Mothata Lepheane-Thaba Tseka Urban Council COE

Mothata Lepheane’s first encounter with Gender Links was during the COE trainings at the Thaba-Tseka urban council. He has never regretted it, because he was able to learn so much about gender issues as an individual, and as part of the council.

Cllr Mothata is a member of the Thaba-Tseka urban council, which is very active. Before joining the council, Cllr Mothata participated in the community policing forum where men and women in the community work to fight crime. They have been working together to help the police bring perpetrators to book. He is a member of the Thaba-Tseka support group , which helps people living with HIV/AIDS and their families, trying to support them.

Cllr Mothata is a councillor in the Thaba-Tseka urban council, and his core business is to attend workshops and then go the community to publicize gender issues in his community. Like any other Mosotho man, Cllr Mothata was raised by his parents, who had rules, culture, and traditions. He also followed in their footsteps, and as a result, he did not care much how men and women should behave; he only knew that men were the heads of the family. In early 2012, Gender Links held a workshop with the Thaba-Tseka urban council, where they taught the council about gender issues; that was an eye opener, because he was able to differentiate a lot of issues around gender, and also to understand those issues more clearly. He had to go back to the community and discuss those issues; people needed to understand them. It is especially important, because many people had the impression that gender gave women an opportunity to disrespect their husbands. The workshop was very important to explain gender clearly.

Cllr Mothata was a member of the community who believed in his culture no matter the negative side it was bringing. But all that changed after he attended the Gender Links training. He influenced the community to give both women and men chance to participate in all aspects of life. He was able to help both men and women take part in all committees that were formed in the community. He also helped his community by talking about other issues that affect men and women, like climate change. He strengthened his work in the community by making sure that gender issues are maintained.

Apart from being a councillor, Mothata is a very important person in the community, because he is a male care worker. Some people find that strange, but they come to him in big numbers, because they want to know how he managed to be so active on gender issues. He is the hope of people in his community, especially other men. He is hoping that by the end of this year, more men would join support groups; men are still reluctant to join those groups, and he wants to lead by example.