A DIALOGUE to highlight importance of nominating women for municipal positions will be held tomorrow and will tackle issues impacting women within the sphere of local government and the institution of traditional leadership in KZN. GOVERNMENT and traditional leaders to share platform during dialogue. | Supplied.
DURBAN - AS THE country gears up for local government elections, the significance of women representation in municipal structures will come under the spotlight during a high-level dialogue taking place in Durban.
Held under the banner of the Women in Local Government and Traditional Leadership Dialogue, the discussion will tackle issues impacting women within the sphere of local government and the institution of traditional leadership.
The emphasis will be put on the importance of gender parity in the leadership roles at municipal level and traditional leadership, said Nonala Ndlovu, the spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Co-operative Governance and Traditional Leadership department (Cogta), which will be hosting the meeting.
Among the key speakers will be the Minister for the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola; the Deputy Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane; Cogta MEC Sipho Hlomuka; the deputy chairperson of the KZN Provincial House of Traditional Leaders, Inkosi PT Zulu; a member of the KZN legislature, Amanda Bani-Mapena; and the mayor of the uBuhlebezwe local municipality, councillor Elizabeth Ngubo.
“The dialogue will tackle issues impacting women within the sphere of local government and the institution of traditional leadership in KZN. As the province and country gear up for the local government elections, the dialogue will also shed light on the importance of gender parity in the leadership roles at municipal level,” said Ndlovu.
In its report on women representation in politics and government between 2014 and 2019, the Commission for Gender Equality says that while there has been marked improvement, more needs to be done.
“While these positive developments and improvements are to be applauded, promoting gender equality and transformation remains a voluntary activity among many political parties in South Africa,” the report says.
“These political parties remain unwilling to adopt numerical quota systems to ensure that gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment are governed by clear and committed policy commitments with clear targets, rather than be subjects of the vagaries of internal party politics which explain why many of the senior leadership structures of these parties are still overwhelmingly male-dominated despite the significant improvements noted in other areas over the past five years since the 2014 elections,” the report says.
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