South Africa is characterised by the paradox of progressive legislation on gender equality such as the Constitution, the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) (1998) and the Sexual Offences Act (2007) with extremely high levels of sexual and domestic violence against women and children; hate crimes towards lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex people; and unequal working conditions between women and men. This contested terrain of gendered equality requires specific government and civil society interventions. Recently, government, specifically the Ministry for Women, Children and Persons with Disability (MWCPD) have proposed legislation, namely the Gender Equality Bill to hold government departments accountable for implementation of previous legislation such as the DVA, the Employment Equity Act (1998) and Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (2000) and to act as a mechanism for coordinating interventions on gender equality.
On the 12th of May over eighty people from different civil society organisations in the Western Cape attended a workshop to consider the bill. The purpose of the workshop was to inform civil society organisations on the contents and development of the Gender Equality Bill, to encourage a collective opinion, and to develop a joint response strategy to the bill. The workshop was organised by a collective of women’s organisations, namely REACH, Women on Farms and the Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women (WCNVAW), supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Oxfam.
Specifically, the workshop considered the following questions.
- Is there a need for specific legislation dealing with gender equity? If yes, why? If there is no need for developing specific gender equity legislation, how can existing legislation and policy frameworks be strengthened?
- What are the key areas that gender equity legislation should address?
- Do you agree with the foundational pillars on which the bill is based? If not, what should be reworked here?
While the majority of the people and civil society organisations present supported the bill, a number of gaps, omissions and inconsistencies that will need to be addressed before the bill can be tabled before parliament were identified. Participants agreed that the bill is a good instrument to implement other pieces of legislation. In addition, the bill should also include important aspects of gender equality in relation to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and sex workers that most existing legislations do not address.
At the end of the workshop, two committees made up of volunteers from different civil social organisations were formed to spearhead this initiative: The first committee was tasked to critically review the bill and its content in view of the gaps identified and suggestions given at the workshop. The second committee was given the mandate to head communication with the department.