Durban — According to Puleng Phaka the second deputy president of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), love cannot be instilled by a person hitting you and there is no such thing as “for him to show me that he loves me he must beat me”.
Phaka and various women leaders spoke on Saturday at a meeting with women leaders of the union titled, Women in Leadership, held in Kimberley, Northern Cape.
Phaka spoke about how women stood firm on August 9, 1956, to oppose and reject the dompas system which was part of the apartheid system. She said gender-based violence (GBV) was a pandemic that this generation must defeat.
“What they fought for was the challenges of 1956. Today our challenge is gender-based violence. Today our challenge is different from 1956. That one has been overcome, some of us are having smart cards but we are not asked to produce them when we are walking around. But what we need to do is to make sure that we hold hands and fight this pandemic called gender-based violence.
“A person that loves you must respect you, and they must take care of you and protect you. That’s a person that loves you, said Phaka.
Earlier in her opening address, the regional deputy chairperson of the Northern Cape and Free State region, Grace Mosokotsoane shared a deeply personal story about her own experiences with GBV in her family and the effect it had.
Mosokotsoane went to great lengths to emphasise the importance of fighting the scourge and encouraged women in abusive relationships to seek help and take steps to leave the relationship.
Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union convenor in the Northern Cape and Free State Lerato Pitso reminded women who were gathered at the meeting that women were powerful and that they should believe more in themselves.
“Be brave and explore educational and career opportunities in order to develop yourselves in whichever field or career you have chosen,” said Pitso.
Representing Pan Africanism Today (PAT) Zikhona Kunene gave a presentation on patriarchy and how the capitalist system was structured to objectify and exploit women and called for women in communities to organise themselves better to fight against the system.
Zandile Nsibande, a veteran in community struggles from Abahlali baseMjondolo, said that women needed to be united.
“We must encourage women not to surrender all their power to men so that we can defeat GBV and live in a world that is free from abuse,” she stated.
Commission for Gender Equality provincial manager in the Northern Cape Thembelihle Bongwana said that patriarchy and challenges faced by women in leadership were often undermined.
“The government has been very slow in transforming the workplace so that a greater number of women participate in leadership roles in organisations and companies,” she said.
Daily News