Programmes

In the year ahead, Malawi, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, and Angola will all go to the election polls. This past August, Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders committed themselves to 50% women in decision-making when they signed the SADC Gender Protocol. Given the year ahead, it then seems reasonable to expect that governments take necessary steps to ensure that the Protocol document translates into action on the ground.

A conversation with my 12-year-old daughter triggered a series of very uneasy questions that have preoccupied my mind over the last few months. The conversation revolved around the idea that Jacob Zuma would be the next president.

Johannesburg 9 February: It’s time to stop beating about the bush where polygamy and suitability for leadership of a progressive democracy are concerned. I refer of course to the likelihood of African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma and his four (or is it two or six?) wives becoming the first family of South Africa after the April 2009 elections.

Ahead of Malawi’s 19 May parliamentary and presidential elections, the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe motherhood (WRASM) Malawi chapter is calling on aspiring candidates to declare, and act on, their commitment to ensuring the health and well-being of the nation’s mothers.

I am Christelle and I am 17 years old. My sister is 12 years and my brother is 9 years old. We have lived at the Centre d’ Education de Developpement pour les Enfants Mauriciens (CEDEM), a centre for abused children in Mauritius, for three years now. Since I was 6 or 7 years old, I saw my father beating my mother almost every day until the day he killed her.

Johannesburg, 18 February: In April this year we will have our fourth democratic elections. It is a significant political moment: new political parties, new realities, new presidents, new social issues or perhaps old? As ominous as the current environment may seem, the time is pregnant with opportunity for a renewed understanding of women’s rights.

Citizens on the streets of Johannesburg were posed with the question – What do you think makes a good leader ?

I always fall into a debate with my aunt, every time I go home to see my family at Makosha village outside Giyani; and this time around was no different. It started when I asked her if she had registered to vote.