President Cyril Ramaphosa
Photo by: Creamer Media
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday vowed that South Africa, in its capacity as the African Union chair, plans to improve women’s representation in economic and political decision-making processes in Africa.
Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly newsletter to the country that he will be travelling to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia at the end of the week for the African Union (AU) summit, at which South Africa will assume chairship of the African continental organisation for the next year.
He said empowering women was not a favour or a voluntarily adopted option but stated that it was a basic principle cherished by any society founded on human rights.
“It is fundamental to our vision of an Africa that is united, peaceful, prosperous and equal. If, as this year’s African Union chair, South Africa can lead the organisation to achieve this goal, it will be by far our greatest achievement,” Ramaphosa stated.
He also said that it must be acknowledged that women’s participation in business is lacking, citing that even the principle of equal pay for equal work is still not consistently applied.
“Women still carry the highest burden for child care and ‘unpaid work’ in the home. Women still occupy lower paid and lower skilled jobs. Despite employment equity legislation, there are fewer women than men in senior management roles, especially in business,” Ramaphosa said.
With the African Continental Free Trade Agreement kicking off this year, Ramaphosa noted the country had an opportunity to ensure that women and women-owned businesses meaningfully benefit from what will be the world’s largest common market for goods and services.
Ramaphosa also referred to the South African chapter of the International Women’s Forum meeting where he said forthright discussions had taken place, not only on advancing women’s leadership in society, but on a wide range of economic, policy and other issues.
He said women business leaders had proposed a range of solutions to leverage knowledge and digital economies as catalysts for growth and to support women’s entrepreneurship.
He noted that it was valuable to hear from women business leaders about what areas should be focussed on to grow the economy and create more jobs.