A group of about 2 000 women has urged the government to pay urgent attention to providing better housing for the poor.
Housing was top of the agenda when the women and a handful of men gathered in Wallacedene on Tuesday for a special opportunity to tell provincial MECs about their daily challenges.
The event, Voices of Women, is aimed at honour ordinary women who have done extraordinary things within their communities.
It offers them the chance to put their concerns directly to members of the provincial government.
The idea was to also turn the spotlight on challenges they faced, including identifying economic opportunities, looking for alternative energy sources, alleviating poverty, and meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
But housing emerged clearly as the women's priority.
They were highly critical of the housing department projects which had resulted in shoddy and poorly-built homes.
Some of the contractors, the audience charged, had left houses half-complete or poorly finished, with leaking roofs during the winter storms being the biggest consequence.
The women urged the government to also address spiralling unemployment among the youth, the high crime rate, drug abuse and particularly tik use, as well as the abuse of women and children.
They appealed to the government to provide more empowerment workshops and projects as many of them spent most of their time "at home doing nothing".
Shaun Byneveldt, Speaker of the provincial legislature, told the gathering that while a huge number of women had managed to get leadership posts in the government since 1994, "much more needs to be done to empower more women".
He said post-apartheid South Africa was about unity, non-racism, non-sexism and delivering freedom to all, among other aspirations.
"If men suffered under apartheid, women suffered more," said Byneveldt.
- Cape Argus
Housing was top of the agenda when the women and a handful of men gathered in Wallacedene on Tuesday for a special opportunity to tell provincial MECs about their daily challenges.
The event, Voices of Women, is aimed at honour ordinary women who have done extraordinary things within their communities.
It offers them the chance to put their concerns directly to members of the provincial government.
The idea was to also turn the spotlight on challenges they faced, including identifying economic opportunities, looking for alternative energy sources, alleviating poverty, and meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
But housing emerged clearly as the women's priority.
They were highly critical of the housing department projects which had resulted in shoddy and poorly-built homes.
Some of the contractors, the audience charged, had left houses half-complete or poorly finished, with leaking roofs during the winter storms being the biggest consequence.
The women urged the government to also address spiralling unemployment among the youth, the high crime rate, drug abuse and particularly tik use, as well as the abuse of women and children.
They appealed to the government to provide more empowerment workshops and projects as many of them spent most of their time "at home doing nothing".
Shaun Byneveldt, Speaker of the provincial legislature, told the gathering that while a huge number of women had managed to get leadership posts in the government since 1994, "much more needs to be done to empower more women".
He said post-apartheid South Africa was about unity, non-racism, non-sexism and delivering freedom to all, among other aspirations.
"If men suffered under apartheid, women suffered more," said Byneveldt.
- Cape Argus
1 comment:
What a story..
You might be interested in this note on two new student sites: It's Launch Day
One is by some American students who visited South Africa this summer.
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