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August 2020 |
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| Learning from the past, active in the present Impact of Covid-19 on Women Gender inequality and the social reproduction crisis Tribute to women revolutionaries Celebrate diversity and red-card racism Towards ending Gender Based Violence Academia as a Site of Struggle for Women Tribute to Cde Vilma Espin Sexual Violence as a weapon of war Covid-19 Corruption and Gender-Based Violence Global Pandemics |
Dr Blade Nzimande Sheila Barsel Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi Pat Horn Spenser Hodgson Dr Sithembiso Bhengu Naledi Maponopono Lefika Chetty Reneva Fourie Martin Dolny |
Communist Women Cadres to the Fore! Learning from the past, Active in the present:
Socialism is the future - Build it now SACP General Secretary, Dr Blade Nzimande
This is a an edited version of the General Secretary's speech at the SACP Conference of Women Commissars.
Political education and ideological training
The SACP resolved to establish the Conference of Women Commissars, as an integral part of its cadre development strategy, to advance political education and ideological training. This is an inseparable part of our Party Building strategy and programme to dismantle patriarchy towards building a non-sexist society. Our aim is to build the SACP as a large vanguard Party of the working class capable of deepening and defending the national democratic revolution and advancing the struggle towards a socialist transition under the direction of scientific socialism.
Let us from the onset clarify the reference to "a large vanguard Party" in our Programme, the South African Road to Socialism (Sars). The planned annual convening of the Conference of Women Commissars is part of building the SACP as a vanguard party. The reference to "large vanguard Party" in Sars refers to both quantity and quality. Our Party Programme distinguishes a large vanguard Party from a mass Party. As the Party Programme states, the SACP should determine its size based on the tasks at hand. The SACP has to move with the times to develop its Marxist-Leninist character to greater heights. Therefore, it is not numbers for its own sake.
The SACP of the twenty-first century, for instance, cannot organise in the same way as the International Socialist League, for instance, organised between 1915 and 1921, important as that form of organising was relevant for its time.
Similarly, the SACP of the twenty-first century cannot organise in the same way as the Communist Party of South Africa and the SACP of the twentieth century organised. There is a marked difference between the conditions of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century. Between January 1950 and 2 February 1990, for example, the SACP had to organise underground, in exile, in the international sphere, and actively taking part in the armed struggle.
The Party added these four pillars of our struggle to its strategy in the twentieth century, in response to its banning by the apartheid regime and the oppressive regime's intensified use of violence. The apartheid regime knew no other language than its violent repression of democratic activity, buttressed by its anti-communist, anti-liberation and anti-social emancipation propaganda. In developing its organising and cadre development strategy, the SACP had to take that hostile atmosphere and its corresponding operating conditions into account.
The democratic breakthrough that we achieved at the end of the twentieth century, in April 1994, brought about different organising conditions and imperatives. Organising underground, in exile, and an armed struggle was no longer necessary. We had dislodged the apartheid regime through the 1994 democratic breakthrough. The ANC ascended to the legislative and executive arms of the state through democratic election, also gaining access to the related levers of state power. The participation in government of SACP members made the SACP (effectively) a party of governance - within the framework of the ANC being the governing party in the context of the ANC-led Alliance. Only two of our previous four pillars of struggle remained relevant, namely mass mobilisation and - international work - albeit in a vastly different context.
Our democratic breakthrough, amongst other things, required a shift in our organising and cadre development strategy, hence the necessity to build the SACP as a large vanguard Party. This brings us to the qualitative aspect that distinguishes such a Party from a mass party. The operating term "vanguard" refers both to the quality of the cadres that the SACP needs and has to develop, and the qualitative character that the Party has to build to win wide acceptance and act as the vanguard.
The term vanguard, as advanced by Lenin (for example, in What is to be done?), refers to "professional revolutionaries", what Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party refer to as the "most advanced and resolute" section of the working class of every country, namely the communists. As Lenin said, one does not become a vanguard cadre merely by completing a membership form or by declaring so. To build itself to become a vanguard Party, the Communist Party needs to recruit and produce vanguard cadres, professional revolutionaries, members who are the most advanced and resolute. To conclude on this score, our starting point, the SACP established the Conference of Women Commissars as part of its strategy to produce vanguard cadres; professional revolutionaries; and the most advanced and resolute core of the working class of our country.
What is most important to say about a vanguard Party is that it never trains cadres for itself only, as its activists are drawn from various formations and sites of struggle: trade unions, youth formations, government officials, and so on. The vanguard Party should also train cadres operating in these and other spheres.
We should convene the Conference of Women Commissars at least once a year, as originally planned. It is now more possible to do so with the aid of new technologies. However, we should advance the programme of the Conference of Women Commissars and deepen it every day at all levels.
What, briefly, are some key, immediate and interrelated challenges that we face in the present period? The first is the chronic economic crisis that took root long before the global coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and particularly its impact on women. The second is the crisis of social reproduction, a direct outgrowth of the chronic economic crisis that predates the Covid-19 pandemic. The third challenge is the Covid-19 crisis, which is not only a health crisis but also an economic and social crisis. The fourth challenge is corruption and theft of public resources and criminality in our society. The fifth challenge is drug and substance abuse. The sixth is the scourge of gender-based violence in particular and violence in general.
The chronic economic crisis, the crisis of social reproduction and gender-based violence Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, the South African working class endured crisis-high levels of inequality, unemployment and poverty. The Covid-19 crisis, itself a direct result of capitalist accumulation and its destruction of the natural environment, is deepening pre-existing capitalist crises. As Statistics South Africa's Labour Force Survey shows, unemployment rose in the first quarter of 2020, affecting approximately 10.8 million active and discouraged work-seekers combined from approximately 10.4 million in the last quarter of 2019. Women bear the brunt of capitalist crises, as, for example, retrenched workers and the people who look after the affected poor households.
Capital, which enjoys economic dominance in our country and monopoly in many sectors of the economy, increased retrenchments. The next Statistics South Africa's Quarterly Labour Force Survey is therefore expected to confirm a sharp rise in unemployment because of retrenchments and the overall impact of Covid-19. The pandemic exposed the persisting legacy of unequal development, with undeveloped or underdeveloped areas lacking in essential services, such as access to clean drinking water, sanitation and decent dwellings.
The neoliberal policy regime promoted by the IMF, OECD, monopoly finance capital and credit rating agencies, among others, will make matters worse for the working class. That regime includes neoliberal austerity and partial or complete privatisation of public entities.
This has now been given different names, such as opening state-owned enterprises or their infrastructure to private sector participation and competition - which can only be competition for greater market share, profit maximisation and private capital accumulation. The loan from the IMF, in particular, is underpinned by such neoliberal structural reforms. This agenda is domestically driven through the National Treasury supported by monopoly capital. The IMF loan is politically significant in that the IMF is brought in as an external enforcer in the absence of popular support - starting from within our Alliance. For example, as the SACP we rejected the IMF and OECD template that the National Treasury released in August 2019 as its economic blue print.
The organisation of women remains absolutely important. The question facing the SACP now is not so much to establish its own Women's League or section, but to dynamically link up with existing progressive women's organisations (ANCWL, women in the trade unions, in schools governing bodies, in stokvels, in burial societies, in co-operatives, in the churches, etc.), as well as build new types and forms of organisation where necessary.
