North West hosts roundtable discussion to response to gender issues
The North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism (DEDECT) as part of its mandate of supporting small businesses and cooperatives will be participating in the Gender Equality Roundtable (GE Roundtable) on the 30th November 2021, 09H00 at Sun City, Moses Kotane Local Municipality.
The roundtable is aimed at promoting dialogues and reflecting on the state of gender equality across all the sectors of the economy, promote localization of products and services offered by women-owned enterprises.
Ms Tebogo Mosito of TEMO Foundation highlighted that the Gender Equality Roundtable is a local convergence platform that brings together cohorts of gender equality champions from various sectors to reflect and engage in a dialogue on the state of gender equality at local level. “The roundtable will stimulate narratives around challenges hindering the attainment of gender equality in the including but not limited to workplace gender inequality, high levels of gender based violence and unequal economic opportunities”, said Ms Mosito.
TEMO Foundation is 100% women organization founded in 2017 after realizing the huge demand for entrepreneurial coaching and mentorship in townships and villages.
The empowerment of women is an integral part of government’s effort towards addressing the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality within the country. Government working tirelessly to ensure that gender issues are mainstreamed in all its programmes and structures, and has created a gender machinery to monitor and advice accordingly. Therefore as Department we felt it is necessary to participate in this initiative to create a platform for women-owned enterprises to come together and share best practices that will enable them to participate in the mainstream economy.
The programme is in support of 16 Days of Activism of No violence against women and children programme which will be implemented under the theme “The Year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke: 16 Days of Activism-moving from awareness to accountability”,” said MEC Kenetswe Mosenogi for Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism.
The roundtable is targeting representatives from government, state-owned enterprises private sector and social enterprises. Participants will be given an opportunity to interact with experts on gender equality in the workplace and also institutions dealing with women economic empowerment programmes.
Amongst the speakers will be Deputy Minister of Department of Employment and Labour: Mme Pinky Moloi, MEC for DEDECT Mme Kenetswe Mosenogi, Provincial Manager on Commission for Gender Equality Ms Joyce Khutsoane, representative from SUN City to mention few.
The dialogue seeks to empower women enterprises with solutions to tackle challenges they experience in the daily operations especially on abuse of women and children and put an end to this scourge as to some extent has negative impact towards growth and development of their businesses.
Source: Government of South Africa