Political moment calls for gender "discourse of dissent" :: Mmegi Online

JOHANNESBURG: In April this year we will have our fourth democratic elections. It is a significant political moment: new political parties, new realities, new presidents, new social issues or perhaps old? As ominous as the current environment may seem, the time is pregnant with opportunity for a renewed understanding of women's rights. It is a time for reflecting on our relationship with the state. It is a time to evaluate how far the demands we made through the "Women's Charter for Effective Equality", crafted during the negotiations for a new South Africa, have been met.

It is a great time to reflect on ourselves as South African women in terms of exposing what divides us but more importantly, what brings us together 15 years after the first elections and 53 years after women marched on Pretoria's Union Buildings.The utterances by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema that the woman who accused Jacob Zuma of rape "had a nice time" should make us ask what we mean by women's rights and prompt us take a stand in defending our dreams.

The fact that Zuma might soon be president should take us out of our gender comfort zone and make us find new methods, theories and words to describe our experiences; to encourage and call us to a discourse of dissent; a discourse of dissonance; a discourse that frame's and turns our words into actions that matter.

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