PRETORIA: The unprecedented militancy demonstrated by South African women during the 1950s advanced the liberation struggle significantly.
However, to speak specifically of South African women is to obscure the real importance of these bitter struggles. Women all over the world have at some point faced discrimination from patriarchal forces.
This was according to International Relations and Co-operation Deputy Minister Nomaindia Mfeketo, who was yesterday delivering a public lecture to mark the end of Women’s Month at Freedom Park in Pretoria. In addition, she was co-hosting an exhibition to mark former Cuban president Fidel Castro’s 90th birthday.
From the early years of the Cuban Revolution, she said, the issue of women’s rights and their role in society became a priority of the government led by Castro. So it was befitting to host the two events simultaneously.
“It is befitting to host this event alongside the celebration of Castro’s photo exhibition because the women of South Africa believe there are few countries outside our continent that have contributed more to the Struggle of African women for liberation from colonialism and apartheid than Cuba.
“He (Castro) understood that without their support and active contribution it was not possible to achieve military victory or carry out the radical social and political transformation of a liberated Cuba.”
She said South Africans had a lot to learn from Cuba’s pride and political resilience, which ensured that Cubans remained a proud and sovereign people, in spite of the negative effects of 55 years of a US embargo and the socio- economic effects on the people of Cuba, particularly on women and children.
Against the odds, Cuba has outpaced many countries, including developed nations, in categories crucial to gender equality, ie the number and percentage of women in politics and in high-level ministerial positions.
South Africa and Cuba have translated their bond of historical friendship into formal bilateral relations, with co-operation covering a wide spectrum of fields, notably health, labour, defence, social development, built environment, infrastructure, science and technology, safety, sustainable development, agriculture and sanitation.
Mfeketo said she would like to see women from the two countries engage at the highest level possible in the solidarity campaign to end the economic blockade by the US.
“In the same vein we would like to see increased participation of women in the efforts of the South African Chapter of the Friends of Cuba Society in mobilising support in solidarity campaigns for Cuba, especially its women in South Africa and elsewhere.”
Sharing Mfeketo’s sentiments was Cuba’s ambassador to South Africa, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, who said from the earliest years of the Cuba revolution, the issue of women’s rights became a priority of the revolutionary government led by Castro.
“He understood that women were a revolution within a revolution.”
De Cossio further boasted that in Cuba 48 percent of the state workforce is run by women with salaries equal to men.
And 73 percent of prosecuting attorneys and 71 percent of judges are women. Sixty-six percent of professionals or technically qualified workers are women. Nine out of 15 provinces have women as head of provincial government authorities.
“Cuba has come a long way in liberating women and I hope our South African friends can follow in our footsteps.”