Bringing about a ?sea? change in local government

When still a young child I vowed that I would make some contribution to improving the quality of life of people, and women in particular, in any community that I serve. This conviction has stayed with me throughout my life. It is kept alive by the memory of my parents who instilled in me and my siblings the values of hard work, commitment and perseverance.

 

I became involved in the establishment of street, block and defence committees and participated in public protests against illegitimate municipal leaders and poor or non-existent service provision and in the broader struggle for freedom. Little did I know that I would later be deployed by the ANC as a municipal councilor in 1994 and 1995, and as Mayor of the Greater Johannesburg Metro’s Southern Local Council (Soweto) in 1997, and then as the Speaker of the City of Johannesburg.

 

I accepted the nomination because I believed that I had something to contribute. I believed that the freedom we fought for and attained would only have true meaning if everyone’s needs and aspirations were represented in legitimate structures of government.

 

As Mayor I represented the municipality in official local and international functions. I also worked closely with communities to ensure their participation in the municipality. One of the most exciting and humbling experiences I had as Mayor was to chair a council meeting that deliberated on the development of Soweto. I also represented the municipality at a number of local and international functions.

 

I particularly enjoyed meetings with women’s groups in Soweto and surrounding areas. We organised information-sharing meetings and training sessions which empowered them to establish income generating projects such as dress-making, child care, baking, handcraft. While we discouraged them to establish projects that perpetuated socially constructed roles of women, it was difficult to change their mindsets.

 

While I enjoyed my role as a Mayor, the challenge was that it was a ceremonial position that was too limiting, but I didn’t pay too much attention to the position, I instead, carried out many developmental functions.

 

But being one of the few women in a leadership position amongst a sea of men has not been easy. I remember when I gave birth to my second child in 1994, when I was already serving at the ANC Johannesburg Region, I was referred to, by one of the male comrades as a “child-maker” who had to occasionally excuse herself from meetings to care for a sick child or bring her children to the meetings.

 

My colleague(s) failed to understand that women can have multiple roles in society. These include the reproductive role, the productive role, the community managing role as well as being active in community politics.

 

The “double or triple shift” that women work is not easy. It is essential to allocate quality time to fulfill our many functions. Time management, goal setting and follow through have therefore always been critical for me to carry out all my roles efficiently.

At the Municipal Council many of our male comrades have genuinely been supportive of women’s leadership and considered us as equals. However, there are those whose sexist attitudes and remain major obstacles to women’s effective participation in governance. However, instead of putting us off, fighting these attitudes has made us stronger and more committed to the struggle for gender equality as enshrined in our constitution.

The road for women councillors is not been an easy one. While many male colleagues have been supportive of efforts to encourage women’s leadership, there are others who feel threatened by women’s leadership. Some women leaders have even been described as “power hungry.”

 

Interestingly, this resistance is not only from men. Responses by some women to the work of the Women’s Caucus are far from supportive. Some have even argued that “there is no problem” and say that there is no need for the caucus to exist.

 

I completely support the calls for equal representation of women and men in all structures of government. We need a critical mass of women who will challenge the inferior status of women in our communities. However, we also need to be aware that simply “adding women on” does not necessarily mean that gender concerns will be addressed.

The sphere of local government has been at the coalface of service delivery. I believe that local democracy is deepening as people participate in developmental local governance through ward committees and other community structures.

 

I also believe that there are some gender specific issues that can be addressed most effectively in local government. These include the need to engender integrated development plans, performance systems, budgets and incorporating gender indicators and targets in all local government policies and programmes. In essence, gender should be mainstreamed in all aspects of municipal life.    

In order to realise democratic and representative leadership, to raise the political legitimacy of local government and to advance the course of gender equality,  local government elections need to yield equal representation of ward and proportional representation i.e. party list councilors. However these men and women councilors must have what it takes to serve the community through local governance.