‘Not much to celebrate on Women's Day’
South Africa commemorates Women's Day on Monday, marking 65 years since the historic 1956 Women's March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Many organisations have, however, lamented the dire situation that women in the country continue to face.
Amnesty International says women and girls are the most severely affected by service delivery failures, especially when it comes to issues of water.
"Women and girls bear the brunt of poor access to service delivery, poverty and inequality," says Amnesty International South Africa executive director Shenilla Mohamed
"Many of them do not have access to running water and toilets in their homes, and are often afraid to go to outside toilets at night for fear of their safety, especially in a country with high incidents of gender-based violence.
"Children, especially girls, are more likely to drop out of school if there are no adequate and safe toilet facilities.”
Amnesty International says it's almost unbelievable that 65 years after the Women's March, South African women are still having to fight for their rights to be protected.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) shares Amnesty International's concerns.
"The coronavirus pandemic has magnified existing structural problems such as unemployment, inequality and poverty and it is working-class women, particularly Black and African women who continue to experience the worst suffering under this system," says spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.
"The current expanded definition of unemployment is at a staggering 43 percent, and women have been hit the hardest.”
"These job losses affected women the most with women accounting for approximately two million jobs lost.
"We can only achieve genuine equality when we create a society where all the resources are geared towards improving conditions for all of us, and where women are genuinely empowered."
