Johannesburg - South African women continue to bear the brunt of violence, discrimination, and patriarchy, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Sunday.
In a statement marking Women's Day, Numsa said this year's event took place against the backdrop of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic which had swept across the globe.
"In our own country more than 10 000 people have lost their lives. This has been worsened by the severe economic hardship which were triggered by the lockdown forcing many companies to shut down. According to the National Income Dynamics Study (NICD) Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM), approximately 2.5 to three million people lost their jobs between February and April. These job losses affected women the most with women accounting for approximately two million jobs lost.
"South Africa is a very violent country and women suffer the most, particularly African working class women. According to the South African Police [Service] crime statistics for the 2019/2020, 58 people are murdered daily and 146 sexual offences are committed everyday.
"The discrimination of women in the workplace continues with women continuing to be severely under-represented in leadership positions ... they only account for six percent of the executives on the JSE and men continue to earn much more than women."
These shocking statistics demonstrated the "devastating impact of the patriarchal capitalist system". African women continued to be the most exploited and abused. In the workplace they were the lowest paid and were often exposed to the worst working conditions. They were victims of harassment and assault by their bosses, only to confront the same abuse at home, Numsa said in the statement.
African News Agency (ANA)