Election of chairperson; committee programme

Meeting report

JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE AND THE STATUS OF WOMEN
12 October 1999
ELECTION OF CHAIRPERSON; COMMITTEE PROGRAMME

SUMMARY
Ms P. Govender (ANC) was re-elected chairperson of the committee and Ms M Themba (NCOP) as deputy chair. They discussed the goals of the committee during the previous term and what their goals should be this term.

It was decided to hold hearings about current court cases dealing with rape and domestic violence where it appears that recent legislation has been ignored. A task team was appointed to research who they should hear from with regard to the victims, lawyers, judges and perpetrators. The task team is going to bring a plan to next week's meeting.

MINUTES
The committee clerk, Ms S Pauw, pointed out a discrepancy between Rule 129 and 130 with regard to the appointment of chairperson(s) for this committee in the recently amended Joint Rules of Parliament. The committee decided to elect a chair and a deputy chair. Ms P Govender (ANC) was elected as chair and Ms M Themba (NCOP) as deputy chair.

Ms Govender noted that with the rule amendments, the title of the committee had changed from Joint Standing committee to Joint Monitoring committee, however that change did not reflect a change in their powers or aims which remained as before. This led to a discussion about the role of the committee. Ms Govender said that initially the committee was set up to look at the government's action with regard to CEDAW and the Beijing Platform of Action. These documents cover most of the committee's brief which is to look at every area of women's lives with regard to improving its quality.

In the first term the committee's attention had been directed at very specific issues since it was then an ad hoc committee and therefore they had limited research and funds. One issue they had addressed was whether or not the National Budget was gender sensitive. This had spawned the Women's Budgeting Initiative. The impact of this research was seen in last year's National Budget Review which acknowledged the gender perspective of the budget. Specific studies had been done on how much money was allocated to women and for women's issues. They had also held hearings on this issue.

They had also looked at legislation to ensure that there were enlightened laws dealing with forced marriages, customary law, rape, domestic violence and maintenance. When it came to investigating policy, they heard reports from various ministries such as Welfare. They looked at affirmative action and the pension system through a gender perspective. All of these reports can be found on the Women's Net website. Ms Govender concluded by saying that this term they must look at the national gender policy.

Points arising from the committee's discussion
Ms S. Ntlabati (ANC, Free State) said they need to look at how to do the monitoring.

Ms S. Vos (IFP) said that last term people were not focussed enough and that people should focus much more on this committee. She also thought that they should look at legislation that had already been passed in the previous term and establish whether the implementation of the legislation has been properly resourced.

Ms S. Nqodi (ANC) stressed that the committee must ensure that it has established a structure in the community so that laws can actually be implemented, so they must really look at forming structures to properly implement the legislation they pass.

Ms Govender replied that they had previously looked only at getting laws passed and agreed that now they should look at implementation. This should be taken back to NCOP to hear how it could strengthen monitoring at the provincial and local level.

Ms Govender went on to talk about the recent slew of highly publicised rape/domestic abuse trials whose outcomes have directly violated legislation passed by Parliament in the previous term. For example she gave the case of some comments made by the judge in a domestic violence case and in the case of a 13 year old girl who was raped (the judge described the act as "naughty"). A debate ensued on whether or not they should hold hearings about this matter, calling in Judge Foxcroft amongst others to hear what he thinks when he says things like that. The idea was very popular among the committee members.

Ms S. Nqodi: We should call in departments that have been affected by the laws we have passed so we can see how committed they are to these laws that have been passed.

Ms Govender: We have done this as a standard exercise in the past.

Ms S. Vos: We must also talk to people at grassroots, such as maintenance officers, in order to get a holistic picture and not just get feedback from the top.

A committee member asked if there are resources to call people to Cape Town?

Ms Govender asked Ms Pauw for the budget. Ms Pauw replied that the committee had R160.000 per year, but she did not know how much was unspent at this point.

Ms Govender stressed that the committee must get a new researcher since the last one had resigned and gone to Canada to study.

Ms S. Botha: I think it is very important to listen to people like Judge Foxcroft because we have excellent laws but those don't protect women from verdicts like that. So it is very urgent that we find out how these people think.

Ms J. Vilakazi (IFP, KZN): It is vital that we make sure people have protection and shelter from abuse.

A committee member: We're being sectoral. We're only talking to the women and not paying any attention to the men, when it is the men perpetrating all these crimes. We must get input from the men who do these things, not just women.

Ms Govender: We have four weeks of parliamentary work and two weeks of constituency work. At the next meeting we must decide what areas we want to look at as a committee. It is also important for us to monitor all of the other committees that relate to us. We must look at the committees that could benefit from a gender perspective. We should right now establish a task team to organize the hearings and do research on whom to call to the hearings.

Five members volunteered for the task team: Ms CS Botha (DP, NCOP), Mr. M. Maphalala (ANC, NA), Ms S. Ntlabati (ANC, NCOP), Ms T. Tshivhase (ANC, NA) and Ms S Vos (IFP, NA)

Mr Maphalala said, on his volunteering: I don't feel offended that there are people who think men are all the problem and also I feel sad that there exist men who act like beasts.

He went on to talk about how he believes the cause of it is women's inferior economic position. He talked about how men treat women as objects of labour in the fields and in factories and thus they feel they can treat them as objects in the home as well.

Ms Nqodi: We must get this done immediately. Next year is too late. It must be done this session.

Ms Govender: We must get into contact with the victims, perpetrators and officials. We must also identify the organisations that have been working on this. It is important that we do not negate their role, but support it.

The task team will meet on 15 October and come next week with a clear plan for the hearings. The next meeting is at 11am on Wednesday 20 October (rather than on Tuesday as there is a clash with an NCOP plenary meeting).