Celebrating the inroads made by eThekwini women

 

Celebrating the inroads made by eThekwini women

 THE month of August is celebrated nationwide as Women's Month. It is born out of the historical and monumental events of 1956 when over 20 000 women marched against unjust pass laws. This year's commemoration of the fateful day come at a time when eThekwini is reeling from the aftermath of the recent civil unrest. 

As efforts to rebuild communities, families, businesses, and the City get underway, it is evident that the women of 1956 have multiplied. EThekwini women from all walks of life have shown similar resolve to those of yesteryear, to get eThekwini back on track. They have initiated or joined initiatives to clean-up, feed the hungry and continue to play a pivotal role in rebuilding the City.

GRANT-IN-AID

Women in eThekwini have been in the forefront of building communities for a long time. When the Municipality launched Grant-In-Aid (GIA) in 2002-an initiative that provides support to organisations that improve the standard of living and quality of life in local communities-women dominated the number of community building initiatives that applied for funding.

In the past financial year (2019/2020), the Municipality, through its GIA programme funded non-profit organisations (NPOs) to the tune of R5.6 million. Interestingly, out of the 111 wards up for consideration, 60 of the beneficiaries were organisations run by women. 

The sectors that are supported are: early childhood development, social welfare, economic development, skills development, sports, arts and culture as well as faith-based organisations.  

Measures put in place for organisations to qualify ensure accountability, fairness and that communities really benefit.

Applications are advertised in newspapers, radio stations and social media platforms in March. The partnership between eThekwini and NPOs is crucial as these organisations are considered the ears and eyes of the Municipality.

AGRI-BUSINESS 

The difficulties presented to communities by the  Covid-19 pandemic and the unrest have given some women an opportunity to start businesses to fill in gaps presented by the lockdown and closure of most shops. We have witnessed emerging farmers, some supported by the Municipality through its Agri-business Unit, step up in the quest for food security.

The Municipality’s Agri-business initiative seeks to grow the economy by improving the productivity of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in the agriculture business value chain. It has over seven percent of female farmers registered with it. The sector plays a huge part in food security, especially in the aftermath of the July unrest and the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, Council approved and adopted the eThekwini Agribusiness Master Plan which proposed five key commodities which the Municipality will focus on for the next 10 years. These are vegetables, sheep, broilers, cannabis and piggery.

The agri-business sector provides key services to emerging farmers such as business advice, advice on mentorship and extension, technical advice on business planning and financial management, support for access to markets and incubation. These services ensure the development and sustainability of farmers operating in the agricultural value chain, especially with the five commodities mentioned above. 

Soup kitchens are another intervention by the Municipality to fight poverty and create jobs. Once again, women of eThekwini have raised their hands to offer their services. Out of the 81 operating soup kitchens, about 75 of them are supervised and run by women. Besides the co-ordinators, there is also employment for 715 women who cook, serve meals and drive to deliver the food to feed people who are poverty-stricken. This is another level of women nurturing and building their communities. Soup kitchens are operated daily. There are many other Municipal interventions to uplift and empower women to have a stake in the in the economy. 

EMPOWERING WOMEN

As per the amended Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) of 2017, women have been classified as one component of the targeted groups in terms of the Contract Participation Goals (CPG) implementation on projects. This means that any tender worth more than R30 million, 30 percent of it will be subcontracted to targeted groups which includes women. Municipal line depatments are also encouraged to set aside a budget for contracts which will be advertised specifically to target group-owned entities, through the Municipality's Supply Chain Management. Targeted groups are entities which are 51% or more black owned and its ownership is composed of women, youth, military veterans and people living with disabilities. In the last financial year, the Municipality awarded work to the tune of over R1.1m to these groups. 

Internally eThekwini Municipality has also risen to the challenge of ensuring that women are in the forefront of empowerment and leadership through its many endeavours and programmes. These interventions include, amongst others, the Employment Equity Policy.

The Municipality started to prioritise gender equity soon after the promulgation of the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998. The Municipality has many success stories to tell about women empowerment. There has been an increase of female representation in clusters that were previously dominated by men. 

It is projected that by 30 June 2022, there will be a 45.43% female representation at the top three management levels and a total female representation of all occupational levels of 43.12%.

It is through such endeavours that the Municipality earned the Standard Bank Top Women Award in 2020 and more recently the Top Empowerment Award at the prestigious Oliver Top Empowerment Awards. This award recognised the Municipality for its unfailing vision and innovative leadership which positively impacted women in the country especially during the pandemic.