President Ramaphosa to deliver Women’s Day address
President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver this year's Women’s Day keynote address virtually on Sunday.
Women’s Day is celebrated on 9 August every year as part of Women’s Month, which commemorates the heroic 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings against draconian pass laws and their impact on women.
Women’s Month is a platform from which government and civil society are able to highlight the challenges confronting women and profile programmes and policies that advance women’s empowerment and gender equity.
The month also aims to advance efforts to develop national consensus around a programme of gender policy priorities and programming to advance the gender agenda in the period 2020 to 2025, and towards the achievement of gender equality in South Africa by 2030.
It also comes on the back of the approval by cabinet this week of three gender-based violence bills - the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Bill of 2020, National Register for Sexual Offences and the Domestic Violence Amendment Bill, to Parliament.
The bills respond to a number of issues raised during the Presidential Summit Against GBVF in 2018 and aims to provide a victim-centred response in the criminal justice system.
It tightens bail conditions for perpetrators of sexual offences. Warrants of arrest will no longer be a requirement prior to law-enforcement agencies responding to reported sexual crimes. Parole conditions are also strengthened and minimum sentences increased. The amendments also strengthen the consequences of contravening a protection order.
