Have we created a good environment for women’s liberation?
Date: 05 May 2023
By: Leandi Esterhuizen
Former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke titled his memoir “My own Liberator” and through narrating his life story, asks the reader to question the state of affairs at present day. Through doing the work of the Commission for Gender Equality, we should continue to ask ourselves, have we created an environment for the women of South Africa to become their own liberators. With systematic and meticulous intent, it is our duty to examine and interrogate government’s initiatives aimed at empowering and uplifting women, with the guiding light our Constitution provides and our past, which informs it. Our questions should deliberate and should with an unwavering consistency, demand of our government to better implement its transformation measures. And when we consider transforming our society, we should know with the utmost certainty, what we want. For the vision of our Constitution to be realized, we cannot simply attempt to change how our society looks, but we must change how it functions. We are duty bound to ask with ringing clarity, why the lives of so many have not been touched by the freedoms and values upon which our Constitution is built. We are duty bound to ask our government, why we are not able to become our own liberators.
Leandi Esterhuizen is a Legal Officer at CGE