As South Africa commemorates the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against and Children, the Women of South Africa (WoSA) movement will on Friday lead marches across the country, in a bid to place women’s economic freedom at the top of the national agenda.
The WoSA march, which will include gathering at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Parliament in Cape Town and the Union Buildings in Pretoria, will see groups of women in every province embark on a simultaneous demonstration to raise various issues which are holding back their ability to participate meaningfully in the country’s economy.
Participants of the march will include women from different walks of life – community members, and different formations in the political, social, religious, business and NGO spheres.
Through this march, WoSA demands decisive action to ensure that more women are involved in economic participation in both the government and the private sector.
WoSA is calling for the enactment of laws promoting gender equality, and criminalizing the current gender wage gap. WoSA demands that it should be a criminal offence in South Africa, and in Africa, to pay women less than men for the same job.
All these demands are aimed at ensuring that South African women get their 51.2% economic dividend.
