Last Updated: 11-Jan-2008

Minister Essop Pahad
Address: High-level roundtable on Gender Mainstreaming in the Public Service

27 August 2007

Full Compliance with Institutional Mechanisms for Advancing Gender Equality in the Public Service

Thank you very much for inviting me to be a part of this very important roundtable on Gender Mainstreaming in the Public Service. As I reflect on the topic of compliance I am convinced that we are talking about issues of governance, administration, participation, employment and service delivery. We are talking about government as an employer and as a service provider. We are in fact talking very specifically about:

• the employment of women in key decision making structures in the administration of government
• public sector workplaces that are free of discrimination, harassment and violence against women
• workplaces that protect and advance the rights of women
• equal access for women to employment opportunities offered by government
• equal access for women to goods and services offered by government
• the centrality of women in making decisions that have a direct bearing on their socio-economic condition as women
• the numerical representation of women in elected office.

The question we address today is: are we really in full compliance with the requirements of our institutional mechanisms in all three spheres of government so as to advance gender equality in the Public Service? If we are then it is important to address why progress with respect to gender equality in our public service at all levels of the hierarchy has not been achieved. And if we are not in full compliance then we need to ask why we are not in compliance and what needs to be done in order to ensure compliance. These are questions to which I will return shortly.

Full compliance is only the first step in the realisation of gender equality in the public service. Surely compliance cannot be the end state? The end state has to be the very purpose for which these institutional mechanisms have been established, namely:

• meeting our Constitutional obligations with respect to the redress of historical disadvantage
• creating greater states of equality between men and women in our society, economy and workplaces
• ensuring equality of opportunity for women
• bringing down systemic and attitudinal barriers to the participation by women in the labour force and in management
• increasing the representation of women in all levels of the hierarchy of organisations in the public and private sectors including at the key decision making levels of the organisations.

This issue of numerical representation is one about ensuring that women are an integral part of decision making structures in government and that they are active and direct participants in making decisions that affect them directly.

Driven by the constitutional imperative of gender equality and non-discrimination, our government has put in place clear targets to enable the advancement of women in political and decision-making positions. Initially we set a minimum target of 30% for women in management positions in the Public Service. In 1997, South Africa became a signatory to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State Declaration on Gender and Development, which had set a minimum target of 30% women in political and decision-making positions by 2005.

In 2005, SADC Heads of State revised this target to 50% women in decision making positions in line with the African Union (AU) parity stipulation. Accordingly Cabinet took the decision to revise the employment equity targets as follows:

• The goal of 50% for women in management in the public service is to be achieved by 2009.
• The goal of two percent for people with disabilities to be achieved by 2010.

Are we in a position to meet these commitments and obligations? In answering this question we have begin with an understanding of the immense legacy of legalised and institutionalised discrimination based on race and gender that we inherited in 1994. Apartheid in South Africa was condemned as a crime against humanity. So our starting point in 1994 was one in which the overwhelming majority of the women of South Africa faced multiple forms of oppression and discrimination based on race, gender, disability and geographical status.

And these forms of oppression and discrimination were manifested in the absence of any meaningful representation of women in management in the public service, So the answer must be understood in this complex historical context. And the answer is mixed. Both the glass ceiling (the challenges of upward mobility) and the steel door (the challenges of entry to the labour market) are still realities in our country.

Reports on why the glass ceiling persists for women in workplaces suggests that the very culture of organisations are still characterised by discrimination in the form of organisational structures and policies; informal networks and cultures that are male-dominated which often become barriers to upward mobility for women. We have made progress with respect to the steel door as women are entering the labour market and are finding employment in both the public and private sectors in ever larger numbers.

However we need to deal in a systematic, organised and targeted way with the glass ceiling. All too often women still face a hostile work environment, their upward mobility is restricted, and they do not have equal access to training and development opportunities. Our government's commitment to the promotion of gender equality is met in part through the establishment of a comprehensive National Gender Machinery for the advancement of gender equality.

In 1999, the national Office on the Status of Women (OSW) conducted a national Gender Audit as part of its initiation of its gender mainstreaming programme. Based on the findings of the National Gender Audit, the South African National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality was finalised and the requisite status and location of Gender Focal Points (GFPs) in national departments was identified. The Framework outlined three main goals of South Africa's National Gender Machinery:

1. Achieve equality for women as participants, decision makers and beneficiaries in the political, civil, social, economic and cultural spheres of life.
2. Prioritise the needs of those women who benefited least from the system of apartheid.
3. Transform all national, provincial and local institutions by mainstreaming and integrating issues of women's empowerment and gender equality into their work. These include institutions of government, independent statutory organisations, the private sector, the labour movement and organs of civil society.

The National Gender Machinery, primarily a facilitative mechanism for women's empowerment, has to provide the mechanisms through which women exercise policy influence with regard to women's interests and ensure women's participation in decision-making. The responsibility for gender mainstreaming as a strategy for realising gender equality however rests with all officials in the Public Sector.

I would now like to return to my original question: Are we really in full compliance with the requirements of our institutional mechanisms so as to advance gender equality in the Public Service? The answer is mixed but the balance tips in the direction of the negative, we are not in full compliance.

