Gauteng Premier Cde David Makhura kickstarts Women’s Month
The Gauteng Provincial Government has set targets for women representation at senior management level, preferential procurement, training and skills development as well as gender responsive budgeting.
Cde Makhura said, “We need to show our commitment to gender equality through the bottom line. This will entail the financial inclusion of women through affirmative procurement and gender responsive budgets."
23% of the goods and services budget is spent on women-owned businesses and this should be up to 30% by 2019.
Over the past three years, 108 000 women have also benefitted from employment opportunities in the provincial public employment programmes, and 2 600 women have benefitted from business opportunities in the infrastructure, hospitality, tourism, cultural and creative industries.
Women are also the primary beneficiaries of the Gauteng government’s housing delivery, social security, health, and educational programmes. For instance, this year 54% of bursary allocation has gone to female students.
Cde Makhura also said that he supports all efforts aimed at speaking out against violence on women, LGBTQI and children. The right to being free from violence is a right that must be protected for all, especially women.
The Gauteng Provincial Government will for the duration of Women’s Month roll-out various commemorative events to highlight some of the progress made to advance women’s empowerment.
