#WomensMonth is rich in meaning

Silas Mothupi Makena

Silas Mothupi Makena

Published Aug 24, 2017

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Pretoria - South African public holidays are laden with meaning, irrespective of whether they are politically or religiously inspired.

They remind us to reflect on their historical significance, and move forward with more zeal to achieve what they set out to achieve.

For instance, March 21, which focuses on human rights, and September 24, Heritage Day, come to mind.

There are certainly other significant days (often translated to months) on the South African calendar of holidays, but none more important than August 9, National Woman’s Day. Wisely conceived, this day, like other public holidays, has its celebration extended throughout the entirety of August.

Its existence has been inspired by the 1956 Woman’s March on the Union Buildings. Whenever one remembers this historical day, one is bound to also remember the likes of Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Sophia Williams-de Bruyn, Rahima Moosa, Bertha Gqowa, together with hundreds of other brave women who participated in this famous march against pass laws.

August focuses our attention on the plight of women in particular, and of course of human rights in general. Children come to mind as well whenever one raises issues relating to womenfolk. Race and racism is never left behind too, and neither are issues of the differently abled persons.

Sadly though, as much as there is a lot to celebrate in terms of efforts made thus far to emancipate women from the claws of patriarchy, to empower them, and to get them developed, there is also much to regret in terms of failing to make necessary progress in attaining all set objectives in this regard. We may celebrate women considering where they have started their quest of emancipation - including progress made in terms of leveraging a progressive gender transformation and development framework in the stakes of learning opportunities, employability, and of course the elevation/promotion to positions of significant influence in society.

From where I stand as a man, I do not think it would be appropriate of me to declare progress made to date in the realm of gender transformation, woman empowerment and development to be a success story yet.

South Africa woke up on August 7 to news that the deputy minister in the Department of Higher Learning and Training allegedly beat up women at a Johannesburg nightclub (charges of assault have been laid and the deputy minister has resigned). Here is a public figure in a public space engaging in a violent manner against people who were not fighting back. This disgraceful incident took place at a time when rational thinking South Africans are mooting solutions to the problem of gender-based violence across the country. There is no way that anyone, let alone an educated representative of government, can ever justify the beating of any person because such a person holds a different view from his.

The celebration of the 2017 Women’s Month is taking place within the context of gender-based violence, where both enlightened and unenlightened men continue to engage in violence against women.

As much as this can be attributed to personal attitude and behaviour, blame can also be placed at the doorstep of patriarchy and the socialisation of men. In our search for solutions to this scourge, we should also place human faces to oppressive systems.

As Bob Marley sings, No Woman, Nuh (don’t) Cry - Please don’t shed no tear - Everything is gonna be alright, an earnest appeal to South African women is to shed despair and continue to fight against the system that abuses them.

This discussion would not be complete without an attempt to resolve the challenges. Patrick Shai of Sonke Justice and Sello Maake-ka-Ncube of Afriman Rising Campaign, and renowned television and stage stars in South Africa, are playing a role in educating young and old men about human coexistence with a bias on good gender relations between men and women.

When we celebrate Women’s Month, therefore, we also celebrate people like these. To resolve the issues requires collaborative attention by both men and women.

Efforts to conscientise men and boys on acceptable practices of human engagement at the national level need to be augmented by localised and small-group mentorship and workshop interventions. Families need to be empowered with the tools to challenge regressive cultural, religious, and traditional practices which undermine the progress in gender equity.

Women, who have proven themselves to be great teachers on various platforms of life, can continue to teach their male counterparts on good practices of engagement. We should double our efforts to improve on our efforts to find solutions to this stubborn system of patriarchy. Awareness content is required, instead of only rushing in to celebrate the relatively little progress we have made thus far.

* Silas Mothupi Makena is a life coach and author

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

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