Working Across Divides Women’S Activism in South Africa Working Across Divides
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Working Across Divides Women’s Activism in South Africa Working Across Divides EDITED BY HANNAH BRITTON, JENNIFER FISH AND SHEILA MEINTJES i Published in 2008 by University of KwaZulu-Natal Press Private Bag X01 Scottsville 3209 South Africa E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ukznpress.co.za © 2008 University of KwaZulu-Natal All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN: 978-1-86914-146-2 Managing editor: Sally Hines Editor: Lisa Compton Typesetter: Patricia Comrie Indexer: Brenda Williams-Wynn Cover designer: Flying Ant Designs Printed and bound by Pinetown Printers ii Contents Abbreviations . v 1 Engendering Civil Society in Democratic South Africa . 1 Hannah Britton and Jennifer Fish 2 Citizenship, Gender and Civil Society in South Africa . 43 Denise Walsh 3 Gender Equality by Design: The Case of the Commission on Gender Equality . 73 Sheila Meintjes 4 Women’s Sport as a Site for Challenging Racial and Gender Inequalities in Post-apartheid South Africa . 96 Cynthia Fabrizio Pelak 5 Organising from Private Spaces: Domestic Labour in South African Civil Society . 124 Jennifer Fish 6 Sexual Violence, Civil Society and the New Constitution . 155 Helen Moffett 7 Race, Gender and Feminist Practice: Lessons from Rape Crisis Cape Town . 185 Benita Moolman iii 8 Activating Children’s Citizenship: The Politics of the Girl Child in Democratic South Africa . 211 Christina Nomdo and Shaamela Cassiem 9 Crafting Spaces for Women’s Voices: The Case of Refugee Women in KwaZulu-Natal . 239 Janine Hicks 10 Transgressive African Feminism: The Possibilities of Global Organisation . 262 M. Bahati Kuumba Contributors. 282 Index . 287 iv Abbreviations AAWC All African Women’s Conference ANC African National Congress ANCWL African National Congress Women’s League ASA Advertising Standards Authority AZASO Azanian Students Organisation CBO community-based organisation CBU Children’s Budget Unit (within IDASA) CDC Centers for Disease Control CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CGE Commission on Gender Equality COSAS Congress of South African Students COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions DICAG Disabled Children’s Action Group DP Democratic Party FOSATU Federation of South African Trade Unions FRELIMO Front for the Liberation of Mozambique FSAW; FEDSAW Federation of South African Women GAPA Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS GEAR Growth, Employment and Redistribution GMAC-UIF Gender Monitoring and Advocacy Coalition for the Unemployment Insurance Fund HIV/AIDS human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome v HSRC Human Sciences Research Council IDASA Institute for Democracy in South Africa IFP Inkatha Freedom Party JCC Junior City Council (city of Cape Town) JMC Joint Monitoring Committee KZN KwaZulu-Natal LHR Lawyers for Human Rights MCC Mennonite Central Committee MK Umkhonto we Sizwe MP member of parliament NCHRE National Center for Human Rights Education NEC National Executive Council NGO non-governmental organisation NIH National Institutes of Health NP National Party NSA Netball South Africa NUSAS National Union of South African Students OSW Office on the Status of Women PWN Positive Women’s Network RCCT Rape Crisis Cape Town RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme RWM Rural Women’s Movement SACP South African Communist Party SADF South African Defence Force SADSAWU South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union SADWU South African Domestic Workers’ Union SAFA South African Football Association SAHRC South African Human Rights Commission SAPS South African Police Services SAYCO South African Youth Congress SEWU Self-Employed Women’s Union SISA Sport Information and Science Agency SWAA Society for Women and AIDS in Africa vi TAC Treatment Action Campaign TAP Township AIDS Project UCT University of Cape Town UDF United Democratic Front UIF Unemployment Insurance Fund UN United Nations UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees URW Union of Refugee Women WASSA Women and Sport South Africa WHARP Women’s HIV/AIDS Resources Project WNC Women’s National Coalition YDP Youth Development Programme (of Cape Town) vii viii Engendering Civil Society in Democratic South Africa 1 CHAPTER ONE Engendering Civil Society in Democratic South Africa HANNAH BRITTON AND JENNIFER FISH SOUTH AFRICA’S NEGOTIATED transition and 1994 democratic elections promised significant gains for gender equality, as women acquired one-third of the seats in the national parliament, secured constitutional protection and began an extensive process of legislative reform. These significant transforma- tions at the national governance level continue to characterise South Africa as one of the most lauded states in terms of women’s access to public positions of power and the protection of social rights. Women composed 32 per cent of the national parliament by the third democratic election, while the new Constitution is recognised as having one of the broadest and most inclusive anti-discrimination clauses internationally. These victories extend from decades of women’s activism in the struggle to end apartheid and assure gender rights in the creation of a new nation. In this process, a record number of women moved directly from the anti-apartheid struggle, political exile, labour movements or political imprisonment to positions of power within both parliament and the civil service. These macro-level changes, coupled with the experiences of activism shared by those entering public positions of power, placed enormous hope on the women who took national office. Characterised by the overarching climate of optimism central to the 1994 transition, the end of the apartheid struggle created new opportunities for women to rebuild South Africa by centralising gender rights in order to improve the quality of life and status for all women in the country. 1 2 Women’s Activism in South Africa The process of rebuilding society in the aftermath of violent conflict also affords vital opportunities to transform gender relations (see Meintjes 2001 and Powley 2003). Since the end of apartheid, South African women have continued to redefine leadership, feminism and power on their own terms and in their own cultural contexts. Yet for every significant gain women have made in the national political arena, there remains a parallel obstacle that is often most evident outside of the formal public structures of governance. Changing the nature of social relations and ameliorating the underpinning causes of gender inequality continue to constitute the most daunting challenges to assuring the protective rights central to South Africa’s new democracy. As a result, even though women are in powerful positions in the public sphere, ‘the struggle continues’ in the movement to alleviate gender inequalities in prevailing systems that have not yet transformed in accordance with the public commitment to gender rights. In families, households, communities and social institutions, women continue to face extreme marginalisation, as evidenced by the severe forms of gender-based violence throughout South Africa. We suggest that in the existing context, the negotiation of these deep contra- dictions in gender rights takes place in civil society organisations, where women continue to confront pervasive gender inequalities on a daily basis, while at the same time acting as powerful individual and collective agents of social change. This book explores these spaces where women are actively reconstituting society by engendering democracy in ways that are central to assuring the long-term transformation of South Africa. In this collection, we situate civil society organisations as our central lens in analysing gender progress in the context of South Africa’s ongoing process of social change and democrat- isation. Through case studies drawn from a broad collection of women’s organisations within South African society, each of the chapters evaluates how women in South Africa are navigating the contested terrains of ethnicity, social position and/or the national movement to democratisation. By ex- ploring women’s engagement within competitive sports, domestic-violence services, national unions, rights-based activism and political organisations, this collection expands the notion of political involvement and illustrates how South African women are constructing new forms of activism within the context of contemporary state structures that assure only a partial form of gender equality. Engendering Civil Society in Democratic South Africa 3 The cases in this text demonstrate the agency of and the obstacles for women within civil society in the face of patriarchal power relations and in relation to the post-apartheid state. This collection is intended to take part in the dialogue that assesses the complementarity as well as the potential conflicts between women’s ability to advocate for gender rights through powerful roles in public positions of state governance and as agents of social change in civil society. First, a central theme of our collection is that the state is both an avenue for change for women and is hostile to women’s activism at the same time. Several authors in this collection explore the potential of the state for improving the status of women, while others point out the limitations of the state