Johannesburg - Happiness, among other things, has pushed the life expectancy of Gauteng women up one year, according to the province's Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa.
She, along with other power women, have encouraged women to take charge of their health and well-being.
The MEC was addressing women at the EmpowaWomen Health and Wellness Southern Africa leadership summit held at the Maslow Hotel in Sandton yesterday.
The event, attended by women from across the continent to discuss the future of wellness in Gauteng, was themed “Making a case for wellness”.
In celebrating Women’s Month, Ramokgopa said: “We must also push back the frontiers of this huge burden of disease. We will be launching a health and wellness revolution programme in our province to ensure we achieve this vision of a minimum of 70 years of long and healthy lives for all.”
The MEC added that the department had been encouraged by initiatives to promote women’s life expectancy.
“We are really encouraged by these initiatives, although they were not consolidated into a programme, that women’s life expectancy has increased to just above 69 years, and that men are lagging behind.
“There is a science around this, and I have shared with the women that it is important to know that health is wealth,” she pointed out.
Ramokgopa added that happiness was “one of the indicators to ensure homeostasis and a healthy relationship between the spiritual, mental, psychological and physical being”.
“For women, this includes addressing issues of patriarchy, gender-based discrimination and equality.
"My message is that it is important for every community, every society and every nation to ensure that the right to quality healthcare for every citizen, including their rights to reproductive health, is the responsibility of all leaders to ensure that these services are available closer to where women live,” said the MEC.
“We are supposed to be measured against the health and well-being of society, and we have a huge burden of disease. What we have been doing is assessing how the health system can cope with the burden of diseases,” she said.
Tanzanian chief executive of Maadili Leadership Solutions, Scholastica Kimaryo, said: “Everything one does should be done with mindful awareness, and that means mastering yourself.”