When we talk about the crisis of social reproduction, we are talking about, at the heart, the sphere of intense women oppression and exploitation, the heart of patriarchy and a crucial site of struggle to organise women.
We stand for the transformation of the South African state to become a capable democratic developmental state. We want a democratic developmental path that empowers the masses, advances radical structural economic transformation and radically reduces the high levels of inequality, unemployment, poverty and unequal spatial development. Unless we pursue such a path, the crisis of social reproduction will persist along with its underpinning, inherent crisis of capitalism. We do not need a reformist path. We need a revolutionary path, a qualitative change, in line with the "revolution" in the national democratic revolution.
We develop an integrated approach, recognising the interrelated nature and connection between the endemic crisis of capitalism, social reproduction crisis and gender-based violence. This Conference of Women Commissars should, therefore, place the task to end gender-based violence at the centre of our cadre development strategy. Again, this task belongs to all of us, equally, and at all levels, and without regard to gender.
Building a popular Left front, uniting organised workers and organising the unorganised is crucial in that regard. We must fight all forms of vulgarisation of women's struggles and their opportunistic use to advance regressive and backward tendencies like corruption, factionalism and access to positions for personal accumulation. That is why gender struggles must always be underpinned by a class, anti-imperialist and non-racial content. As communists we must always expose and seek to combat the use of women and gender struggles to advance narrow nationalist and exploitative interests. We must defeat the reactionary feminism that sees all men as the enemy, instead of capitalism, narrow nationalism and patriarchy. Progressive women's struggles are not anti-men! It is for this reason that working class women must be at the centre of women struggles. Communist women commissars should develop a leading role in building this capacity and be at the forefront of providing this direction.
Corruption and theft of public resources
Allow me to take this opportunity to reiterate one of our key messages that came out from our 99 th anniversary statement. Corruption is an immediate threat to the national democratic revolution. It is weakening and tearing apart the same liberation movement that fought against and dislodged the apartheid regime. The overwhelming support that the movement received in the struggle against apartheid, and in the early successive elections starting with the first democratic general election held in 1994, is falling apart. This is occurring because of the combination of objective conditions, particularly the persisting crisis-high levels of inequality, unemployment and poverty, and the erosion of trust because of corruption.
Instead of serving the people selflessly and wholeheartedly, certain elements use their access or proximity to political power to build business connections. All they want is the use of the power entrusted by the masses through a vote to accumulate wealth on a private, capitalistic basis. This does not go alone. It goes hand in hand with private business interests, building political connections to accumulate wealth on a capitalistic basis. The political-private business and the private business-political connections are centred round the system of tenders. Tenderisation of the state, its functions and state-society relations is a frontier for accumulation regime of corruption.
The shameless personal protective equipment (PPE) and Covid-19 related corruption are no different. That includes inflation of prices in tenders or state procurement. Health is by and large a provincial competency. It is at that level that PPE and Covid-19 corruption is concentrated. Municipalities are also involved. The two spheres of government and the national sphere where such corruption has occurred must be tackled decisively, through thoroughgoing investigations. Those found guilty of corruption must face severe sentences.
We must send them to prison to wear orange overalls. The state must seize the assets that they may have acquired through corruption-related conduct. We reiterate our support for Special Investigating Unit investigation into Covid-19 related tender corruption. This Conference of Women Commissars must make it that the task to fight corruption must be waged at all spheres of government organisation. All levels of Party Organisation must, therefore, be both vocal and active in the fight against corruption.
The fight against corruption must go deeper to the root and tackle all its material bases. Our struggle against corruption will be incomplete unless we go to the root and uproot tenderisation of the state and the corruption-prone tender system. This means the efficacy of the Public Finance Management Act, Municipal Finance Management Act and related regulations must be re-examined. There is a problem on the legislative and regulatory front.
Particularly the profit-making private sector-centric procurement bias must be rolled back along with other neoliberal aspects of the legislative and regulatory framework. The legislative framework must give preference to the necessity to build and develop internal state capacity and co-operatives and community empowerment.
Allow me to pose this vexing question. Is there no advanced agenda to collapse the ANC from within? The enemy has tried for decades to infiltrate the ANC and failed. The situation we are in now challenges us to ask whether we have structures, leaders and members within out movement who are captured. For instance, how do you remove a mayor because of corruption allegations, related investigations and charges in the court law, and then justify promoting that former mayor to the provincial legislature without the court process being concluded? When you raise this matter, you are told that you are anti-women. That is, of course, absurd. We must fight corruption to the finish. We must implement our movement's resolutions consistently to win the battle against corruption without regard to the gender of those implicated.
Is it, therefore, not the right time to make the struggle against corruption an inseparable part of the struggle to combat gender-based abuse and violence and bring down patriarchy? We must guard against the co-option of the struggle to combat corruption and its conversion into a factional instrument used by men in our movement to fight one another. Advancing the struggle against corruption - which also has its patriarchal features - from the standpoints of women and the struggle against gender-based abuse and violence will contribute immensely towards the much needed victory against the rot.
Women and COVID-19
Sheila Barsel
We will look at a major international event which put women's equality on the map, the World Health Organisation (WHO) perspective; the role of women in social production, a specific focus on social production and the COVID-19 pandemic; and an attempt to take a look at what is to be done.
It is 25 years since the passing of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. This was a major milestone and ground-breaking for gender equality and dramatically changed the plight of women around the world. Women returned from attending this meeting excited about what had taken place and looked forward to changes which would follow. There were two events at the Beijing conference - one for the 189 national governments to negotiate a global agreement, and another for 50,000 women and men activists attending a nongovernmental organization (NGO) gathering with one stated goal - the empowerment and advancement of women and girls everywhere.
The 1995 Beijing Platform for Action flagged 12 key areas on urgent action to ensure greater equality and opportunities for women and men, girls and boys. The critical areas were poverty, education and training, health, violence against women, armed conflict, media, environment, economy, human rights, women in power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms to advance gender equality and the girl child. A historic Declaration and Platform for Action was crafted based on these 12 critical areas.
There have been international reviews of the Platform of Action every 5 years, with specific foci at each conference and with reports on the consistent gains of moving towards women's equality as laid out in Beijing in 1995.
However, with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic even the limited gains made in the past decades are at risk of being rolled back. The pandemic is deepening pre-existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems which are in turn amplifying the impacts of the pandemic. Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex.
The WHO Secretary-General's recent Call to Action on Human Rights emphasises three cross-cutting priority measures which have become more vital in the context of the pandemic:
- The care economy which has been foregrounded during the pandemic is key to daily life and to the economy and yet it entrenches gendered norms and inequalities. In the formal economy, care jobs, mainly done by women, from teachers to nurses, are underpaid in relation to other sectors. In the informal economy and the home, women perform the bulk of care work but this is unpaid and invisible.
- Women and women's organisations must have equal representation in all COVID-19 planning and decision-making as they are often in the frontline of responses in communities.
- A gender lens must be used in the design of fiscal stimulus packages and social assistance programmes to achieve greater equality, opportunities, and social protection.
How do we view this as Marxists?
Central to the economic and social role is the "non-economic" activity in the reproduction of society - the struggles and processes of daily sustenance, the rearing of children, caring for the sick and elderly, and basic household chores like cleaning, cooking and shopping. This is conventionally borne by women. Social reproduction refers to meeting the daily needs not only in a household but in the community and society.
