Summit 2016-Sephokong Council COE

Sephokong Community council is situated in Leribe district about 10 kilometres from Hlotse town. Sephokong Community Council is the fourth council that has become a COE in the Leribe district. The council completed both COE and Entrepreneurship stages.

As part of gender-related policy, the progress SADAC GENDER PROTOCOL made in Mohale’s Hoek Urban Council is that while hiring labourers in the project in the Council it considers gender equality. The council has 10 male councillors and 11 female councillors. The Deputy Mayor in Sephokong council is a woman.

The council has four committees, two of which are chaired by women. Within the committees there are no people representing youth and people living with disabilities, and Sephokong Community council does not have a Junior Council.

Women, men, young people and PWD hold meetings where they invite stakeholders, traditional healers, youth, men, women and PWD as they want to create a policy on resilience of climate change. There is an aggregate of about 51%-75% women who are involved in public consultations.

The council’s workforce consists of 50% women and 50% men, with no youth representative and no people living with disabilities. Two women are in the council management and more women are involved in the council than men.

There are provisions for paid maternity leave for three months and for paternity leave for one month. The council does not have a sexual harassment policy. Disciplinary hearings are held in the case of sexual harassment, but in bigger cases state institutions are consulted. There is lack of facilities that cater for people living with disabilities and that becomes hard for PWD to go around freely, especially wheelchair users, within the council.

Sephokong Community Council does not allocate a substantial budget to gender-related projects from 2016 to 2017.

The market is being piloted at Sehlaba-thebe as part of the council’s local economic development plan, and the building is in process under the supervision of the independent monitor. However there are no entrepreneurship finance schemes, and there are no people hired in the LED sector within the council.

Social Development is engaged in support of care work for women, men, youth and PWD, and it has provided the office space for public servants from the social development department. The above-mentioned people are paid both in cash and kind together with the mini projects within the villages that provide families with income. The Global fund is also having hands on in handing out cash M300.00 per month for people who are involved in educare and child care. The global fund works in collaboration with the Council and the Ministry of Health. The Council also has the VCT section in its office building which supports people living with HIV and AIDS however the HIV/AIDS committee needs to be revived.

As part of climate change and sustainable development the community is engaged in the planting of forest and fruit trees, and erection of dams and training in environmental protection and protection of water springs. Communities are encouraged to apply for land for agricultural purposes and tree planting in which peoples projects are subsidised by the central government, for instance Forestry department is giving out trees for those who have accessed land and those with fields for crop production work in partnership with government to produce crops and communities share equally the harvest.

Campaigns such as the Sixteen Days of Activism, women’s and men’s month are observed and celebrated. The council has formed the village committees which work with the police and the council office on gender based violence (GBV). The relationship between the police and the council is good because the communities are not hesitant to report crimes or GBV to the police stations and the council has enabled the police to hold games including pool (snooker) in which both the communities and the police get conversant with each other while the council sponsor the event by providing prizes to be won. In other instances both the communities and the police make contributions in cash to be won.

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