Johannebsurg - Executive director of UN Women and former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has slammed the world’s failure to recognise women as leaders.
Speaking at the annual Bertha Gxowa Memorial Lecture at Constitutional Hill in Joburg this weekend, she said that with current trends, estimates showed it would take 81 years to reach gender parity.
“South Africa is an exception, but we also have challenges in terms of political representation. The global average now is 20 percent for parliamentary representation. We only have 20 women heads of states in the world – out of 198 countries,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
“To be a leader in my country, first thing you must have integrity, you must be honest, you must love the people more than yourself (and) you must connect the small things with the big. You must be nice also; humble so that you are accessible. Only 20 women in the world are good enough?”
Her comments come as the ANC Women’s League has come apart, unable to hold its national congress following several postponements, and as debates in some circles continue over a possible successor to President Jacob Zuma at the ANC’s next national conference.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said southern Africa was generally one of the “luckiest parts of the world” because as a post-conflict region it had peace.
“But the quality of our peace has to be improved and deepened,” she told guests.
She identified the crises in Iraq, Syria, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Boko Haram’s insurgency in Nigeria and unfolding events in Burundi.
“What all these wars have in common is they kill men and scar women for life. Rape, abduction and trafficking are part of the war – because (insurgents) have no war protocol,” she said.
“You can’t argue with them about the statute of Rome. Being a woman in some parts of the world is more dangerous than being a soldier, and unlike soldiers (women) can’t fight back.”
But despite South Africa not being a conflict zone, Mlambo-Ngcuka called on South Africans to guard democracy.
“We need to be careful when we see rampant violence in our community – be (it against) foreign migrants, terrorisation by drug lords, and official corruption.
“All of these tear the fabric of society,” she said.
This would also include doing its bit towards achievement of some of the goals agreed to at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.
“We have to lead with purpose. We are the first generation with the real possibility to end poverty, to end the balance of power between men and women. It is the mission of our generation,” she said.
“(Author) Frantz Fanon said every generation has a mission to fulfil or betray. So, between 2015 and 2030 – we need to identify game-changing initiatives, which will enable us to countdown from 2030. We know what the gaps are, the research has been done, we must hit the ground running.
“Investing in our boys and girls is the answer to poverty; the answer for peace. We should do everything so that Africans are not on a boat waiting to lay tables in Europe.”
She said adolescent girls in South Africa continued to face “a silent crisis” because they remained targets of gender-based violence.
They were also the only cohort in which HIV-infections are rising.
“(A recent study shows) 17 percent did not know how you contract HIV. We have a responsibility to get back to telling that message. They are also victims of sugar daddies. They are not infected by their peers. They are infected by older men,” she said.
She said: “There are 54 million adolescents across the world. If we neglect them, we can forget our development plans.
“We also have to invest and educate our men and boys, or we’re preaching to the choir.
“We have to support the emergence of men’s organisations and movements standing for gender equality. Men are important. It is a luxury to neglect lobbying, co-ordinating with them.”
Labour Bureau