Certainly great strides have been made towards creating an enabling environment for the advancement of women's empowerment and gender equality, however, the lack of skills, lack of know-how and the lack of an integrated co-ordination framework with clear lines of communication and accountability has rendered the gender agenda ineffectual as we continually experience challenges with respect to implementation and monitoring and evaluation of Gender Programmes. The 2006 Public Service Commission Audit finds that:

• There is a general lack of knowledge and understanding of gender concepts and gender mainstreaming in most departments and across all levels with the result that Senior Management does not know how to move from policy to strategy and action.
• Women with disabilities are not adequately represented at Senior Management Service (SMS) levels.
• In seven of the provinces no women with disabilities are employed in the SMS.
• In general the empowerment of women is not occurring in any significant way.
• There is a lack of a clearly defined institutional framework necessary to drive the vision of gender equality.
• The environment in general is not enabling for the empowerment of women.

It is imperative therefore that we adopt key processes and mechanisms to affirm vibrant national programmes directed specifically at advancing women's empowerment and gender equality. At the operational level, it is critical to have well resourced, strategically located gender focal points within departments.

The South African National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality, states that "at an operational level, the main responsibility for ensuring the effective implementation of the National Gender Policy will rest with individual government departments at national and provincial levels. All departments will be required to establish dedicated GFPs to assist in the formulation and implementation of effective action plans to promote women's empowerment and gender equality in the work of departments."

The Gender Focal Point ought, at a minimum to be appointed at the director level "commensurate with the skills required for gender mainstreaming" and the Gender Units should be located in the office of the Director-General.
So clearly there are challenges with respect to:

• the establishment of these dedicated GFPs
• their rank
• lines of authority, accountability and reporting.

Then there are challenges with respect to:

• accountability for the hiring of women, especially in senior decision making. Are senior managers including Directors-General (DGs), Deputy Directors-General (DDGs) and Chief Directors held accountable for their hiring practices?
• issues of organisational culture and ethos and the absence of an enabling environment.

The lack of will to implement mainstreaming

A recent Governance and Administration Cabinet Cluster meeting noted that there is a general lack of compliance by the Public Service with the National Policy Framework with regards to institutional mechanisms. This is in keeping with the findings of a rapid survey conducted by the OSW in June 2006 as well as the findings of the Public Service Commission as published in their findings titled "Gender Mainstreaming Initiatives in the Public Service," November 2006.

The OSW audit (June 2006) indicates the following:

• Of the 32 national departments surveyed through a questionnaire, 31 departments indicated that personnel for gender issues were appointed.
• Nine out of 30 departments, have GFPs that are solely responsible for gender related issues while 21 have responsibilities that include other issues such as disability, Child Rights, HIV and AIDS, youth, elderly, Employment Equity (EE), Employment Assistance Programme (EAP) and or Human Resource (HR) matters in various combinations.
• Six of the nine departments have GFPs appointed at a Director level, one at a Chief Director level while two departments have dedicated GFPs at the Deputy Director level.
• No GFP in any of the 30 departments reports directly to the Director-General. Of the nine GFPs dedicated to gender issues alone, most report to a Chief Director in the Director-General's office. The PSC report states that "there is a lack of a clearly defined institutional framework that is necessary to facilitate the attainment of the vision of gender mainstreaming. The role of the GFP needs to be reviewed and the competence of GFPs assessed". The report recommends that the GFP be given the authority to drive gender mainstreaming. Most important is that the GFP should have access to the SMS and the Head of Department so that reports on gender mainstreaming can be addressed at that level. The GFP should be dedicated to work with gender issues and all its intricacies and not have additional multiple roles to play as is currently the case.

All the evidence points to one important reality compliance is sporadic, it is strong in some areas and woeful in others. The corollary is that compliance as well as effective monitoring and evaluation need to be strengthened. In an era when we continually talk of accelerating skills shortages and the lack of capacity we must take the responsibility to break down the steel doors that prevent the entry of women as equals into the labour market and we must break down the glass ceilings that inhibit their upward mobility within our political and administrative structures. To do this we need to hold managers and officials accountable for the realisation of our vision of creating a representative Public Service in South Africa. In particular they must be held accountable for:

• their hiring and promotion, female staff turnover and termination policies and actions
• the violation of the rights of female employees, for the unequal treatment of female employees and for their lack of training and development opportunities and for their lack of advancement
• creating an organisational culture that is enabling and respectful of the rights of women and promotes equality of opportunity in practice.

And we need as a government to speed up our training, mentoring and coaching of women in the public sector whom we identify as potential future senior managers. This is an important part of the empowerment of women in the public service, an integral component of career planning and ensuring that we remain an employer of first choice for women and is an important part of meeting both our national and our international commitments and obligations.

In conclusion, it is imperative we ensure that the representation of women at all levels of the administrative hierarchy is not ad hoc. It needs to be structured and must form the basis for women-inclusive planning and programme development. The numerical representation of women in administration and in decision making bodies is very important but equally important is providing space for the voices of women to be heard and for ensuring that these voices and the critical thinking by women around our organisational structures and culture are heeded.

Thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
27 August 2007
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)

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