Reproductive labour describes activities which regenerate and nurture the current workforce, and the future workforce and maintain those who cannot work. It is about caring for self and others such as children and the elderly. The reproduction of unpaid work allows the inequality among family members to continue and bolsters the invisible and undervalued aspects of the economy.
We cannot escape the gendered impact of globalisation and the privatisation of public services on women and how this places greater emphasis on labour in the household.
In practice, including women in the economy or into political life, by being wage-earners in their own right, liberates them partially, but also typically they have to carry a double burden and work a Double Day - formal waged labour during "working hours", and informal, unpaid reproductive labour before and after that. The economic impacts are felt especially by women and girls who are generally earning less, saving less, and holding insecure jobs or living close to poverty.
This crisis of social production as well as the crisis of care (particularly in Africa) remains hidden.
What of COVID-19 and women?
The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the lens and further it has not only highlighted inequalities, but it has heightened them. It has revealed the worst inequalities - so that we cannot any longer ignore or pretend they are not there.
The burden of social reproduction in a class divided society, especially under capitalism, is largely carried by women, who are often tasked, in working class and poor communities, to look after children, do household chores, and look after the sick and vulnerable. Social reproduction in capitalist society reinforces and is reinforced by patriarchal relations - the subordination of women in society to men.
The normally invisible unpaid work has now become the most important work. Importantly too, the care workers (who have until now been particularly invisible) have become the most valued and important. Care work has universally been unpaid work - and much of it takes place inside the family. The commitment of health workers, in particular nurses, in caring for patients has now been recognised. However remuneration never follows the value of these forms of work. And we must note that a large percentage of these workers is women, so remuneration is often pushed aside.
Unpaid care work has increased, with children out-of-school, the heightened care needs of older persons and the overwhelmed health services.
The reality of the sexual division of labour in public and private spheres is playing out in society.
Unemployment is rising and projected to rise further and possibly double the March 2020 figures as a result of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The March figures are the highest since 1994. 32,4% women are unemployed 28,3% of men are, with an average 30,1%.
It is projected that it will be women who are mainly excluded as the economy battles; they are more vulnerable to retrenchments - women's late inclusion in many industries means women leave first when retrenchments occur; women are employed in more vulnerable sectors - hospitality, tourism, SMMEs and, of course, the informal sector.
Unemployment and poverty impact heavily on women as they bear the brunt of trying to keep the family fed, clothed, at school and healthy so the decrease in family income hits women hard.
The health of women and children generally has been adversely impacted through the reallocation of resources and priorities to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting sexual and reproductive as well as child health services.
As the COVID-19 pandemic deepens, economic and social stress, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures, gender-based violence is increasing exponentially. Many women are being forced to "lockdown" at home with their abusers, while at the same time services to support survivors are being disrupted or made inaccessible.
What is to be done?
The equality of women and the involvement of men in social production and the social maintenance of old people and children would lead to democratisation among family members.
Theorising and understanding the plight of women is important. However, we need to look at ourselves as an organisation and see whether our forms of organising are women-sensitive - sensitive to women's pressures in keeping households running smoothly, taking care of children and the elderly. We must check whether times and lengths of meeting are appropriate and whether in attending meetings women will create an extra burden squeezing their household chores into the time left after involvement in SACP activities.
The emancipation of women will never be won unless there are changes to the gender division of labour in the home and in the community.
Socialism radically changes the economic foundation of the family and the relationships between members. Socialism is the Future! Build it Now!
Cde Barsel is an SACP and ANC stalwart, an SACP Central Committee and Politburo member and a gender and health care activist.
Gender inequality and the social reproduction crisis
Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi
This article is based on Cde Moleketi's speaking notes SACP Conference of Women Commissars
Commissars are the life blood of the Party!
Consider this dedfinition: "The family is a form of community of people connected by marital and blood relations. Having specifically biological functions of reproducing the human race, the family, is at the same time, a form of peoples social community and, as such, has important economic and intellectual functions.
The family changes under different social and economic conditions. Socialism radically changes the economic foundations of the family and the relations between its members. Equality of women and their involvement in social production, the social maintenance of old people and the growing participation of society in the maintenance of old people and the growing participation of society in the maintenance of children lead to the economic independence of family members and the democratisation of intra-family relations.
The gradual abolition of social, estate, national and religious prejudices and economic equality make the family a free union of equal people…. Housework diverts considerable labour resources and reduces time needed for rest, for participation in public life, and for the development and satisfaction for the working peoples cultural requirements, especially that of women. …This makes it more difficult for them to combine professional activities with being a wife, mother and often gives rise to family conflict. The building of of communism implies a gradual transfer of of household functions to large-scale social production…." (p.89 Dictionary of Scientific Communism, Progress Publishers - 1980 )
The definition of family has evolved; however, what remains unchanged are the questions of the equality of women and the "democratisation of the family", the "equality of women and their involvement in social production"; the acknowledgement of unpaid work and the role of women; the clear reference to combining "professional activities with being a wife, mother and often gives rise to family conflict."
How are these matters handled within the Party; what is the role of Party cadres within the family; do we live the to cadre we refer to?…. Is there a willingness to hold comrades accountable at all levels in this regard?
Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek in The crisis of Social Reproduction and the End of Work write about the "crisis of work" as also being a crisis about the "home".
The definition of "social reproduction" or "reproductive labour", they say, "describes the activities that nurture workers, regenerate the current work force, and maintain those who cannot work - that is, the set of tasks that together maintain and reproduce life, both daily and generationally. Social reproduction consists, broadly speaking, of caring directly for oneself and others (childcare, elder care, healthcare), maintaining physical spaces and organising resources as part of an indirect process of care for oneself and others (cleaning, shopping, repairing), and species reproduction (bearing children)."
"Traditionally, social reproduction has been positioned as the interface between reproductive sphere ( in the home) and the productive sphere (in the workplace)."
There is a convergence between the definition of "family" and its reference to social production, and the definition of social reproduction or reproductive labour; it points to a recognition of "unpaid", undervalued and/or unrecognised and invisiblised work that are mainly performed by women.
In a study done, by Debbie Budlender, across six countries points to "care work" existing in different areas of the economy across family to remunerated employment. Budlender points out that the monetary value of unpaid work "would constitute between 10 to 39 % of a country's GDP."
The importance of "care workers" or the "humble workers" or "invisible workers" was recognised at the recent meeting of Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA 2020)
Zo Randriamaro reflects on political economy analysis and points to some key elements that affects the 'depth and prevalence of the crises of care and social reproduction.' These are:
The sexual division of labour in both the public and private spheres that relegates "unpaid" work in the households to women; this is linked to power relations within the household, and family; caring professions in the public and private sector are similarly undervalued; interestingly, and probably predictably, during COVID -19 these largely "invisible" workers has been thrown into stark relief with an acknowledgement that these are, mainly women, and low paid workers are important and key in the fight against COVID; and
The gendered impacts of globalisation and the privatisation of public services and infrastructure - impacting on women's rights and impacting on their role within the households; and
The definition of the family in A dictionary of Scientific Communism clearly captured the question of gender equality in the family and community and how we resolve the social reproduction crisis.
Will the "normal" post COVID allow for a rethink on how to deal with gender equality and particularly the social reproduction crisis in the family, community and the labour market?
