While strides have been made to ensure gender equality over the years, work is continuing to accelerate these actions.
“In terms of the landscape, I can proudly say that South African women have been as a result of democracy, taking part in decision making processes and structures. We have women ministers; we have women in top management and women who own businesses. I think in 1994, this was not imaginable. The advent of democracy has made it possible for us to thrive,” says Charlotte Lobe.
Convener of the Gertrude Shope Women Mediators Network, Lobe says while progress has been made, “I must hasten to say that a lot still needs to be done.”
She believes that the incidents of civil unrest and looting seen in July in the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal revealed that women were disproportionately affected by the violence for the simple reason that it is largely women who are employed in the majority in the industries that were affected by the looting.
The network provided women and children with food and necessities such as sanitary towels among others.
She adds that South Africa faces several multi-faceted challenges – some as a result of socio-economic conditions.
“I think we must be alive to these challenges that made it possible for South Africans to behave in the manner that they behaved in, in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
“It is easy to use the genuine grievances of our people in order to create what we saw. Our message from the network has always been that in whatever conflict on the continent or any [other place], we must never find women used as cannon fodder. We should never find women being used as pocketknives for people who have different issues in society whether its service delivery issues or political challenges,” she says.
In the wake of the incidents of looting, the network held a virtual South African Women’s Peace Table, which discussed women’s role in driving peacekeeping efforts.
She says struggle stalwart Shope was extremely worried about these incidents. “She pushed us to convene the peace table because she wanted South African women to do something about what was happening.”
Ensuring peace
The work of the Gertrude Shope Women Mediators Network is a result of the United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325 adopted in October 2000 which reaffirms the important role played by women in the resolution of conflict, prevention as well as peace-building efforts, among others.
South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has been training women mediators since 2015, including women from the African continent and around 350 or more women have been trained, including Deputy Minister in the Presidency Pinky Kekana.
“Through the people being trained, a decision was taken in 2018 for us to form a Women Mediators Network. [This so as to] use the skills that women got out of the training to build peace and also their resources. For instance, The Lady of Peace Community Foundation, which is well resourced. The foundation has been using its resources to build peace in communities affected by unrest, particularly service delivery protests. We thought that if we could put those energies under one roof, we could be able to achieve something as a country. It is not only about these recent events, it is about us building a peaceful nation even before we had the unrest,” she says.
Celeste Diale who co-founded the Lady of Peace Community Foundation (LOPECO) with her mother Dieketseng in 2017, said the foundation is founded on connection, empowerment and advocating for the youth.
“As someone who participated in the peace table, we learned to understand where people come from. Young people want to be heard,” she says.
Lobe describes Shope, after whom the network is named, as a peacemaker and peacebuilder.
“When DIRCO took a decision to name its training programme after her, to name its dialogue forums, it was a result of the department acknowledging the role she played as a South African who lived in exile who also came back home. There are many stories about her in exile of how she nurtured youngsters. They were not only taught how to fight, but they were also taught how to make peace,” says Lobe in an interview with.
SAnews