KZN MEC for Cogta Nomusa Dube-Ncube says women will never be fully emancipated, if they are not united. Dube-Ncube was speaking to hundreds of women attending a Women’s Day celebration in Dannhauser in northern KZN.
She said that only through unity, would women be in a position to devise solutions to the innumerable challenges facing them daily. She urged women to stand up against men who continue to abuse women and children by reporting them to the law enforcement agencies.
“If one woman is abused, all women in a village should stand up against this scourge. Some women keep quiet, knowing very well that their neighbour is abused daily. Some go as far being silent when their children are sexually assaulted by their partners. That cannot be right; we need to put a stop to this. Enough is enough and our law enforcement agencies should work with women to rid our communities of these social ills,” said Dube-Ncube.
On economic empowerment, Dube-Ncube urged women to organise themselves to be able to benefit from the Radical Economic Transformation agenda. According to her, all municipalities have been directed to be centres of economic activity and women must at all times be prioritised in these endeavours.
“Our government wants certain goods and services to be procured from women providers. When we are talking about women’s emancipation, economic empowerment must feature permanently in this discourse. Women have been marginalised for years and it is high time that as government we lead by example. We want women to feed schools, hospitals, prisons and supply school uniforms, to mention but a few. We believe this would indeed break the cycle of poverty in our communities, if implemented aggressively,” said Dube-Ncube.
Dube-Ncube appealed for women to be given opportunities to occupy positions of power to excel. This would help to guard against giving credence to stereotypes to the effect that women are incompetent. Men have also been urged to play their part by protecting and supporting women.
ENDS