Summit 2020-Thaba Tseka Urban Council COE

Thaba-Tseka urban council is situated in the Thaba-Tseka district and joined the COE process in the 2010.

The council does not have a gender policy, but uses a national gender policy, nonetheless, there is a gender action plan that incorporates the Post 2015 SADC Gender Protocol, SDGs and other relevant targets.

The council has fourteen councillors of which ten are men and four are women. The council is chaired by man and within three committees that the council has none is chaired by a woman. There are twelve employees in the council women are five while men are seven and two women in the management.

Women, youth and PWD participate in council consultations and decision-making mainly through public gatherings. The council ensures gender equality by providing equal job opportunities to both men and women in the jobs created. For instance, casual labourers for waste management, women, PWD and youth are engaged. The council hires men, women and PWD on a monthly basis for cleaning the street and public places of the town. It is also uses public gatherings to convey information and public consultations for needs assessments.

The council uses national policy in terms of maternity where women are given three months paid maternity leave and three months of nursing hours after returning back from maternity leave. There is also a provision of less than one month of paternity leave.

The council also provide family responsibility days where one is expected to take responsibility on his or her family such as funeral preparations. On the other hand, the council provide flexi time where an employee is given the opportunity of flexible working hour’s arrangement, for instance, when attending annual medical appointments.

The council does not have its own sexual harassment policy, whenever there is a case related to sexual harassment, it uses the local government act of 1997 section 71(1) (c) and as per disciplinary regulations. The council has disability user friendly building and it is accessible for everybody.

Thaba-Tseka urban council allocates a substantial budget to gender-related projects.

Coming to local development, the council does not have entrepreneurship finance schemes, but has marketplace which is mostly used by the women. In an effort to enhance poverty reduction, the council extended the market stalls, adding up seventeen more rooms to the already existing market, whereby one room was allocated an association locally producing Motoho, and more than 50% of the rest allocated to women.

In collaboration with Paray School of Nursing through the Community Assessment Project, the council disseminated information on health issues relating to cleanliness, sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS at Ntaote High School. Furthermore, in her visit to Thaba Tseka, princess Senate in alliance with Thaba Tseka District Child Protection Team, propagated ideas about how to effectively reduce teenage pregnancy to different high school students within Thaba Tseka Urban Council. Moreover, women, men, people living with disability, and youth do have equal access to treatment from clinics and hospital.

In terms of climate change, the council has a waste management project through which it provides equal job opportunities to both men and women. Furthermore, the council also allows people to collect and sell for recycling purposes; metal cans, plastics and papers from the dump site which is monitored and assessed for compliance with set standards by the department of environmental health from the District Health Management Team.

Key actions council has taken towards Prevention and Public Awareness to Violence are as follows; there are community policing forums in the communities who work hand in hand with the Lesotho Mounted Police Service to prevent and respond to cases of violence and the council holds public gatherings to raise awareness to end violence.

Click here to read more about the Thaba-Tseka Council