AFRICA: Accelerate Gender Equity Bill - ANCWL

ANCWL calls for the ANC to set up a a sub-committee on gender.

The ANC Women's League on Wednesday announced measures aimed at ensuring that women are properly represented in key public and political positions.

This included the draft Gender Equity Bill, intended to ensure a 50/50 representation in key positions, league president Angie Motshekga told reporters in Durban.

The women's league was also mulling over possible legislation which would force the Independent Electoral Commission to reject political party lists that did not meet the 50/50 representation.

The league had presented a wide range of proposals to delegates attending the five-day ANC national general council (NGC) meeting in Durban, that could help emancipate women and create a non-sexist society, she said.

"We are calling for the Gender Equity Bill to be fast tracked. It must be law."

The bill would enforce gender parity measures across all sectors.

"We need something binding, because what we have now is just a framework. It is not law. We need to move fast from the framework to law," she said.

The league also believed the ANC should have a sub-committee on gender, as it had noticed sexist tendencies in the ruling party.

"We used to have that committee and it needs to be resuscitated. We have noticed jokes that discriminate against women and sexist tendencies," she said.

There was also a conflict between cultural rights and women's rights, and a need to "decolonise patriarchal minds" to remove oppression against women.

Motshekga also complained about the manner in which women were treated by the justice system.

"We had a case where a man did not get a long sentence for rape because the court said there were no injuries and that the victim was not a virgin," she said.