Nongoma - KZN's Art and Culture MEC Hlengiwe Mavimbela has encouraged women to not be 'soft' on their children and even beat them up whenever they go astray.
Mavimbela was addressing hundreds of mothers who are at Ivivane Ceremony, which is their annual five-day workshop held at King Goodwill Zwelithini’s Khangela palace in KwaNongoma, Zululand.
“I have a 25-year-old son, but I still beat him," she said. "We cannot be threatened with arrest (for assaulting a child). I beat my child and he does not report me to the police because in my house where only my authority reigns supreme,” she said.
The mother of two said she is raising her children the same way she was raised by her mother.
The ceremony is meant for women to advise each other about how to run their family affairs and to deal with dairly challenges such as rape and other challenges.
Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu said her department was fully behind the ceremony, which the King had revived 12 years ago.
Mavimbela said she did not give her son food if he came home drunk.
“On September 24, my 21-year-old daughter will be having her 21st birthday ceremony who has a degree and still does not have a child of her own. My daughter does not misbehave because she is not allowed to be outside the gate after 6pm. She is not allowed by hangout at shopping centre with friends. She will do that over my dead body,” she said.
Mavimbela said when her daughter was still in school, she was not allowed to exchange cell phone messages with boys.
“Whenever she returned from school I would take her phone and check it because I wanted to see who she phoned and who she exchange messages with because her phone was for her to be able to communicate with me.
“When your children are busy with Facebook you say it is her right. Who is she chatting with at midnight? In whose house?”
She said advised women to check for signs of breast cancer on a regular basis by touching themselves to feel if they have not developed any lumps.
Meanwhile, Simelane-Zulu told women that they had a right to terminate their ability to bear chilren if they no longer wanted to have children.
“You can go to a doctor without seeking approval of your husband,” she said.