Pretoria - Women have been challenged to play a critical role in ensuring that all political and governance bodies adopt policies that guarantee gender equality.
"We must see to it that the African Union (AU) 50/50 gender parity principle is replicated and implemented at all levels of national, regional and sub-regional governance," said Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Wednesday.
Addressing the 2nd Annual Women In Politics Africa Conference held in Gold Reef City, Motshekga said women empowerment is still a burning issue in many countries, with a vast majority still remaining vulnerable in many fronts.
She challenged women to take a stand in defence of and on behalf of African women who have tasted unhappiness over centuries.
Themed 'Uniting as one to achieve the 50/50 quotas in top positions', the three-day conference has brought together women activists and leaders from all corners of the continent in keeping with the impassioned plea for unity.
Motshekga said the theme serves to remind women that progress towards equal representation of women in political decision-making over the last ten years has been slow and uneven.
According to Gender Links, only four countries in the SADC region (SA, Mozambique, Angola and Tanzania) have achieved or surpassed 30 percent women in parliament.
"There are significant challenges ahead of us, the representation of women in leadership positions among most governments is a far cry from the 50/50 quota that governments have committed to, the picture is even worse in the corporate sector.
"There is evidence of poor access to essential human rights, such as access to quality education, health services, shelter, land and economic opportunities.
"Women continue to be at the coal-face of poverty and different forms of abuse and extreme violence. Patriarchy remains well and alive in most of our countries, with women perpetually viewed as 'objects of desire' as 'the second sex'," Motshekga pointed out.
She encouraged women not to lose sight of the strategic objective of ensuring that women in Africa, from the cities, towns, reserves and the villages, fully enjoy inalienable human rights.
"This conference will have achieved its objectives if at the end we are able to provide answers, if not solutions, for addressing disquieting concerns that women are merely put into positions of power as tokens for compliance sake, only to satisfy parity requirements without rocking the ship of patriarchy.
Motshekga challenged the gathering to find new ways of looking at an old challenge.
"As the organisers of this conference, important questions you must answer must include what is holding women back from becoming presidents of their countries, how best to uplift and empower women in rural areas and how to ensure that the legal measures that are meant to protect and promote women are properly implemented?"
