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Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Persons with Disabilities. 1 st Quarter Report – April to June 2019 10 September 2019. Introduction
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Portfolio Committee on Women, Youth, Persons with Disabilities 1st Quarter Report – April to June 2019 10 September 2019
Introduction • The Presentation will be focused on assessing activities that were undertaken during the beginning of the financial year. The report will therefore highlight achievement or attainment of targets against what was planned for the period in the APP, interrogate spending patterns and trends as well as overall functioning of the institutions and finally give an account of progress on previous resolutions of plenary. • For this reporting period, primarily the focus was on drafting concepts note and guiding documents for the work that is to be rolled out by Provinces and departments for the financial year. Work was done to put measures in place to ensure smooth roll out of processes and identification of risks and putting risk registers and related action plans to ensure that the risks related to implementation of programmes is properly mitigated. • The current reporting period also coincides with audit for the previous financial year that ended on 31 March 2019, therefore results of this process will also be highlighted in this report.
OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGANIZATION - 1 • For the current reporting period 76% of planned targets has been reached. It should however still be noted that as much as 100% finalisation of targets is ideal, first quarter represents setting up for the activities in the APP and thus some activities roll out gets realised between second to last quarter of the financial year. • The above reported outcome is from internally audited outcomes based on evidence submitted to internal audit unit and overall achievement came to 76%. This percentage of achievement represents as decrease in performance when compared to same reporting period for last financial year. • The biggest contributor is the fact that most of the work related to legislative reforms could not be done in the first quarter due elections. 6th Parliament only started work towards second quarter and so no work was done relating to PLU and Submissions on Bills.
OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGANIZATION - 1 • For the reporting period Commission experienced and influx of requests based on recommendations that were done on various reports previously released. This to some extend gives an indication that the Commission’s reports do have an impact and forces institutions to want to comply. • For the current financial year, legal unit under transformation activities will be looking into TVET Colleges. It has been positive to get requests from institutions that have not been sampled such as, Central University of Technology (CUT) from the Free State who approached the Commission for an independent study on issues affecting women in the workplace. Though they were not sampled to participate in the hearings this financial year, it shows that the word is out there on the work done with institutions of higher learning and possibly awareness of the fact that TVETs are on the radar and this may have prompted their proactiveness in this regard.
OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGANIZATION - 1 • The Commission previously assessed some mining houses, and ARM was part of the process, over the previous financial even during the current reporting report we have seen commitment in putting systems in place to ensure that the recommendations from the Commission are taken forward. For the reporting period they even took it up to themselves to appoint a gender focal person that will work closely with their HR Executive director to ensure they institution embraces gender mainstreaming as a strategy for gender equality. This journey has been embraced by several of their subsidiaries located in various Provinces. • The Commission in line with its mandate drafted a submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on VAW – Ms Simononvic a response to a call that was done through the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. This submission provided an overview of the forms of violence girls and women are subjected to when seeking reproductive healthcare, especially during maternity and childbirth. It also highlighted key analysis of the causes and drivers of this violence against women and offered an analysis of the national, regional and international legal frameworks governing the delivery of reproductive healthcare in South Africa and that which aims to protect women’s rights, especially their sexual, reproductive health rights.
OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGANIZATION - 1 • Youth month fell within the reporting period, and communications unit designed a campaign that was centred around Youth and SRHR issues. This radio programme was conducted through community radio stations with a focus on localised issues which emerge on a regular basis in various locations across the country. • The Commission co -hosted a national symposium to assess progress made by state in localising SDGs and tracking the state reporting to the voluntary national review (VNR) process. VNRs aim to facilitate the sharing of experiences including successes, challenges and lessons learned with the view to accelerate implementation of the 2030 agenda (SDGs). South Africa had volunteered to be part of this assessment that take place before the high-level political forum for sustainable development. The symposium sought to bring government, business and Civil Society representatives to form part of the verification and validation of both state and CSOs VNR reports on the implementation of SDGs. Government was represented by DPME who were overall responsible for the implementation and integration of SDGs in all state planning. monitoring and implementation plans like the NDP at National Level, the PGDS at Provincial level and finally the IDPs at Local Government Level. StatsSA participated in the process as the creators and curator of data that was used to compile that state report. The Commission’s target to have a full SDG report is towards the end of the financial year and work undertaken throughout the quarters will be utilised to feed into the final report.
OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGANIZATION - 1 • In anticipation of the Climate Change Bill that will be placed before the 6th Parliament, the Commission has been working in partnership with food and trees for Africa, a non -profit organisation dedicated to sustainable development, on its project Action 24. Since climate change has a greater impact on those sections of the population that are most reliant on natural resources for their livelihoods and/or who have the least capacity to respond to natural hazards, such as droughts, landslides, floods and hurricanes. And fact that women commonly face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change in situations of poverty, and the majority of the world’s poor are women. Women’s unequal participation in decision-making processes and labour markets compound inequalities and often prevent women from fully contributing to climate-related planning, policy-making and implementation. The Commission through the FTFA has been holding dialogues with organised women from Ekurhuleni and the Vaal in order to ensure their voices and experiences are included in the submission that the Commission will table when the bill reaches Parliament. • In light of the work the Commission is undertaking, of drafting a sexual harassment guide that all employers should follow when dealing with sexual harassment matters, and the recent ILO adoption of the violence and harassment instrument, ILO has requested a meeting that will take place in the second quarter to discuss and ensure an inclusive, integrated approach on these matters.
SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS • The process to overhaul and integrate performance management system into the current sage system has not been finalised. • For the period contracting and some of the reviews have taken place through manual processes. • Case ware management system is up and running and finance unit is running its financial reporting (production of financials smoothly). • The Complaints manual system is also up and running but still needs close monitoring to deal with some of the glitches that arise. • The internet link is running at high percentage (200% instead of utilisation being at 70% as is supposed to be). IT is running processes that will allow the Commission to upgrade the bandwidth. • The new telephone system is starting to realise fruits for the commission, there has been considerable savings from telephone bills.
OUR STRATEGIC PLAN: 4 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES and 11 SUB-STRATEGIES
First Quarter Progress on Performance Information • For the current reporting period 76% of planned targets has been reached. It should however still be noted that as much as 100% finalisation of targets is ideal, first quarter represents setting up for the activities in the APP and thus some activities roll out gets realised between second to last quarter of the financial year. • The biggest contributor is the fact that most of the work related to legislative reforms could not be done in the first quarter due elections. 6th Parliament only started work towards second quarter and so no work was done relating to PLU and Submissions on Bills.
Legal Department The legal department opened 97 complaints during this quarter and 132 files were closed, with a total of 413 files still pending. The following table represents the nature of files opened during Q1
Analysis of Complaints • Most of complaints received during this quarter are: • General discriminatory practices, • Gender discriminatory practices, • Maintenance and • Gender based violence.
Analysis of Complaints: General discriminatory practices • The department received a considerable number of complaints that fall under general discriminatory practices. These matters are largely opened in Free State and Limpopo. These matters are generally relating to child custody between parents. Most male complainants have submitted that the courts are biased towards female parents when it comes to child-custody matters. Essentially the complainants argue that the maternal preference rule is preferred by the courts, notwithstanding the fact that males exude competencies of parenthood. These matters are mostly before the Office of the Family Advocate. The Commission observes that the maternal preference rule is not applied in these matters, however the parties needs to advance factors that warrants them to have custody of the children. To support this averment, in Mobota v Ledwaba (Daveyton Magistrate Court) the CGE represented the respondent (the mother) to have access to her children pursuant to the father being awarded with custody.
Analysis of Complaints: Gender discriminatory practices • The South African Constitution prohibits discrimination based on sex and gender. The complaints received this quarter reflects an infringement of the right to equality and dignity of persons both in the workplace and private sector. In Mpumalanga, the Legal department is investigating a matter where a female employee was charged for requesting to change her pad because she is menstruating. The employer charged her for stating “I’m going to change a pad in the toilet since I’m menstruating”. The charges against the woman is a sign that the workplace is not accommodative of the needs of women. • Similarly, in Mpumalanga, a learner was dismissed from school because she is a lesbian, in love with a female scholar. It is trite that LGBTIQA+ youth in schools experience significant homophobia and transphobia in school environment. There is a social impact of discrimination, harassment, rejection and isolation.
