Agenda:

1. Welcome and announcements, introduction and apologies
2. 16 days of activism
3. Multiparty Women’s Caucus
4. National Gender Machinery meeting 8 and 9 October 2005 – Nomination of members who will attend
5. Provincial monitoring visits - comments by chairperson

1. Welcome and Announcements, Introduction and Apologies

• No meeting on Friday 28 October
• Invitation to CGE Seminar "Best Practices: Gender Machineries 31 October 2005
• Adoption of annual JMC report will be scheduled for 11 November 2005
• Pethu Serote, to brief the JMC on monitoring tools on 11 November 2005
• Invitation to CGE seminar on best practices for National Gender Machineries

The Chairperson explained that the meeting had been scheduled hold talks with the UN Population and Development Fund director, but that she had cancelled the appointment because her visit to the country had been cut short.

2) 16 Days of Activism on No Violence Against Women and Children

The committee proceeded to discussing what role they would play during the 16 days of activism. The Chairperson asked that members shared with the committee to what extent they get involved in the campaign annually.

Mr Mabena requested that the committee focus on development of women, not only on abuse issues. The committee had to insist on 30% for women, also when they talk about budget.

Ms S P Rwexana added that for the opening event it would be ideal if Cosatu’s gender desk made a contribution and traditional leaders.

She also voiced concern about 57 houses that had been built for women during the 2004 campaign, and requested a clearer breakdown, referring to page 8 of the Toolkit document and the Sixteen Houses for Sixteen Women, a special project managed by the Department of Housing, with provincial housing departments running parallel projects.

Mr D C Mabena voiced concern about women in the construction industry who are capacitated and then start fronting companies, so that the same small number of women have access to business and opportunities, not sharing their skills or empowering others.

The Committee deliberated.

The Deputy Chairperson requested clarity about when the Committee would meet the Deputy Minister of Correctional Services, who coordinated the 16 Days of Activism on No Violence against Women and Children to discuss the campaign and the special projects.

Agreed to.

3) Multiparty Women’s Caucus

The Chairperson informed the Committee that the Chairperson of the ANC Parliamentary Women’s Caucus had been invited, but that she could not attend, because she as not well.

She proceeded by saying the Deputy Speaker had called her expressing concern that the women’s caucus was not functioning, requesting that the Committee had to find out what was going on.

Ms S P Rwexana moved: That the Committee should write to the Presiding Officers informing them that the matter of the multiparty women’s caucus not sitting was not a matter for the JMC on IQLS of Women, but for the presiding officers, to solve.

The Committee deliberated.

Agreed to.

Mrs J Semple moved: That the Presiding Officers should call a meeting of all the women in Parliament so that they can elect a chairperson and deputy chairperson for the multiparty women’s caucus, that they must call for elections or nominations from that meeting. The meetings were always on a Wednesday at 13:30 before questions and the same arrangement can be followed.

Agreed to

Main issues for NGM agenda:

• National Gender Action Plan
• 16 Days of Activism
• Brainstorming on strategy for commemoration of 50 years since the women’s march

The Chairperson reported that at the previous National Gender Machinery meeting the discussion was about an action plan until 2012. She added that the discussions for the current meeting would include the 50 years commemoration after the women’s march, which occurred in 1956

The Chairperson requested nominations for attendance of the NGM meeting on 8 and 9 October 2005.

Nominations were:

Mrs M R Morutoa (Chairperson), Mrs E S Mabe (Deputy Chairperson), Mrs JA Semple, Mrs J N Vilakazi, Ms C N Zikalala, Ms S P Rwexana, Ms N M Mdaka, Ms X C Makasi, Ms N J Ngele

5) Provincial monitoring visits - Comments by chairperson.

The Chairperson expressed her disappointment that even though the committee had agreed on provincial visits and identified the provinces at the beginning of the year the attendance was poor. She expressed her disappointment with in the absenteeism in the committee, because the people who did not go were the very persons who planned along with the Committee and knew they had agreed to go. She also expressed concern about the absence of the committee whip and the lack of assistance with getting members to attend.

She reported that in KZN there seems to be confusion about the roles that should be for the monitoring committee and the caucus.

Mrs Morutoa moved: That the committee organise and host another workshop like the collegial encounter (beginning of 2005) - in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Chairperson indicated that the JMC on IQLSW had chosen October for oversight because other committees did their oversight in the time before that. She also raised the view that it is a mistake that some members who wanted to attend belonged to three or four other committees, while some members do not show seriousness, and raised the problem that the NCOP takes so long to approve JMC programmes.

The Deputy Chairperson added that the committee and the NCOP Chairperson of Committees may have to look at the issue of programming, and when the JMC on IQLSW apply for our programme the NCOP Chairperson of Committees must see that most committees have been allocated time, so that they should respect the day that the JMC is meeting.

The Chairperson closed the discussion by saying that one did not always want to complain, but that the committee would nevertheless mention some of the concerns in its report.

The Chairperson requested that the Mayor of Queenstown be sent a copy of the National Gender Policy, because she considered it a serious matter that a mayor deployed by the ANC did not know the Gender Policy Framework.

She further requested that all members must get the gender policy and the documents they must use for tools, and said it was fair that people must be given relevant material to read and be informed about the committee’s work that went before, because members must be on board.

Adjourned at 11:00

• That the Committee meet with the Department of Housing and not only confine its monitoring activity to the period of the 16 Days of Activism. The Portfolio Committee on Housing must be invited to the meeting.
• The focus should be the long-term gender development in the department of Housing and also the delivery on the Sixteen Houses for Sixteen Women project.
• That the committee meet the Deputy Minister of Correctional Services during the week that the NCOP is not in the province of Limpopo.
• That the committee organise and host another workshop like the collegial encounter in the beginning of 2005 - in KwaZulu-Natal.
• That the Committee should write to the Presiding Officers informing them that the matter of the multiparty women’s caucus not sitting was not a matter for the JMC on IQLS of Women, but for the presiding officers, to solve.
• That the Presiding Officers should call a meeting of all the women in Parliament so that they can elect a chairperson and deputy chairperson for the multiparty women’s caucus, that they must call for elections or nominations from that meeting. The meetings were always on a Wednesday at 13:30 before questions and the same arrangement can be followed.

PRESENT:

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Ms I W Direko (Alternate)

Mrs M R Morutoa (Chairperson)

Ms N J Ngele (Alternate)

Mr D C Mabena (Alternate)

Ms X C Makasi

Ms N J Ngele (Alternate)

Ms S P Rwexana

Ms J A Semple

Mrs C N Zikalala

Ms N M Mdaka

Mrs E S Mabe

Ms F Mazibuko

Mrs A N D Qikani

Mrs J Vilakazi

Ms M V Meruti

Mrs D M Morobi (Alternate)

Ms P Tshwete

Also Attending:

Ms Pam Binnie, Monitor, Parliamentary Monitoring Group