Women's Rights in a New South Africa?

Ramsey Beck

When Nelson Mandela, during one of his 1990 post-release speeches in a Washington, DC hotel, presented his vision of a new, "non-racist, non-sexist" South Africa, I was astonished at the alacrity with which "non-sexist" had risen to share a comma with such an illustrious counterpart. Surely the good comrade's dreams could not be in communion with reality: just ten years ago "feminism" was rarely and reluctantly spoken of in South Africa, even in the most progressive circles. Yet last year, even F.W. de Klerk's National Party took the trouble of proposing legislation to end discrimination and violencea gainst women. It would be nice to believe that these politicians are finally becoming sensitive to the extent of the subjugation of women in South African society, but this zeal for gender justice coincides too nicely with the discovery that 54% of those who will be eligible to vote in South Africa's first free elections this April are women. The April elections are being held to form an interim government which will write the country's first democratic constitution. Thus women's votes are of para mount significance for those parties seeking to shape the future of South Africa. But for the more than 9 million African women who will have the opportunity to cast their ballots on April 27 and bid adieu to official apartheid, life will most probably continue with little improvement. Most of the problems which in South Africa are identified as specifically women's problems are, it is true, aggravated, if not caused, by apartheid practices; but their removal will not make South Africa a less sexist state. South African policy made it virtually impossible for Africans to establish and sustain famillies, but it was rampant sexism, in both White and African communities, which made women bear the burden of that impossibility.

Half a century of White supremacist government, with police terrorism, forced relocations, and refusal to assure adequate wages or housing near industrial centers, has taken its toll on African families. Today half the families in South Africa rely on the mother to provide for and raise the children. Yet on the pretense that men support families, women are discriminated against when they seek employment. When they do find work, they are paid an average of 30% less than men. Women also tend to be employed by sectors which do not benefit from protective labor legislation, such as domestic service, agriculture, and the informal sector. Thus they have less job security than men and receive unequal benefits. Needless to say, the labor that women perform at home to raise their children under extremely difficult conditions is not recognized as "work." Women also suffer disproportionately from poverty related diseases and malnutrition, and it is normal for a woman to see more than one of her children die from the lack of the most basic health care and public sanitation. Due to the unavailability of safe birth control options, more than 200,000 women are hospitalized every year as a result of incomplete back street abortions. In addition, South Africa has the highest rape statistics in the world.

It is true that much of this might be alleviated by the abolition of apartheid's socially and economically irresponsible policies, but women's lives will be improved because they will be less poor, not because the state will be less sexist. As it is now, South Africa is deplorably behind the times as far as women's rights are concerned, and there is virtually no feminist movement in South Africa. Until very recently, the politics of race interfered wi th the politics of gender. Under apartheid, attempts at fueling a women's liberation movement were discouraged by the major women's groups, because they were perceived as politically divisive and detrimental to the anti-apartheid movement.

The struggle against apartheid has also caused many Africans to cling to archaic traditions in reaction to the attack on their cultures. An example of this is the so-called traditional law. Though it was institutionalized by the White supremacist government with the spurious aim of allowing Africans in certain areas self-government, the traditional, or customary, law is valued by many as an integral part of African heritage. In addition, many of the traditional leaders, officials whose administrative powers derive from this code, wield considerable influence in their constituencies.

The traditional law has enshrined in it attitudes which conflict with today's non-sexist ideals. For instance, it was written into the law that women, as minors under the tutelage of their husbands or male relations, require a man's signature to obtain such necessities as loans, telephones, and apartments. The political groups that drafted a "non-sexist" provisional constitution last fall, failed to come to an agreement over how to reconcile this outmoded code with contemporary ethics. Under pressure from rural politicians many of the negotiators hesitate to eliminate it. The topic is currently "still under discussion."

It is, of course, being discussed by men. Though women constitute over half of South Africa's population, their political representation is under 10%. In an effort to remedy this, fifty-four South African women's groups came together in May 1992 under a national umbrella organization, t he Women's National Coalition (WNC), to ensure that gender equality is guaranteed in the new constitution. A WNC conference of the same year explored possible mechanisms, including affirmative action in the form of a quota system, for ensuring that c onstitutional laws on gender equality are implemented. In April 1993, the WNC managed to obtain a concession that each of the twenty-six parties in the negotiating process must have one woman on its negotiating team. This, however, has proved to be only a symbolic victory in what Elsabe Wessels of The Weekly Mail and Guardian calls the "ultimate boys' game." Not only, she says, can the women not influence decisions in this locker room atmosphere, "but they must also suffer the school boy sniggers and sneers, the trivialisation which is the boy's general attitude towards women and their particular posture on the rare occasions when the issue of women's rights comes up for discussion."

This statement is revealing of the exasperation of many women leaders as they watch politicians deftly avoid discussing such crucial issues as traditional law and abortion rights. The WNC has now embarked on an ambitious campaign to educate women voters. Simultaneously, the coalition, in true democratic tradition, is conducting a nationwide survey to identify the issues that are of the greatest concern to women. With this information it hopes to formulate a woman's charter to be included in the new constitution. In the meantime, however, politicians who are far from committed to the enduring and organized action required to give women a fair chance in South Africa are espousing "non-sexism" with a glibness which can only hinder the progress of women's in South Africa.

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