Analysis of Complaints: Maintenance • In Bannatyne v Bannatyne the CGE demonstrated that the maintenance system in South Africa imposes disproportionately heavy burdens on mothers. During this quarter, the Legal department asserts a similar view that, notwithstanding progressive measures such as the MOJA payment system, mothers have a burden to trace maintenance defaulters who evade child maintenance. The complaints received this quarter reflects that most complainants are unable to trace the maintenance defaulters and the DOJ is unable to assist where the whereabouts of the maintenance defaulter is unknown. Consequently, access to justice is not realised in such matters. • The Legal department records that neither the Maintenance Act nor any of the pension legislation in South Africa specifically provide for payment for future maintenance. Thus, the courts have to be innovative by considering future child maintenance payment from retirement benefits. This vacuum in or law results in most complainants not being assisted by the maintenance clerks and officers. • During this quarter, the maintenance complaints were opened in Northern Cape and Limpopo. The complainants complained about lengthy postponements of their maintenance matters. The Legal department observed that the lengthy postponements are largely depended on several factors, including but not limited to the court’s roll and availability of presiding officers. The Commission found that the waiting period discourages most complainants to return to the maintenance courts for enquiries instead they report to the Commission to get their matters attended to without delay.
Analysis of Complaints: Gender based violence • The Commission observed that the gender-based violence matters reported during this quarter borders significantly on the rights of children and their safety in Society. For example, in Limpopo the Legal department is investigating a matter of a minor child of 2 years who was raped by an elderly person. Similarly, in the Northern Cape, the Legal department is investigating a matter where a toddler was abducted from her home on the 20th of April 2019. The body of the toddler was dumped in a bag and then thrown into the river. A man allegedly gained forced entry into the house by breaking the window. He threatened to kill and attempted to rape toddler’s mother. In the Free State, the Legal department is monitoring a matter where a step father (a qualified attorney) is charged with sexual assault and grooming his step daughters from a very young age. A further allegation is that his wife (also a qualified attorney) was aware of his conduct but failed to act and protect her children. The accused runs his own private practice and the wife is employed at Legal Aid South Africa. The Police confiscated 191 pornographic material from the step farther. • The complaints reported this quarter further reveal the prevalence of domestic violence between persons in romantic relationship. Notably, the commission observed during this quarter a disinclination by complainants who are in abusive relationship to open protection orders against their partners. Nonetheless the Commission shall continue to encourage complainants to open protection orders against their abusers.
The department conducted 16 Advocacy, legal and outreach clinics this quarter in collaboration with PEI. The table below provides a visual display on the split of the Advocacy, legal and outreach clinics per province.
Key issues raised during the outreach advocacy and legal clinics included: • Unprotected sex in KZN is high, women still feel that cannot negotiate protected sex. • In Limpopo is was found that here is a lack of understanding of gender issues and socio-economic rights. • Marriage, divorce and estate. • Violation of protection orders.
The department in collaboration with Communications developed a community radio strategy and plan for 2019-2020. The implementation of the plan has commenced and has yielded radio slots on the mandate and CGE programmes. For the reporting period, the Commission in partnership with GCIS shared information on key issues relating to gender-based violence and SRHR. A total of 14 radio slots took place this quarter. The focus of the slots was on GBV and SRHR, targeting youth during the month of June.
Communications • For the period the unit supported departments and provinces on messaging for Youth Month. The Communications Unit worked closely PanSalb on continuing with the promotion of the Indigenous Languages project. The Year of Indigenous Languages (YIL) appears on the CGE’s APP and to raise awareness on YIL, the CGE will be using a campaign for promotional purposes. This will be a multi-stakeholder partnership which will include the GCIS in the implementation. • In respect of development of content, the CGE and Pan Salb will utilise the content from the gender terminology booklet in order to brand public space in several provinces. In this case, various terminology which comes from the publication of the previous year will be used in various murals and billboards across the country. Most of the murals include Thusong Community Centers countrywide. • Both Communications Managers from CGE and Pan Salb jointly consulted with GCIS to assist in providing government owned building for the purpose of branding. The government buildings will include the following for the time being: • Community Halls in rural areas • Thusong Community centers • Municipal buildings • Recreation centers
Human Resources The HR department has been facilitating recruitment and selection in attempts to fill vacant positions within the commission. Progress on Appointments of staff
APP TABLE UPDATE & PROGRESS 1st quarter APP tables.pdf
This highlights the work undertaken for the period under review. The Commission has continued to occupy strategic spaces on matters relating to gender equality. • A lot of our staff member are stretched but they have risen to the challenge and continue to represent the commission with diligence. Activities that fell behind for the current period will be closely monitored, and strategies implored to ensure that identified weaknesses and gaps are dealt with. Conclusion 34
Thank You HAVE A GENDER RELATED COMPLAINT ???? REPORT IT TO 0800 007 709 TwitterHandle @CGEinfoFacebook: Gender Commission of South Africa
