WOMEN ARE THEIR OWN WORST ENEMIES

As is the tradition, the Kingdom of eSwatini on March 8 joined the rest of the world in commemorating International Women’s Day yet paradoxically Swazi women continue to be subjected to a lot of injustices; culturally, professionally, politically and socially.

As I see it, it is not enough to commemorate International Women’s Day as a once off phenomenon every passing year. We need to move beyond commemorating this important day but to celebrating our women. But we can hardly do that when our society continues to imprison women from achieving their potential.

No, we do not have to pity our women because it is not our pity that they need or deserve. No, we do not have to empathise and sympathise with our women because that is not what they deserve. What our women deserve are equal, not special, opportunities that are natural to their opposite fellow homosapiens, a place in the sun so that they too can have the platform from which they launch themselves into the stratosphere of achieving their potential.
Ruth Newman, Public Affairs Officer in the United States Embassy, equated women’s struggle for equality and freedom from gender-based violence in the kingdom to armed conflicts elsewhere. She was addressing a commemoration of the International Women’s Day event at the museum in Lobamba last Saturday.

“International Women’s Day has become a time to celebrate the intellectual, social, political and economic achievements of women while focusing world attention on areas that require further action,” she said. Ironically the same cannot be said to be obtaining in the Kingdom of eSwatini where women remain shackled to stereotypes of their perceived intrinsic weaknesses and vulnerability as underlying logic for being shielded from the real world when in fact this is all about their exploitation.   

Newman referred to a recent study undertaken by the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO) that found that at least 78 per cent of women in this country were survivors of gender-based violence. In real terms that is to say nearly eight out of 10 Swazi women have and will experience gender-based violence in their lifetime. That is a horrific statistic that this nation ought to be ashamed of yet society remains largely silent and passive when it comes to such issues.

Failed

Government, as leader, has also failed to lead from the front when it comes to the struggle for the total emancipation of women in this country. All we hear is lip service and no practical action being taken in terms of formulating requisite legislation and policies that would advance women’s issues. Why, even the Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini was dismissive and quite casual when asked in the House of Assembly about the election of four women from the regions into Parliament. He spoke about the need for the creation of a legal framework to enable this.

If indeed there was a need for the creation of an enabling legal framework to ensure that constitutional provisions to this effect were adhered to surely this could have been accomplished during the first five years of his tenure of office. This just goes to show that the national Constitution is in effect not the Supreme law of the land that it should be otherwise it would not be breached with such consummate ease.
Nevertheless, the PM’s office Portfolio Committee should be lauded for having given a six-month ultimatum to the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to have drafted the requisite legislation that would expedite the election of the four women from the regions into Parliament.

This is a promising indication by the House of Assembly that it will have zero tolerance for the continued transgression of the Constitution by the Executive arm of government
As I see it, what is also horrifying in the struggle for the total emancipation of Swazi women is that our women are often their own worst enemies when it comes to their affairs. Given the fact that women are in the majority in the population, it should have been a walk in the park in achieving the 30 per cent representation demanded by the constitution for the election of the four women from the regions not to be an issue. In fact, had our women been supportive of and to each other, they should be in the majority even in Parliament.

Just how apathetic women are about their issues was probably graphically depicted by a court challenge by one Madandane Juliet Mavimbela late last year. Mavimbela took House of Assembly Speaker and Clerk to Parliament to court for allegedly flouting the Constitution by failing to comply with the provisions of Section 86(1) band (2) as read with Section 95(3). Section 86(1) of the constitution provides that at the first meeting of the House after any general election it appears that female Members of Parliament will not constitute at least thirty per cent of the total membership of Parliament, then, and only then, the provisions of this section shall apply. Sub-section two further stipulates that for the purpose of this section, the House shall form itself into an electoral college and elect not more than four women on a regional basis to the House in accordance with the provisions of Section 95(3).

Mavimbela wanted the court to order the Speaker and clerk to comply with these provisions by facilitating the election of the four women from the regions.
It is history that Mavimbela not only lost the case but was also burdened with costs. But what is poignant about this case was the deafening silence from all across the land, especially women. None came out to openly support their own either physically with their presence in court or financially in the pursuance of the case. If anything, this proves just how unsupportive women are apropos their issues. For me the commemoration of International Women’s Day should have been symbolised by honouring the unsung heroine Madandane Juliet Mavimbela. 

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