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Parly shortlists Commission for Gender Equality candidates

National Assembly
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Parliament has shortlisted 87 people to serve on the Board of the Commission for Gender Equality, and wants the public to scrutinise the CVs before the interviews are conducted.

This follows the 16 Days of Activism.

Eleven women are raped in South Africa every day and close to three thousand were murdered in the last financial year.

These are the shocking rape and femicide statistics.

A Gugulethu based NGO in Cape Town has been doing its part to reverse the trend.

But the organisation Ilitha Labantu says the Commission must be accessible in communities.

Ilitha Labantu spokesperson Siyabulela Monakali says: “We hope that the gender commission plays a much more robust role in terms of the implementation of these laws into what we see in society.”

“There’s no way to say we are making any meaningful progress as a nation if statistics of violence against women and children in particular are at an all-time high.”

The NGO operates from the home of former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka.

She’s currently the United Nation’s Executive Director responsible for Women.

In Gugulethu, gender activists want more from the Commission.

Other NGO’s believe the selection process for Commissioners must be free from political horse trading.

They also want the Commission to receive funding directly from National Treasury and not the line Department. This so they can be independent.

Co-director of Social Gender Justice Dean Peacock says:”We do not have a funded national plan to address and prevent gender based violence. We want the commission to be proactive on these sorts of issues.”

The names and CVs of the short-listed candidates can be accessed on the Parliamentary website.

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