"Men should always make up the majority of the South African cabinet because of the cultures in our society that promotes male dominance"

South Africa is a multicultural society, people are coming from different communities and as result they subscribe to certain values and beliefs. Majority of these communities where we are coming from are dominantly led by traditional leaders who are mostly males which is something that leaves us with few female leaders.

 

When we are discussing female leadership we cannot ignore the historical background of South Africa as a country. Before 1994 women were not given an opportunity to lead in work environment including the south African parliament, instead women expected to be house wives and participate in limited careers such as education and health which afforded them limited opportunity to lead.

 

I am holding a view that women should take part in key leadership areas such as parliament equally as men do. Women must be elected into power and lead in parliament, before gender they are human as well so they do have the capacity to lead. Any culture that seeks to deprive women from leading must never be encouraged. today in South Africa we are stacked with abused women and children simply because they males are raised to believe that they have authority over everything including the lives of women as part of societal values.

 

South Africa has produced many capable women to lead parliament, which includes the late Winnie Mandela, Baleka Mbethe, Doris Dlakude just to mention few. We currently have a female premier in the Mpumalanga province which is an indication that women have the capacity to lead in parliament so they must never be denied the opportunity to do so because of cultural beliefs.

 

We must also remember that women are born caregivers, so I believe that the rate of corruption in government can be minimized since it is not in their nature to steal but to give. Home based care centers, churches, orphanage centers are mostly dominated by women which is a sign that women have the capacity to lead and they can make good parliamentarians also.

 

In this world no one is born with culture, it is something we develop to satisfy our societal values or beliefs, as the South African constitution of 1996 believes and promotes gender equity therefor we must as societies elect women to lead parliament as equal as men. Since we have women who are radio personalities and TV personalities who can speak and understand the judicial matters which can make them very good law makers of this country.

 

Vocal women like Malaika Mahlatse are viewed as disrespectful and uncultured simply because they speak their minds and stand by what they believe to be morally acceptable in societies.

As communities we must create platforms that will enable women empowerment and leadership, so that we do away with the male dominated leadership particularly in parliament. women should be prioritized also. Young girls must be allowed to participate on political activities so that they can know and understand the possibility to lead in this open democratic South Africa, I therefor personally disagree with women being deprived to lead in parliament.

Covid 19 corruption saga in South Africa

As south Africa is battling with the covid 19 ,some individuals have taken advantage of the situation by stretching their fingers to  loot government funds particularly the R500 billion emergency fund .

however the president of the republic Mr. Cyril Ramaohosa have taken decisive steps to end all forms of corruption taking place during this difficult time,he further authorized the special investigation unit (SIU) to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption that have been raised about looting from the emergency fund.

the looting involves over 90 companies which are currently under investigation by the SIU,the most controversial part is that a son of the president is also involved ,he was awarded a procurement tender of about R6million to buy PPE ,on the other news Mrs Diko Khusela who is a spokesperson of the president her husband was awarded a R6million tender to procure , she has now stepped aside, however Mrs. Diko claims that her special leave has nothing to do with her husband's business and company that is involved with the Gauteng department of health.

It is also in my opinion that we are living in a state whereby people or leaders will commit crime and nobody is holding them accountable for their actions.some leaders in the ruling party have interest of the people but their own and selfish ones.

one other disturbing part is the looting of the UIF relief fund ,it is also alleged that some companies have not yet paid employees ,but instead employers took the money for their own interests or benefit,based on some of the findings by SIU indicates that payments had to be stopped by the government because there was too much corruption going on which included ,overpayments ,underpayments, delays and non payments ,this was revealed by the SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

The Gauteng health MEC Bandile Masuku and his wife were placed on special leave pending investigation.some civil society groups have written to government authorities over corruption concerns ,they have raised the fact that tenders are awarded to those who are connected to government and the ruling party.

It was also raised by civil groups that there are corruption concerns over food parcels in many provinces including Mpumalanga province in the Nkomazi municipality,so the have requested the president Cyril Ramaphosa to take drastic steps against those accelerating corruption.

the president is also expected to release the list of over 90 companies that received orders to procure PPE and food parcels for the government across the country ,furthermore we want to know which procedure was used in awarding those tenders ,how are they related also with the government and the ruling party.

 the government is further expected to ensure that the department of health cooperates with the SIU investigation and some monies need to be returned back to the emergency fund .It is also expected of the government to initiate disciplinary processes against government officials were involved or influenced inappropriate contract awarding ,these were the few demands made by 9 civil groups.

The state we find ourselves in as country is very disturbing in terms of corruption ,we elected people to serve us but they turn everything to be about themselves, fortunately we have civil groups that holds our government accountable this also includes our journalist and opposition parties.