Cape Town - Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has called for women on the continent to play a more leading role in government, business and other key sectors of the economy.
Dlamini Zuma said the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) could also play an important role as women constitute the majority in the informal trade and informal cross-border trade.
She also said the role women played in different sectors could not be overlooked.
Dlamini Zuma, who was addressing the SADC Youth Forum on Tuesday, said the continent had an abundance of natural resources that it needed to use to grow its economy.
It should put women at the centre of what it was doing to contribute to the development agenda.
“It is therefore important that as we transform our economies and societies that we pay particular attention to the empowerment of women. Any development or approach which excludes women is bound to not succeed.
Women must be found in leadership positions in all areas of human endeavour including as heads of state, chief excutives and managers. We must reverse the trend that has seen the gender pay gap of up to 35% in some SADC member states,” said Dlamini Zuma.
“Additionally, since in Africa women constitute up to 90% of informal traders and 70% of informal cross-border traders, we must pay attention to formalising the sector. This also requires that we revise our views and approaches on what really drives our regional trade. This approach ought to be the centre of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA),” she said.
She added that the oceans economy had demonstrated the level of inequality in the world.
She called for the involvement of the youth in the sector.
She said most of the countries in SADC were bordered by the ocean and they should use it to generate growth and development.
It was striking that most of the vessels that were on the oceans in the region, to do business and trade, did not belong to those countries.
This was an indication that something had to be done to address the situation because the oceans economy was important for the region.
Current Affairs