Progressive economists, among others, believe that we should see this as an opportunity to revisit these questions including the role of the state and public service in particular;
"Gender Equality begins at home and families are on the frontlines of change. For the next generation, the examples set at home by parents, caregivers and extended family are shaping the way they think about gender and quality." (UN WOMEN)
Cde Fraser-Moleketi is Chancellor of Nelson Mandela University, has served in various UN portfolios, and is a former Deputy Chair of the SACP Cabinet Minister and MK member.
Tribute to women revolutionaries - past and present
Wathinth' abafazi, wathinth' imbokodo, uzokufa!
Pat Horn
August, the month we celebrate the struggles of women in South Africa because of that famous march to the Union Buildings in 1956 in protest against the infamous Apartheid-era pass laws, helps us focus on the united women leadership of that time - Cdes Lillian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Sophia Williams-de Bruyn and Helen Joseph. The women famously took the lead in saying "enough is enough!" when it came to the oppressive dompas system being extended to them. After this, the struggle against the dompas system increased and became unstoppable.
Many years later, in the first national congress of the ANC after its unbanning in the country in 1991, under the firm but unassuming leadership of comrades Gertrude Shope and Albertina Sisulu, the ANC Women's League put up a spirited fight for more prominent leadership of women in the ANC by way of a constitutional quota. The fight was not won at that congress - but the constitutional participation quota that the women were fighting for came to pass within the next few years.
Because of the patriarchal society in which we live, most of our mainstream struggles end up being linked with the names of much more famous, albeit equally deserving, male heroes. We admire and respect them, as we have struggled shoulder to shoulder for a better society, both in South Africa and globally. But this month, let us reflect on those women revolutionaries who have stood up against the odds to transform the world in various ways. Some of them paid the ultimate price for this - Comrades Ruth First, Jeanette Schoon and her six-year-old daughter Katryn, Makhosi Nyoka, Lindiwe Mthembu, Ntsiki Cotoza, Phila Portia Ndwandwe, Jackie Quin, Nomkhosi Mini, and the list goes on ……………..
Fast-forward to the obstacles which women have had to face after we achieved our national liberation in 1994, and those women who had to pay the ultimate price for their courage, outspokenness, or for insistently treading where they were not supposed to. Cde Dulcie September was assassinated in Paris 1988, just before we got unbanned, and later Cde Gugu Dlamini was victimized for speaking out about her HIV positive status and encouraging others to do so, and Cde Fezeka Khuzwayo had to flee the country after exercising her rights to lay charges for rape, in a democratic South Africa. Fezeka is also no longer with us, and it was only after her death that many became willing to stand up in her support.
The four previously-unknown young women who stood silently in tribute to Fezeka Khuzwayo in August 2016 in front of the nation during President Zuma's speech at the IEC briefing on the local government election results - Cdes Amanda Mavuso, Naledi Chirwa, Simamkele Dlakavu and Tinyiko Shikwambane - started a massive popular movement against gender-based violence. This movement has progressed from strength to strength under the leadership of a new generation of militant young women. This new generation of women revolutionaries is now also sensitising us about the importance of intersectional struggles of those members of our society who are affected by a number of discriminations and disadvantages, due to overlapping identities and experiences in their lived realities.
Women trade unionists such as Cdes Mary Fitzgerald (known as "Pickhandle Mary") and Ray Alexander shaped the South African trade union movement at the turn of the 20th Century. After a lull in trade union activity caused by the banning of political organizations in 1961, the revival of the trade union movement saw women such as Cdes Harriet Bolton, June-Rose Nala, Emma Mashinini, Maggie Magubane, Lydia Kompe, Mary Mkhwanazi and Pregs Govender play a prominent role in union-building among male and female workers, many of them serving as General Secretaries of their respective trade unions. However, when the trade union movement became a bit more fashionable, it was disappointing how fast the proportion of women in General Secretary positions plummeted.
These women revolutionaries all need to be celebrated - along with those whose names have not been mentioned above - for their contribution towards the emancipation of all who live in South Africa.
Let us look beyond our borders to salute other women revolutionaries who helped to change the world.
As early as 1431, a medieval peasant girl, Jeanne d'Arc ("Joan of Arc") led the French army to defeat an English takeover, for which she was reportedly burnt at the stake after being accused of witchcraft. Thanks to Emily Pankhurst and the Suffragette movement which she founded, women around the world today have the vote. Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Alabama in the Deep South of the USA, initiated the Civil Rights Movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Today the #BlackLivesMatter movement continues the work started by that movement.
Women revolutionaries played a seminal role in the building of socialism internationally - Cdes Clara Zetkin, Nadezha Krupskaya, Rosa Luxemburg. In the Spanish Civil War, Cde Dolores Ibarruri (known as "La Pasionara") played a leading role, famously developing the resounding slogan "No pasarán!"
We all know Fidel Castro and Che Guevara for their role in leading the Cuban revolution.
But how many of us know the name of Cde Celia Sánchez, founder of the 26th of July movement after the assault on Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba on 26 July 1953, an action for which she was imprisoned along with Cde Melba Hernández? Or the name of Haydée Santamaría, among a relatively small group of people who were involved in every phase of the Cuban Revolution, from its inception to its fruition? And the name of Vilma Espín, the revolutionary chemical engineer who continued to champion and secure women's rights in socialist Cuba long after the revolution in 1959.
In Egypt, feminist health physician and author Nawal El Saadawi dedicated her writings and professional career to political and sexual rights for women - and was central to the Africa-wide campaign against female genital mutilation, which has made a difference to the lives of many girls and women.
In Kenya, ecofeminist warrior Wangari Maathai was a social, environmental and political activist who founded the grassroots Green Belt Movement - which planted over 51 million trees in Kenya, and provided inspiration to environmental movements in many other countries in the global south.
In India, Ela Bhatt was the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) the first-ever trade union of women workers in the informal economy. SEWA went on to form a cooperative bank, the SEWA Bank, owned and controlled by its members, women workers in the informal economy. Today SEWA has over 2 million members, and has become a living example to the trade union movement globally on new organizing techniques to unionise workers in the informal economy.
In South Africa, we now have strong emerging women leaders in the membership-based organizations of workers in the informal economy - an increasingly important part of the proletariat in the changing world of work. Cde Myrtle Witbooi from SADSAWU (SA Domestic Services & Allied Workers' Union) is also international President of the IDWF (International Domestic Workers' Federation). Eva Mokoena is the Chairperson of ARO (African Reclaimers' Organisation) and Council member of SAWPA (South African Waste Pickers' Association). Lulama Mali is the founder and coordinator of the JITP (Johannesburg Informal Traders' Platform), Rosheda Muller is the President of SAITA (SA Informal Traders' Alliance) and Lorraine Sibanda from ZCIEA (Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations) is also International President of StreetNet International. Watch this space.
Cde Horn is a SACP Central Committee member, StreetNet International Senior Advisor and active in WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalising & Organising) Collective Bargaining programme
Celebrate diversity and red-card racism
Spencer Hodgson
This is an edited version of a speech made on behalf of Cde Rica Hodgson's family at the Rica Hodgson Centenary Webinar in August
Rica would have been incredibly honoured that this discussion and its focus on diversity and non-racialismsm is being held in her honour. She would have said, and believed, that there were many other comrades who were more deserving of such an honour. She considered herself a "Foot Soldier for Freedom", which was the title she gave to her book, published in 2010.
With South Africa's National Women's Day just behind us, I am certain that Rica would have endorsed the statement that "to end violence again women we must tackle patriarchy and poverty". In 1954 Rica attended the inaugural meeting of the Federation of South African Women where she met legendary leaders like Dora Tamana and Lilian Ngoyi.
