As we enter the month of August, in which the country celebrates women, the constitutional values of non-sexism and equality appear to have reached a state of paralysis in certain institutions that should promote the full participation of women in all aspects of life.
The mid-year 2018 population is estimated at 57,73 million by Statistics South Africa, of which approximately, 51% are female. Notwithstanding this outlook, there is still a huge disparity between men and women in terms of their participation in the country’s economy.
Even after several progressive pieces of legislation and landmark judgements aimed at restoring women’s dignity, we are still seriously lagging as a country. However, this does not deny that a great number of women have broken through the glass ceiling and are making a significant contribution to the economy.
In a country that is in desperate need of skills, the up-skilling of women, should have been one of our primary focus areas, unlocking the kind of inclusive development the country needs. The Waste Sector, and specifically, the e-waste sector is in a similar predicament. I think we should acknowledge that women have not formed part of the growing band of professionals that can be tapped to provide solutions to many of our seemingly intractable challenges that face our developing economy, if we are serious about transforming our society, women remain critical role-players.
As you are all aware, eWASA in partnership with SAWEEEDA, has recently published our IWMP for the e-Waste Sector, in terms of the Section 28 notice issued by the Minister of Environmental Affairs. If successful, this IWMP, and through the SAWEEEDA Foundation, will provide impetus to achieve the necessary gender transformation. The opportunities created via the IWMP will provide equal opportunities to women in the sector and result in both the empowering of women as well as ensuring that they become beneficiaries of the sectors services.
We call on all women owned businesses in the e-waste sector to send us a short 100-word summary of your business, big, small, one women band or SMME, stating your name, name of your business and location as well as a contact number so the we can include this data in a “Special Edition” of our Newsflash next week so that share your story with our subscribers.
This in turn will ensure that as we celebrate women’s month, we do it with positive success stories.