Faq’s

What is the mandate of the Ministry?

As President Jacob Zuma indicated when announcing Cabinet in May last year, this Ministry was created to protect the rights of and enhance development opportunities for women, children and persons with disabilities.

He developed on this role at the celebration of National Women’s Day in 2009, stating that the Ministry “will monitor other government departments to ensure the mainstreaming of gender, children’s rights, and disability considerations into all programmes of government and other sectors. This will help government to respond to issues of these targeted groups in an integrated and coherent manner.”

Then, in outlining government’s programme of action during the State of the Nation Address in 2010, the president emphasised the need “to integrate gender equity measures into the government’s programme of action [and] ensure that women, children and persons with disabilities can access developmental opportunities.”

Was there consultation with stakeholders on the mandate and processes of establishing the Ministry?

During 2009, the Ministry met with a number of stakeholders including women’s organisations, disability groups and those working in the area of children’s rights. The Ministry also interacted with ordinary women, people with disabilities and children themselves to establish what they will look to the Ministry for. In broad summary, these were their expectations:

• To facilitate socio-economic development for women, covering poverty eradication, employment equity and economic empowerment
• To facilitate socio-economic development for those living with disabilities, covering poverty eradication, employment equity and economic empowerment, as well as equal access to development opportunities and the realisation of rights
• To protect children against rights violations and provide them with the opportunity to grow to their full potential

What progress have you made and what challenges have you encountered in establishing the Ministry?

• A strategic framework was developed and adopted by Parliament
• An organogram with one branch dedicated to each sector (with a total of 195 posts) was approved by Department of Public Service and Administration
• A three-year budget of R156-million was allocated

Challenges

• Financial and human resources and research capacity were limited

What are the key roles of the Ministry?

• Playing an oversight role
• Mainstreaming gender, children’s rights and disability considerations
• Ensuring compliance with regional (Southern African Development Community and African Union) and international (United Nations and other multilateral agencies) obligations
• Initiating, facilitating, co-ordinating and monitoring development interventions for women, children and persons with disabilities

A long and healthy life for all South Africans

• Addressing the feminisation of poverty
• Supporting the uptake of HIV/AIDS, vaccination and other health-related programmes
• Facilitating access to assistive devices and other health services
• Reviewing national progress with regard to the Millennium Development Goals specific to maternal deaths and child mortality

An inclusive growth path

• Developing the Gender Equality Bill (including a 50/50 gender parity)
• Promoting Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BB-BEE) and Employment Equity (including a 2% representation for persons with disabilities)
• Supporting the National Empowerment Fund, focusing on poor and rural areas
• Mentoring girls in various careers

An empowered, fair and inclusive citizenship

• Co-ordinating the 365 and 16 Days of Activism Campaign
• Addressing human trafficking and exploitation
• Redressing and discouraging harmful practices, for example the forced marriage of girls to adult men (ukuthwala) and the killing of women and children for muti (“traditional medicine”) purposes
• Co-ordinating programmes for children living in the street
• Promoting the Children’s Charter, for example creating awareness around the exploitation of children

What are the key focus areas of the Ministry in its international role?

• The Convention on the Rights of the Child
• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• The Commission on the Status of Women and all relevant declarations including the Beijing Declaration, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the African Women’s Decade and Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development