The July edition of Umsebenzi Online carried an excellent article by Jenny Schreiner commemorating Rica's life. Therefore, there is no need for me to dwell on her life in any great detail. However, I will sketch in just a few highlights before showing you a short video clip of Rica and Jack's arrival & welcome at Dar es Salaam airport in 1963 by the ANC community. It is a clip that illustrates most vividly the great bonds of comradeship of Rica's generation in the struggle to end racism and oppression.
Rica committed to the struggle from an early age. In 1945, she married my father, Jack. She joined the Communist Party in 1946 and both she and Jack, were founding members of the Congress of Democrats in 1953. They were both banned.
During the State of Emergency following on the Sharpeville massacre, Rica was imprisoned at the Women's Jail in Johannesburg and later at Nylstrom Prison where she shared a cell with Hilda Bernstein, Violet Weinberg, Helen Joseph, Winnie Kramer and others.
During 1961, our 4th floor flat in Berea became a laboratory and then a workshop for the production of the explosives that would be used by MK on December 16th to launch the Sabotage Campaign. In 1962 Rica and Jack were placed under house arrest until April 1963 when they received instructions from MK to escape to Bechuanaland where they were to set up a transit camp for the passage of MK cadres to and from military training abroad. I remember well the night they left and were driven to the border by the late comrade Andrew Mlangeni.
Their stay in Bechuanaland was short and dangerous. Although the country was still a British Protectorate, the South African security services were intensifying their onslaught against the movement and treated Bechuanaland like their backyard, and there were many incidents such as the bombing of a plane to transport escaped comrades out of the country. This was the start of the regime's all-out effort to suppress the struggle.
Ninety-day detention without trial commenced that year on 2 May 1963. Many comrades would be tortured in the months to follow. July 1963 saw the Rivonia arrests and later, when the case came to trial, Jack would be cited as a co-accused.
And so, increasing attention was focussed on the Bechuanaland escape route. The British authorities were increasingly uncomfortable with Rica and Jack's presence and continued role in the escape route, which was drawing retaliation from South Africa. Soon they were declared prohibited immigrants by the British and were informed that they would have to leave or face charges. They refused and were taken to court.
Their story made headlines in both Britain and South Africa.
During this period, an attempt was made by the regime to kidnap them - and they were defended in their flat by a team led by former Treason Trialist, Cde Fish Keitsing, who played a pivotal role in the escape route. Eventually Rica and Jack lost their court case and the British deported them to Britain via Dar Es Salaam. At the airport in Dar they were welcomed on the tarmac by a demonstration of ANC comrades, carrying placards. Some of them had passed through the Bechuanaland escape route.
And that brings me to the video clip of their arrival in Dar Es Salaam by an East African Airways flight from inland Mbeya.
- As they are disembarking - at the foot of the stairs is the British Ambassador, whom they politely brush aside. They have seen the ANC welcoming committee and rush to greet them.
- First to embrace Jack is Cde Duma Nokwe, South Africa's first black Advocate, ANC Secretary General and a fellow Treason Trialist together with Jack.
- Next is Comrade James Radebe - ANC Chief Representative in Dar. The shot of his embrace with Rica appeared on the front page of the Sunday Times.
- Also greeting Rica and Jack is Cde Moses Kotane, General Secretary of the South African Communist Party and a former Treason Trialist
- Lastly on the tarmac is young Cde Abdulhay "Charlie" Jassat, member of MK and a cadre of the Sabotage Campaign.. He had been arrested and brutally tortured before escaping from Marshal Square and making his way to Bechuanaland.
Finally, at a press briefing inside the airport one can see in the background:
- Former Treason Trialist, Cde Joe Modise who later that year would go the Soviet Union for training and would soon become MK's Commander in Chief;
- Cde Thomas Nkobi - future Treasurer General of the ANC together with Cde Moses Kotane.
The next morning Rica and Jack left for London where Rica would join the International Defence and Aid Fund, channelling funds into South Africa for the defence of political prisoners and the support of the families of political activists. In 1981 she joined me, my wife Claudia and our daughter, Tanya, at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College near Morogoro, where she was secretary to the Director, Mohammed Tikly, and later Tim Maseko.
On her return to South Africa, Rica was absolutely thrilled to be asked to become Secretary to Cde Walther Sisulu.
Rica and Jack were internationalists and while in England they took part in protest demonstrations such as those against America's war on Vietnam. Until her death Rica remained committed to the cause of the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israeli oppression.
Top: Deported from Bechuanaland, Rica and Jack arrive at Dar Es Salaam airport.
Bottom: On the tarmac, Rica greets a throng of ANC demonstrators with the clenched fist salute.
Top: Rica embraces ANC Chief Representative in Tanzania, James Radebe, while Jack hugs ANC Secretary General, Duma Nokwe (hidden from view). In the background (left) is Moses Kotane, General Secretary of the Communist Party.
Bottom: Rica and Jack address a press conference inside the Dar-Es-Salaam airport building. The Hodgson deportation aroused considerable interest. In the background, from middle, left to right, are Joe Modise, Thomas Nkobi and Moses Kotane. The following day Rica and Jack departed on a flight to London, where Jack would continue his underground MK work and Rica would join the Defence and Aid Fund that provided legal defence to those charged with political offences and financial support to the families of those detained, imprisoned, murdered or executed by the racist governments of Southern Africa.
Spencer Hodgson is the son of Cdes Rica and Jack Hodgson, was involved in the administration of Somafco in Tanzania, is an architect.
Eradicate patriarchy, deconstruct masculinity and transform the culture of violence - these are at the centre of the ending GBV
Dr Sithembiso Bhengu
The entire nation has been gripped in what we can now describe as a dual pandemic - Covid-19 and the abuse of women by men. The cases of gruesome killing of women by their male partners raises the spectre of patriarchy and the disregard for female life in our society. While there has been widespread condemnation of the killing and violence meted on women, these continue to define the tapestry of our society. The language mostly presented in many of the well-meaning statements and rebuttals against such violence depict the actual nature of the systemic and structural crisis of patriarchy in our society.
First, there is continued presentation of women as objects, belonging to men, to culture or to society. This presumption is expressed even in positive statements like, "don't abuse our women", or "stop killing our women". While this means well, it invariably reduces women to objects, whose existence is always tied to men, hence reducing their own humanity. Women, representing vastly heterogeneous identities and personalities, are not a group belonging to anyone, either men, culture, religion or society.
Another common statement made with good intentions, but representing the ingrained patriarchy is made in pleas for men 'to protect their women', which inadvertently elevates 'good' men as Messiahs, while reducing women to having no agency to liberate themselves. This tendency should remind us of white liberal tendencies during the struggle against apartheid, who also with good intentions tended to reduce the struggle to them being saviours of black people. Thus, men reduce the struggle from being about freedom, to being about protection.
The struggle should not be reduced to just a fight against gender-based violence - attacks on women by men - but should be about eradication of patriarchy and all its structural and cultural effects. Most of the Messianic attestations, while they correctly reject GBV, remain silent on the actual eradication of patriarchy, on deconstructing cultural and religious morals at the centre of women's subjugation in society. There needs to be a growing voice that, "women don't need to be protected, they need to be freed". We must demand for a society in which women are not reduced to second-class citizens to men. We must demand a society that rejects patriarchy with all its antecedents, couched behind cultural (traditional) and religious bigotry.
