The Liberal quota for gender parity and the empowerment of women in the public sector is constructed by averaging, in percentage terms, the number of women in the population, with the number of women in all parts of the economy, with the percentage of primary child caregivers (and in loco parentis) who are women.

This will yield, in a country like South Africa, where 55% of the population are women, where 70% of the people in the informal, formal and home economies are women and where 90% of the primary child caregivers are women, an average of 71.67% of all opportunities in the public sector, that is in government, statutory bodies, civil-society organs, multi-national corporations and public companies, should be allocated to women.

Now those who wish to deny the gender imbalance in South Africa will say that we don’t need this quota, and though yes, it is rather draconian to impinge upon the liberty of the individual by prescribing how seats and jobs should be allocated, it is also rather draconian that in 2009 we continue to have a situation where women continue to be marginalised by the nature of the patriarchal system.

I will admit that I am a Nyanga, and as such I live within the cultural paradigm of a matriarchal society, given that our creed and faith, thousands of years old as it is in its modern form, is wholly centred on the worship and propitiation of “mother nature” in all her guises, visages and forms. This naturally makes me more predisposed to want to ensure that the people who have the power to act, do in fact have the capacity to deliver. After all, my matriarchal faith is 100% guaranteed in terms of the efficacy of the blessing of my ancestors, which I receive.

And so we see that women have been deployed to run the DA’s Western Cape parliamentary caucus, because the caucus leader, chief whip and the premier, among others, are women. We also see that women hold committee chairpersonships in the legislature, and in South Africa a parliamentary committee chairperson is the third most powerful politician after the minister and deputy minister, in this case MEC, of that portfolio. Finally there are large numbers of women in the Western Cape and Western Cape municipal governments, working from the lowest to the highest levels of the public services.

But we also see that there is this group of men, who occupy the whole of the cabinet in the Western Cape government. And thus the ANC cries foul, the Commission for Gender Equality cries foul, MK’s war veterans cry foul, Cosatu & Co. cry foul, and Julius Malema cries fowl. Indeed what has been most interesting has been the manner in which the ANC, having lost Cape Town and the Western Cape due to the lethargy, dishonesty and rank, fetid corruption festering within the Wes Kaap ANC, have now decided to make the Western Cape “ungovernable”.

Indeed it is strange the Camp JZ should mimic the words of Comrade OR Tambo, someone who assuredly would have been invited to join Team Thabo, and that they should choose to do this after seeing their arse in the election. Indeed one wonders if the ANC Comrades in Cape Town had spent less time stealing from government and more time doing the work of the ANC, that perhaps, just perhaps, the ANC would do better in elections, rather than as per the steady downward trend it has been on since 1994.

But most of all to the so-called war veteran who said, on SABC News, that “their (MK) soldiers would now make the Western Cape ungovernable” — let me say this — SHUT UP and SHUT UP NOW.

Who do you think you are to threaten the sanctity and sovereignty of my South African country? The people have spoken, the people have chosen the DA in the Western Cape, and mena abantu abakwazulu have chosen JZ in KwaZulu-Natal, do you really want the Western Cape and the Kingdom of KwaZulu to become unstable in waves of political violence? Grow up, stop playing toy soldier and get a real job.

On behalf of every MK soldier who ever worked in Durban, on behalf of every person who provided safe houses and protection to the ANC in exile and underground, on behalf of every person who protected our MK soldiers and ANC intelligence staff during Operation Vula — and yes, I do speak on behalf of these people — please do yourself a favour and grow up enough to be mature enough to accept the results of the election as declared by the IEC, which was in itself appointed by the ANC government.

And being privy to the truth as I am, I say to the 13 ANC politicos in the Western Cape who stand to lose millions because your cronies can’t provide you with soft tenders any more — please stop inciting civil unrest and public violence and stop fomenting insurrection. I charge the people who have threatened to make the Western Cape ungovernable with TREASON and SEDITION committed against the new, non-racial, democratic South Africa, as founded by President General Mandela (yes, he is still our MK Commander in Chief).

You have been warned. If you want a civil war, you can have one, at the end of it, half your soldiers will be out of commission and the ANC will wash its hands of you entirely. JZ is a soldier, he’s an MK soldier, but if any of the Cosatu or MKMVA thugs undermine the legitimacy of JZ’s presidency, it will literally be the last thing that you do.

And for your information the Liberal Party of SA, of Alan Paton, has its own paramilitary wing for the purpose of ensuring that private citizens are able to defend their person, families and homes. And would you believe that this Liberal militia was established by none other than MK itself! And now it serves the DA — so to the MKMVA and Cosatu Wannabe Thugs … Come an Hava Go if Yeh Think Yeh Hard Enough!

It is disgraceful in the extreme for a bunch of male thugs to threaten a women premier but naturally mother Africa will defend all of her daughters who hold office everywhere in South Africa. Oh and incidentally, the way the DA cabinet in the Western Cape is structured, there’s a bunch of men who stand to get fired if the women working under their direction(s) don’t do their jobs. So that’s a situation where women get the power, the opportunity and the capacity while the men take the blame and get the chop should there be lapses in service delivery.

Yes, that means the DA government in the Western Cape is the most women-empowered government in the African Union. Will the commissioners for gender equality please resign as you are evidently not fit to hold public office. A Luta Continua Comrades, Amandla Matla !!!

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Avishkar Govender

Avishkar Govender is the Chief Political Officer of MicroGene.

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