At the ANC’s national policy conference this week, its social transformation subcommittee will submit that SA's women are under siege from all angles.
This according to the subcommittee’s chairperson Lindiwe Sisulu, who on Tuesday unpacked the policy discussion document on social transformation.
Sisulu said the ANC, at its three-day gathering billed for Friday to Sunday, must come up with solutions to cushion women from social issues that affect them.
At the centre of their problems, said Sisulu, was gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide, which she described as a “calamity” that should be addressed with urgency.
At the last conference, the women’s league suggested one of the measures we could possibly consider was chemical castration — to which half the people in conference roared with agitation and anger, and it was put aside. But we are on the verge of a crisis and we should do something about it
— Lindiwe Sisulu, ANC social transformation sub-committee chairperson
“Gender-based violence has begun to rear its ugly head and the women’s league in particular is clear about the measures we should take,” she said.
“At the last conference, the women’s league suggested one of the measures we could possibly consider was chemical castration — to which half the people in conference roared with agitation and anger, and it was put aside.
“But we are on the verge of a crisis and we should do something about it. For instance, there is growing aggravated rape perpetrated on minors. Rape and GBV, as we speak now, are on a serious increase in our country.
“Out of this conference there must be a way found to deal with violence against women.”
For young women, teenage pregnancy had reached crisis levels, she said. Even more worrying was that the babies are fathered by men old enough to be parents to the girls they impregnate.
Moreover, young women were the main victims of human trafficking — another problem that was worsening by the day, Sisulu said.
“One of the things that worries us is teenage pregnancy. The latest reports indicate SA has the highest [rate of] teenage pregnancies of ages 10 to 19 in the world. Between 2021 and 2022 90,000 teenage pregnancies were recorded.
“And I would like to add that these were not pregnancies from one teenage boy to a teenage girl. Most of them were from adult men to teenage girls. We must do something to protect our young girls. We cannot allow this kind of scourge on people we pin our hopes on to take our country forward.”
These are but some of the issues the governing party must grapple with to bring about social transformation and put SA on a path to social cohesion and progress, she said.
According to Sisulu, a nation that cannot protect its women is doomed.
“If you want the best person to do a job, get a woman. This is shown in the home, in the workplace and wherever women are given the opportunity. We have to stop suppressing women.”
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