Most of the criticisms on violence and abuse of women by men fail to recognise that GBV is just one manifestation of a society with deep roots and history of violence, intolerance towards differences and a society in which debate and disagreement can't be resolved through thoughtful engagement. In almost all spheres of our society, we witness intolerance towards differences, aggressive postures towards disagreements, even growing support for a return of corporal punishment, even the death penalty.
These indicate deep rooted challenges we continue to face and are shying away from addressing in our society. We continue to espouse values that socialise violence (punishment) as the option of choice to deal with dissent or delinquency. Our espoused values of masculinity also continue to influence our views that violence is the "manliest" response to differences and disagreements. For example, we continue to hear words like,awu 'mshayi ngani lomfana ngoba uyedelela? To make matters worse, in provinces like KZN there is a growing return of so-called 'cultural' entertainment practices like stick-fighting, in many rural areas.
Intolerance towards disagreements, reducing those we disagree with to "the enemy", and violence meted against those we disagree with have become centre stage even in our most esteemed institution, for example, parliament, which has been reduced to a spectacle of MPs competing for verbal mudslinging points than for constructive debates. You also witness this in now entrenched anti-intellectual attitudes and disdain by leaders and members of their parties of debate and factual arguments. In many such structures, an anti-intellectual, anti-debate, anti-discourse has gained hegemony, as witnessed in reports about unsavoury disruptions in some regional and provincial meetings of the ANC as well as the last few ANCYL electoral conferences.
Thus, ukushaya is a common and accepted practice in man's lexicon and practice, yet somehow, we treat this as an aberration when it relates to men meting suchukushaya on women.
Dr Bhengu is the Director at the Chris Hani Institute
Academia as a Site of Struggle for Women
Naledi Maponopono
The academic space provides us with a variety of tools to enhance society through research and rigorous debate. We analyse things using different tools of analysis and compound our knowledge by expanding on different topics through research. This means, that in academia, no stone ought to be left unturned in the pursuit of knowledge that aims to alleviate the problems faced in society. It is in this vein that during women's month, we reflect about academia as a space where women can advance the struggle for gender equality.
Of course, the academic space is in itself not immune from the patriarchal relations of power in society. This has to do with an array of issues which include the stifling of women securing senior positions in academia through ill-treatment such as constantly being undermined or being made to feel as though they do not belong in any of the fields they are researching in. This results in there being a low number of women in the academic space and men continue to dominate the space where they continuously disregard issues related to gender equality.
It is for this reason that we realise the power inherent in the academic space because it has the capacity to give a voice to women's issues in society which would otherwise be ignored. All schools of thought in academia should address the plight of women and find innovative ways through research, to change the livelihoods of women. This is gender mainstreaming in action.
Using intersectionality as a tool of analysis, poor and working-class woman who are queer and differently abled ought to be at the centre of our thoughts as we navigate academia in finding solutions and bettering their lives in society. This is because in a patriarchal, capitalist, racist and ableist society, the women described above are the most vulnerable.
Academia can be able to give women a voice that they wouldn't otherwise have. The academic space ought to be filled with women who will peer review and cite other women so that their work is in the mainstream and able to change the lives of other women. It is important also that research done in academia is reported in such a way that ordinary women are able to learn and relate to it.
It is counterproductive to have the academic space with academics only speaking to themselves through verbose language and terminology which ordinary women are unable to interact with. The rationale behind research is to ensure that positive changes occur in society and to liberate people from things that they struggle with. There is therefore no reason for academics to only speak to themselves, and more specifically, women in the academic space.
This therefore means that we need to encourage as many women as possible to enter the academic space and place at the centre of their research, the plight of all women globally and particularly in the South African context. Academia is a space of teaching and learning - and we need more women who are researchers and lecturers so that they are able to shape the minds of students to take seriously the plight of women.
South Africa continues to have a soaring femicide rate which is a result of the total onslaught against women in our society. Early childhood development centres, basic and higher education ought to create curriculums which shape the thinking of young boys differently, so that they may grow up to be men who are not violent.
Academia is therefore of paramount importance in providing the necessary studies that help us understand why men act the way they do and how this can be changed. It is also important for understanding the structures in our society that continuously perpetuate gender inequality such as the church and culture.
Not only are women in academia scientists, but they are and should be inherent activists in alleviating the plight of women the world over. Academia must be utilised to advance the cause of women so that we may realise our liberation.
Cde Maponopono is a YCLSA activist In Cape Town, and currently a Masters student in the School of Languages and Literature Studies at UCT.
Vilma Espín, the Women, the Leader, the Mother.....
Lefika Chetty
To write about the life and contributions of a remarkable Women like Cde Vilma Espin is not an easy task. Comrade Vilma's life has been admirable on so many different levels. Her heroic participation in the Cuban Revolution in the Sierra, her special bond with Fidel, her marriage to Raul, a mother to their children....
Not knowing where to start or what to focus on I spoke with a personal friend, Dr Mariela Zaldivar, a medical doctor working at the Limpopo Provincial hospital under the Cuban-SA health bilateral since 1997. I asked her to share her overall sentiments about Comrade Vilma with me. She had this to say: "Vilma Espin is a very important women leader to Cubans. She defended the dignity and freedoms of all Cubans firstly. She was a part of the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra. She knew that her life was in extreme danger in the fight for Cuba's freedom, but she chose to fight regardless. During her whole life Vilma stood for justice and equality in particular for Women and children after the Triumph of our Revolution. Vilma was the wife of Raul Castro. She was the main leader for political and social reforms for Cuban women's full access to their rights after 1959. We remember Vilma as the founding president of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). She is always remembered as a very humble women, a mother and a wife. Wilma was also a very well-educated woman who always stood for equality".
We know that Cde Vilma Espin worked closely with Cde Frank Pais Garcia, a Cuban revolutionary who was assassinated in 1957 by the Bastista government. Vilma began to work with Cde Pais in 1953 when she began her clandestine revolutionary missions which were to have one of its peak points in the uprising on 30 November 1956 and later in her role as Coordinator of the July 26 Movement in Oriente province.
Cde Espin was one of only two women students doing Industrial Chemical Engineering at the University of Oriente,. A professor once asked her, what she was going to do with her life and the answer surprised him: "Fight for truth and justice", said Cde Vilma. It was Cde Vilma's ability to speak both Spanish and English that allowed her to represent the movement on an international level.
Amongst the most important responsibilities that Vilma was tasked with was Deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power and the President of its Commission for Children, Youth and Equal Rights of Women. Cde Vilma also served as a member of the Council of State. But in addition to Cde Vilma's work within Cuba she also served as Cuba's representative at the United Nations General Assembly. Cde Vilma often headed Cuban delegations to Conferences on Women, which she always said was "invaluable to women in developing countries".
The Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) that Cde Vilma founded and served as President until her death in 2007 was a National Cuban Women's organisation established in 1960 during the period of the first agrarian reforms in Cuba. The FMC's first tasks was to create schools for peasant women and to organise childcare centres. Schools were started to upgrade the skills of domestic workers in an attempt to allow women to move away from the tyranny of the home and patriarchy. General Raul Castro Ruz, Cde Vilma's lifelong companion said when he visited the memorial erected in her house, the headquarters of the July 26 Movement in Santiago de Cuba: "As a living legend, upon the triumph of the Revolution, women wanted to participate, not only to be beneficiaries, but to make the Revolution, and they approached Vilma, asking to organize, offer their contribution, defend the new life." We must not forget that Cde Vilma was also a mother to four children and a grandmother to eight.
