planning, leadership, participation and how the Millennium Development Goals were affecting women were among the key focus areas of the job.
“I would want to position education very strongly,” she says. “Education is the single biggest challenge for women across the globe.”
She says it’s important that education is gender-nuanced.
“In some cases women have received the best possible education, but it’s not gender-nuanced enough to have given women the fighting spirit that makes them go out there and be go-getters,” she says.
“Women can get a PhD, but it does not mean they will wave the flag for women.”
She says she would like UN institutions that deal with the private sector to be among her key partners to mainstream the empowerment of women in the private sector.
Mlambo-Ngcuka says she hopes to provide a strong voice through the UN.
The former teacher, who was educated at Ohlange High School, completed her PhD while in the political wilderness.
Leaving behind her mother, 84, and brother, Bonga, who live in Clermont outside Pinetown, will be difficult, but she has the support of her husband, former prosecutions boss Bulelani Ngcuka.
“He said he would visit me,” she said with a giggle.
President Jacob Zuma congratulates Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on being appointed to head the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Picture: Siyabulela Duda