The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Department of Health to act to immediately on the recommendations contained in the report regarding the alleged forced sterilisation of HIV-positive women in South Africa.
In February 2020, the Commission for Gender Equality released a report following an investigation into 15 public hospitals in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
It found that close to 50 women were forcefully sterilised.
The department was instructed to report back to the commission by May 2020 on what steps have been taken to deal with the practice.
EFF spokesperson Delisile Ngwenya says the department failed to meet the deadline.
“The ANC government under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa and minister Zweli Mkhize has played witness and an enabler to this abuse and continues to do so in their silence.”
“The lives of the numerous black women were altered in a most inhuman way, the EFF calls for an immediate response an intervention. The recommendations entailed in the report must with immediate effect be attended to for the purposes of justice.”
“It is unacceptable that this form of gender based violence happens with no consequences.”
In February 2020 Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize requested ./urgent meeting with the Commission for Gender Equality regarding its report on forced sterilisations at hospitals in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Commissioner Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng said they have also requested that the Minister and Health officials from the department meet personally with the victims in order to see the trauma caused by the forced sterilisations.
In this video, Commissioner Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng says there are possible forced sterilisations in other provinces:
“What that would require is commitment from the Department of Health to firstly accept that they have made a mistake that violations of women have been gross and negligent. Another thing is that in our recommendations is that the department has to initiate dialogue with the victims,” said Mofokeng.
