Huge Improvements for Women but Many Live in Poverty

Gift Ngobeni

@nyikogifted

Every year we are in August South Africans celebrate women as the month is dubbed women’s month with the 9^th of August set aside as an extra special public holiday for these celebrations. Women have definitely come far and sitting at the helm of the African Union now is Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who is the first woman to head the body. She has served in South Africa’s government as a minister in the portfolios of health, foreign affairs and home affairs.

Another noticeable name would be that of our public protector Thuli Madonsela. Madonsela is also a Human Rights Lawyer and Equality Expert. She was also one of the eleven technical experts who helped the Constitutional Assembly draft the final constitution in 1994 and 1995. 

While a lot of strides have been made in South Africa and the above mentioned women have been an inspiration to many in our new democracy, there are many others there still continue to live the life of struggle. While I was listening to radio some time in August I hear a story done by senior specialist reporter, Mahlatse Gallens. The story was about 45-year-old Ruby Marais who, after 20 years in an abusive marriage, is now serving 25 year prison term for the murder of her abusive husband. The mother of one from Stillbaai in the Western Cape was convicted for paying hit men ten thousand Rand to kill her husband. She says it was her only way out of an abusive marriage.

Media, Educators & Government Discuss the African Story

Sthembiso Sithole

@sitholeexpress

Nqakula told panelists that positive government stories need to be published.

The media is most people’s only window to places outside South Africa and through television screens, radio and newspaper reports people can be transported to countries across the African continent. But this picture of Africa depends on how the journalist and the news organisation they work for cover the rest of the continent. From their angle, people sitting in their homes across South Africa would then formulate their own picture of other regions in Africa.

Many would remember how the North African countries of Libya, Egypt and Tunisia dominated the news in 2011 as people were revolting against their governments. Libya’s was the most difficult as that country’s president Muammar Ghaddafi was refusing to step down until the rebels started hunting him down and eventually killed him. Nato also declared the airspace over Libya a no-fly zone and then started shelling the country. That is the story of North Africa from 2011 many would remember. The dictators who led those countries are no longer in power and as there are fewer protests, no shelling of the region and a bit of calm, the stories from there have also stopped. There is also a huge possibility that many who watched those conflicts would not know a North Africa without conflict as they’ve never seen it through their window.