When Cde Vilma died after a long illness in 2007, Comandante Fidel Castro said: "I have been a witness for almost half a century of Vilma's struggles…. When the Revolution triumphed, her incessant battle for Cuban women and children began, which led her to the founding and leadership of the Federation of Cuban Women… And it is that Vilma Espin will always be present among us, in the hearts of the Cuban people"
Lefika Chetty is an SACP member who serves on SACP International Relations Commission, and is a formed YCLSA Treasurer.
Discussions on GBV should include the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war
Reneva Fourie
August is the period in which we specifically celebrate the brave women that marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 to reject laws that required black South Africans to carry passes to be in the land of their birth, and in which we commemorate the assassination of cde Ruth First, a prominent SACP leader, in 1982. Given that it is known as "Women's Month" we also use the period to highlight the successes and challenges experienced by women.
One of these challenges is gender-based violence. While gender-based violence (GBV) could be ascribed to the manifestation of sexist and male cultural practises, it cannot be disassociated with the class character of society. The class character of a society is the ramework for the patriarchy that gives rise to GBV. Patriarchy, which is globally pervasive, can be defined as "a system for maintaining class, gender, racial, and heterosexual privilege and the status quo of power".
Wartime sexual violence is a form of GBV. Sexual violence is often used as a means of psychological warfare to sow panic, humiliate and intimidate the enemy during war and armed conflict. Patriarchy creates a climate where such conduct is viewed as masculine, brave, and powerful as it expresses the capability to dominate and control.
Wartime rape, as a form of sexual violence is described by Amnesty International as a "weapon of war" or "a 'means of combat' used for the purpose of conquering territory by expelling the population therefrom, decimating remaining civilians by destroying their links of affiliations, by the spread of AIDS, and by eliminating cultural and religious traditions." Women bear the brunt of wartime rape. A reported released by the United Nations (UN) in June 2020, titled Conflict-related sexual violence, documented nearly 3,000 verified cases in a single year, of which 89 percent targeted women and girls. Whilst women survivors remain in the majority, the number of incidences of male rape are hardly marginal as there have been instances where up to 70 percent of male civilians in conflict situations have been survivors of wartime rape.
Because wartime sexual violence is so harrowing, several international protocols barring it exist. Article 27 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits wartime rape and enforced prostitution in international conflicts. In 1974, the UN adopted a Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict. Furthermore, in 2008, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1820, which noted that "rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide". The practise of wartime sexual violence continues, however, despite all these protocols and declarations.
The people of Syria have not been spared from exposure to this atrocious conduct during the almost decade long war. Sexual violence as a weapon of war is particularly effective as the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR), though it is a secular state, still values conservative cultural practises such as in-marriage, heterosexual relations. The International Observatory of Human Rights, for example, have reports of how sexual violence was being used by Turkish-backed militias and Islamist groups as a tactic of war and repression against Syrian women of Kurdish descent.
In addition to wartime violence, there is just blatant sexual exploitation. Charges have been laid against USA soldiers in the occupied areas of Hasaka countryside for trying to seduce young boys with money. There has also been a significant increase in child marriages in occupied territories and among Syrian girls living in refugee communities throughout Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. Under the Syrian Personal Status Law, the minimum legal age of marriage is 17 years for girls, but the conflict has hindered the effective oversight of legislative compliance, resulting in parents consenting to the marriage of daughters as young as 13 years. Spousal abuse also remains prevalent.
The Syrian government, particularly its Ministry of Social Affairs, have partnered with private entities such as the Monastery of the Good Shepherd to set up centers across the country to support and empower women that have experienced spousal abuse or wartime crimes. These centers provide them with legal aid, including the negotiations of maintenance, should the women decide to file for divorce; counselling services; and reskilling to ensure self-sufficiency. The "Sisters of the Good Shepherd" have also launched the "Trust phone", as far back as 25 November 2007 to provide an accessible helpline to women who are not able to reach the centers.
The above support measures by the government of the SAR are a good start. War significantly increases poverty, unemployment and inequality, and displaces people. The less access people have to economic resources and shelter, the more vulnerable they become to gender-based violence. The exit of all illegal foreign troops from Syria and the lifting of sanctions will go a long way in reducing the socio-economic factors that underpin their vulnerability.
Cde Reneva Fourie is a member of the Central Committee and currently resides in Damascus, Syria.
Covid-19 - Corruption and Gender-Based Violence Global Pandemics
Martin Dolny
August in South Africa is traditionally Women's month. In the rest of the world Women's Day is celebrated on March 8 but in South Africa we not only celebrate International Women's Day but dedicate a whole month to remembering the day when over 20 000 women from all walks of life and all parts of the country bravely marched upon the union buildings on 9 August 1956.
This August, the celebrations have been somewhat muted, not just by the Covid-19 viru,s but they have been overrun by the furore that has erupted over the alleged corruption on the awarding of some contracts to combat the effects of the Coronavirus.
The last few days of August have seen the anti-Covid-19 corruption campaign in South Africa step up a gear with news that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) announced it is probing over 600 companies and contracts valued at over R5 billion, over corruption allegations regarding the procurement of goods and services for Covid-19.
The fight against corruption needs to be put in context though - it is not as some would like to portray, an ANC issue, nor is it a South African issue. A recent article in MoneyWeb for example suggested that not just former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has weighed in on the controversy around Covid-19 corruption in South Africa, but also the World Health Organisation Head himself, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, "if health workers' lives were lost due to corruption, it equated to murder. However, further investigation indicates that Dr Tedros's comments were intended globally not specifically about South Africa. - understandably so, when you read reports that in the UK over GB£ 5 million is sucked out of the famous National Health Service (NHS) each year in fraud - and that's the 'unlawful' fraud -it does not include the money sucked out by private companies for doing less than the NHS used to do prior to it being semi-privatised nor does it include the fat-cat salaries to board members of the so called NHS Trusts.
In recent weeks, the UK Department of Health gave a contract worth GB£ 133 million to produce testing kits to help respond to the coronavirus pandemic "without prior publication of a call for competition" or without due tender, to a friend of the ruling Conservative Party. Elsewhere, a head of procurement for the NHS set up a business to profit from the private sale of huge quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
Other cases include: a small employment agency that was awarded a GB£ 18 million contract to supply face masks; a sweeties wholesaler that was given a GB£ 100 million contract to supply PPE and then there was the GB£ 250 million channelled through a Mauritius 'family office' who specialised in offshore property also to supply PPE, Altogether, billions of pounds worth of contracts appear to have been granted by the UK Government, often to some curious names without any competitive process
The UK Health Service is not alone among so called developed nations - in Italy the estimated annual turnover of the 'Ndrangheta' (a branch of the Mafia) is believed by Law-Enforcement Agencies to be around 44 billion Euros (ZAR 870 Billion) , which is more than all the Mexican drug cartels combined. Almost all of their "income" comes from the health service. The situation is so bad that the negotiations over the European Union's 1.85 Trillion Euro (ZAR 37 Trillion) Rescue Package collapsed several times as the "frugal four" countries of Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Austria argued that there was no point giving any grants to Italy or Greece as they would just end up in corrupt pockets.
