This, as members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), led by Chairperson Sylvia Lucas, are set to hold a virtual session of the review of the 1994 Women's Charter for Effective Equality in Lejweleputswa District as well as in Fezile Dabi. 

The sessions are set to kick off on Wednesday and expected to shed light on the challenges experienced by women in these districts. They come weeks after Lucas, who is also the former Premier of the Northern Cape, confirmed to OFM News that they had successful engagements with women in the Mangaung Metro Municipality as well as in the five districts of the Northern Cape. She confirmed that a lack of economic opportunities, high unemployment rates, crime and lack of basic services are amongst some of the key issues still prevalent in the Northern Cape.

Following the recent adverse reports from the Auditor-General (AG) about local government and Statistics SA about unemployment, expectations are high that the women in the Free State would also raise similar issues.

Whilst the AG indicated that service delivery by Free State municipalities is a great concern due to irregular expenditures and a lack of accountability, the report by Statistics SA indicated that unemployment rate is very high in the Eastern Cape followed by the Free State.

Coupled with these issues, challenges of gender-based violence are amongst some of the key issues expected to come to the forefront on Wednesday.

Lucas has previously also told OFM News that parliament has taken note of the escalating cases of gender-based violence in the Northern Cape and across the country. She said they will be moving from province to province to enable women to make their voices heard and are aiming to interact with women from at least 40 districts across the country by the end of August.

The review of the 1994 Women’s Charter is to enable women in different parts of the country to highlight challenges they are still faced with 26 years post democracy and to enable parliament to make amendments.

OFM News