KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has urged women in leadership positions to become agents of change in the struggle for women emancipation.
Addressing the Evolution of Women in Leadership Conference at Durban, Dube-Ncube cautioned that it is easy for women to assume that their liberation will come from others, other than themselves.
“Those who are oppressed need not accept a diminished sense of self. This must not be the case with our fight for socio-economic emancipation as women. The evolution of women in leadership is less about celebrating how far we have come, but more about how we re-adjust the lenses of our struggle, such that we usher in a new world,” Dube-Ncube said.
Attended by more than 200 women leaders, entrepreneurs and decision-makers, the main point of the conference was the effect of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) and its impact in hampering impactful change in society.
The Premier highlighted a number of interventions that government has implemented to fight the scourge of GBV, these include, amongst others, the Light-Up Inanda Campaign where eThekwini Metro is working together with Mnambithi Group in Public-Private Partnership providing solar-powered streetlights in Inanda Township, which has been identified as the number one GBV spot in the country.
“The Office of the Premier recently secured funding from private sector partners to build the initial foundation of the GBVF App with a panic button. Making the system fully operational requires effective ward- based GBVF Rapid Response Teams integrated to War Rooms.
“The GBVF App will be linked to members of the Gender Based Violence and Femicide Rapid Response Teams which include war room, members of the Executive Committee (EXCO), traditional leadership, and SAPS,” the Premier highlighted.
The Premier also challenged women to be their own liberators and to understand that the change they want to see is not so that they can be like men, but to usher in a new world characterised by peace, equality, justice and prosperity.
She also urged women in leadership positions to lift more women so that the occupation of leadership positions should be seen less as an exception, but “more as a norm”. – SAnews.gov.za
