Why the women’s ministry should be scrapped
The ministry for women in the presidency is not as effective as it could be, and suggestions to strengthen it include increasing its budget or extending its responsibilities to other departments
The reaction was one of collective shock when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the new minister for women in the presidency would be Bathabile Dlamini. Many were outraged at the decision to have Dlamini champion a department for women following what seemed like disregard for the vulnerable and poor with the social grants crisis when she placed 17m recipients at risk as social development minister. That the ANC Women’s League, of which she is the president, is considered to be doing more to uphold patriarchy than creating meaningful change for women, also did not help. Many women in SA are underpaid and living in unsafe conditions. But on closer inspection it might have been a masterstroke by Ramaphosa, who had indicated that a cabinet restructuring was on the cards. There is speculation that the ministry for women may be one of those that could be cut or restructured. The department has, after all, a budget of less than the R245m that was spent on the upgrades of former pres...
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