Ramaphosa hails gender gains as Malala joins Women’s Day event

President Cyril Ramaphosa used National Women’s Day on Sunday to acknowledge South Africa’s strong global standing on gender equality, while warning that women still do not enjoy an equal share of the country’s wealth, land or economic opportunities. Addressing the national commemoration at the Union Buildings in Tshwane, Ramaphosa said South Africa ranked highly on global indices measuring women’s empowerment, including gender parity, educational outcomes, financial inclusion and political representation. But he said those advances had not translated into full equality.

Women are more than half of our population, but they do not yet hold an equal share of our country’s wealth, its land or its enterprises. “Too many women are without work. Too many earn less than men for doing the same work.

Too many carry the burden of caring for families and households, labour that goes unrecognised and uncounted,” Ramaphosa said. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and global education activist Malala Yousafzai was among the guests at Sunday’s ceremony, marking 70 years since about 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in protest against apartheid pass laws. Ramaphosa paid tribute to Yousafzai’s campaign for girls’ education and used her presence to broaden South Africa’s Women’s Day message to women facing discrimination internationally.

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“A cruel ideology tried to silence you, but you rose to become one of the most strident voices for the emancipation of women in our world today,” he told her. Ramaphosa said the struggle for women’s equality crossed national, religious and cultural boundaries.Through Yousafzai, he said, South Africa extended its solidarity to women and girls in Afghanistan who were being excluded from education, employment and public life. “No culture, religion, government or ideology can justify reducing women to lesser human beings,” he said. “The freedom of women is indivisible.” Ramaphosa said significant gains had been made in South Africa since democracy, pointing to women holding some of the country’s most senior positions, including Chief Justice, Speaker of the National Assembly, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Public Protector and Auditor-General.

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