Unsurprisingly, according to Transparency International countries, such as Italy and Greece perform markedly worse than most African countries on the corruption scale. This is NOT to say that its okay to be complacent about corruption in South Africa but rather it is important to put it into context and not allow colonialists to use it for their own agenda. Europe and the UK and their response to Covid-19 are prime examples AGAINST those who want to use the Covid -19 pandemic corruption scandal as an argument for privatisation of State Owned Enterprises
Over the last two decades in all industries the Health service, transportation , water , electricity - corruption whether legitimised or not, has increased when privatised - and conversely to keep the economies going many governments under Covid-19 have had to bring enterprises back under public control such as the German Government who now control Lufthansa and the UK who recently re-nationalised its rail network
There is another hugely significant C-19 Campaign going on at present - note the important difference, this is not an anti C-19 but a pro C-190. C-190 (Convention-190) is the name of the protocol adopted by the International Labour organisation last year This is an important piece of legislation and points us in the direction of path of how to tackle not just violence and abuse against women and girls, but also corruption in our workplaces and in our communities.
In June last year, at the Centenary Session of the ILO in Geneva, the Convention passed resolution C190 to outlaw GBV and harassment from the Workplace. Despite promises the South African Government has still failed to ratify it over a year later.
One of the core principles of C-19 is for each member state to promote and realise the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, the convention further calls for inclusive, integrated and gender responsives approach on the elimination of violence taking into account violence and harassment that involve the third parties. It extends GBV and harassment to those working from home and includes travel to and from work.
Just as in most countries around the world, the situation in South Africa has worsened in the last few weeks as a result of the Corona virus with GBV and femicide in the home on a dramatic increase. According to UN data, countries as far and wide as Argentina, France and Singapore have seen an increase in GBV related incidents from between 25% to 33% under lockdown.
In 2019 over 87 000 GBV cases were recorded by the South African Police Service (SAPS) - already a very high figure, but in the first few days of lockdown this figure increased by nearly 40%
However, GBV, like corruption does not happen everywhere, they are both often concentrated in pockets: in particular industries, societies, in particular times.
Alongside these pockets of GBV and corruption, other industries, other societies and other times are virtually GBV and corruption-free. The Scandinavian countries, such as Denmark, for example, are seen as among the least corrupt places in the world and their record on GBV is among the lowest globally. In many societies, GBV and corruption are not normal: they are therefore potentially avoidable in South Africa.
GBV and corruption is concentrated in pockets because it depends upon common expectations of behaviour. Where GBV and corruption are the norm, getting rid of them poses a co-ordination problem: if we expect those around us to continue to abuse women and girls and/or to be corrupt, then why should we change our behaviour? Because of this, pockets of GBV, harassment and corruption have proved to be highly persistent: the same industries and the same societies remain the same for many years.
But once you turn the tide then the opposite can be equally persistent. Covid-19 has violently exposed the systemic racism in the USA right into our living rooms. In London (where if you are black you are 10 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than if you are white) is more racist that Johannesburg - a testament to how much South Africa has turned the tide persistently since the end of Apartheid.
In the first Transparency International Survey conducted 25 years ago, Denmark was rated second globally - it remains as a beacon of hope This persistence is not a matter of chance. They consider that being trusted is a valuable asset: it makes many aspects of life much easier. In consequence, individual Danes have a strong incentive not to squander this valuable asset through behaving opportunistically. Because people have rationally chosen to protect their reputation for honesty, almost the entire society has stayed honest.
It is no coincidence that the countries that have consistently rated most highly for being corruption-free on Transparency International's Annual Global Index such as the Scandi countries, Canada, New Zealand and even Australia also have some of the best records when it comes to being GBV-free according to UN-Women. The two appear to be synonymous.
The tasks to end both GBV and corruption are the same and are two-fold:
- to embed clear legal structures and frameworks to prevent, deter and punish GBV and corruption, and
- to actually change the culture, so that the concepts of GBV and corruption are both recognised and resented as anathema to everyone - just as Apartheid was.
GBV does not start out one day as GBV - an old man or young boy does not suddenly go out one day and hit his partner or rape his classmate. A survey carried out a couple of years back showed that
- 77% of women had experienced verbal sexual harassment
- 51% of women had experienced unwanted sexual touching
- 41% of women had experienced cyber-sexual harassment
- 34 % of women had experienced being physically followed
- 30% of women had experienced unwanted genital flashing
- 27% of women had experienced sexual assault
GBV generally starts with verbal forms of sexual harassment, like being catcalled or whistled at or getting lewd or derogatory comments of a sexual nature. The majority of women in the survey said they had also been sexually harassed in public spaces. This includes verbal and physical harassment, like touching and groping. 38 percent of women said they experienced sexual harassment at the workplace. And 35% percent said they had experienced it at their home. These experiences are more likely to be assaults and the "most severe forms" of harassment.
Hence it is so important to join the campaign to ratify ILO C-190 to make such behaviour a criminal offence. Having embedded such structures, we can follow the examples of other countries and learn what works and what does not. Canada has some of the best anti GBV legislation in the world and Ontario has the best in Canada. The Scandinavian countries are among the best at anti-corruption and gender equality but lag behind other nations with regard to immediate partner violence.
Other countries such as New Zealand and Australia despite their appearance as the last bastions of sexism and misogyny (or because of it ) are at the forefront of the "White Ribbon Campaign" - the world's largest movement of men, women and boys working to end male violence and assault against women and girls, to promote gender equity, healthier relationships and an improved vision of what masculinity is in the workplace, in the home and in school and universities.
Since its inception in the 1990's, the White Ribbon Campaign has spread to over 60 countries. In many of these countries they have 'White Ribbon Accredited Workplaces' - where HR polices, and processes are anti-GBV. They also have "White Ribbon Schools and Universities" where students not only learn about GBV and harassment as part of the curriculum but enjoy and studying in an environment free of sexual harassment.
On the the 25th nniversary of the death of Cde Joe Slovo, the Joe Slovo Foundation re-launched "White Ribbon South Africa:.Through education, awareness-raising, outreach, technical assistance, capacity building, and partnerships, "White Ribbon South Africa's" programmes challenge the negative, outdated concepts of manhood and inspire all South Africans to embrace the incredible potential they have to be a part of positive change. Eliminating Gender Based Violence and GBV from the home, school, university, sport clubs, trade unions, workplace and communities
The 9th Annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture held in October 2019 was given by Mr Strive Masiyiwa the CEO of ECONET who is famous for having resisted giving bribes in order to expand his business throughout Africa. He spoke on "Tackling corruption in the private and public sectors - restoring citizens' trust locally and globally" and argued that if you pay a back hander to the policeman to escape the fine at the robots then you are just as guilty of corruption as the Covid-19 thieves.
Cde Martin Dolny is a Director of the Joe Slovo Foundation. This article is written in his personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation
Editor-in-chief
Dr Blade Nzimande
Deputy editors-in-chief
Solly Mapaila
Chris Matlhako
Co-editors
Yunus Carrim
Jeremy Cronin
Deputy editors
Buti Manamela
Jenny Schreiner
Design & production
Tony Sutton
Sub-editors
David Niddrie
Mark Waller
Other board members
Joyce Moloi
Celiwe Madlopha
Reneva Fourie
Alex Mashilo
Malesela Maleka
Tinyiko Ntini
