The University of Johannesburg has just appointed Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as its Chancellor. I interviewed her in August, just before she completed her term as the Executive Director of UN Women. This is the unedited version of the story I wrote.
Former South African Deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka ends her eight-year term as United Nations Under Secretary and Executive Director of UN Women this month (August) and can’t wait to return to South Africa to contribute to the struggle against gender inequality and gender-based violence.
In an interview from her office at the UN head office in New York, she said she was leaving UN Women in a much stronger state than when she started.
“We were a $350 million organisation then. Right now, we have managed to raise US $40 billion. But we are not rich, the money is not for us. The money will go to member states, to civil society and to youth. For member states, the money will fix the things that we have been pushing them to fix.”
The US $40 billion – made up of donation from member states, corporates and civil society – was announced at the recent Generation Equality Forum in Paris.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said she was “hopeful” about the efforts South Africa was putting into the struggle to promote women’s rights.
“At the recent conference in Paris, which came 25 years after the historic Beijing Declaration, South Africa focused on economic justice, financial inclusion, increasing procurement for women, and they were mobilising and lobbying countries all over Africa.
“South Africa focused on young people, making sure that young people can access economic activities, and they focused on ending gender-based violence.
“The country was very strong on innovation and technology, and the need to propel women to be much better represented and active in innovation and technology.
“We all have to make sure that we support South Africa’s efforts. I can’t wait to come back, so that we really live up to the expectations.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka said that women throughout the world were worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
“Two thirds of the jobs lost during the pandemic were lost by women. Many of these women had an informal employer or were informal employers themselves. We have also seen the impact on women also who are in sectors such as tourism, which has been hit the hardest by the pandemic.
“Many of the women do not have contracts, so they do not have rights in those jobs. They are the first to go when there is a crisis. Women will take the longest time to recover, unless we intervene more aggressively and address the situation.”
Violence against women also increased significantly from the start of the pandemic.
“Within a week of the pandemic starting, we were hearing from our colleagues internationally who were getting messages from the police stations about the increase of reporting of cases involving violence against women. The increase was as high as 30% to 50% in some countries.”
Women were also affected by an increased burden of care, said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“Many people who could not go to hospital because of the situation in our hospitals in. In most countries, those patients stayed at home and needed someone to look after them. It is the women and girls who do their job. The burden of care increased significantly.”
The role of young people in a country such as South Africa was crucial, she said.
“We have to allow them to be as angry as they need to, because there is radical impatience among young people that can encourage change and policies. We should encourage them, because they don’t make demands without putting in the work that is needed.
“It is about working collaboratively and their advocacy is important for us to move forward. Their engagement and participation are always going to be critical.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka said that South Africa had a particularly serious problem with regards to violence against women.
“There is gender-based violence all over the world, and it is a problem. The fact that women are reporting it in South Africa is progress, because women are not staying in violent situations and stomaching the violence.
“Violence against women in South Africa is a serious problem compared to many countries. We have a violent history in our country that we have not been able to overcome.
“We really have to make sure that we have a stronger way of dealing with violence against women, and we should not allow men to get away with violence against women.
“We need to instill the right values among men. We need men to be engaged, and we have to start early. We have now been pushing the engagement of men and boys in the struggle for gender equality.
“The future is going to require men and women to work together. You need men to be much stronger in playing that role, in sacrificing, in making sure that their contribution counts and is significant.”
(First carried in Celebrating Women, a Business Day supplement in September 2021)
