Recent vibrant debates in the press and the media regarding the readiness of women to lead political parties and the country have again reminded us of the powerful role women can play in transforming political dynamics based on power to collaborative, participative dialogues based on consensus.
South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID), an independent, non-partisan South African Women’s Forum committed to improving the status of every individual woman by engaging national government, the private sector, civil society organisations (NGOs, CBOs and FBOs) and donors; and forming partnerships to shape development agendas, applauds the women who have come out in support of nominating women to the highest positions of power in the country.
It is abundantly clear that it is time for a leadership change beyond musical chairs, and that women and men of integrity need to support the selection and election of women of substance, moral courage and emotional fortitude to take South Africa in the direction of the inclusive democracy, the culture of human rights and the economic prosperity that so many South Africans have lost their lives over during the many years of the struggle against apartheid.
It will take inspired, moral, transformational servant leadership to undo the combined effects of patriarchy and apartheid and to empower women to continuously conquer their daily struggles against poverty and inequality in order to reach their full human potential.
SAWID therefore urges women everywhere to step up their support for women in elected positions, including the presidency of political parties and the country, but also cautions women not to wait until women leaders are elected to the highest decision-making positions, but instead to demand that women become agents of their own development by creating the world as they would like to see it.
South African Women in Dialogue has been at the forefront of piloting an action learning poverty eradication approach in three municipalities that honours the perspectives and realities of women by building on the centrality of the family in women’s lives, by professionalising work women often do for free, and by offering a holistic, grass-roots solution that imbeds self-reliance and resilience at the household level, were humans live.
Let the people govern themselves and deliver their own services, in a model of cooperative governance that teaches self-reliance, collaborative decision-making and compassionate economics.
Only when women have reproduced the patterns, textures and rhythms of their lives in the institutional arrangements that govern them, will we truly be able to say, Malibongwe! For women not only want a woman president, but each individual woman also wants to be the agent of her own development and the architect of a more caring and kinder world, informed by the values of cooperation, service and human dignity. The women of South Africa are indeed ready.
Elect them, so that they may lead.
Issued by South African Women in Dialogue
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