At a recent National Gender Conference, Popcru declared war on violence against women and children, and vowed to take forward the struggle for gender equality.
Kim Jurgensen asked National Gender Coordinator, Lungi Mbude, what this means.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has declared October the month of "The Restoration of the Woman’s Dignity". For the union this means that police officers and warders will pledge their commitment to the community to fight against violence aimed at women and children.
Of the 48,000 Popcru members, only 5,189 are women. It is therefore no mean feat that the union recently held a national gender conference in Johannesburg, covering a wide range of issues from violence against women and sexual harassment to collective bargaining and macro-economic issues.
"The conference was very successful. 150 people attended, including all our national office bearers", said Popcru gender coordinator, Lungi Mbude.
The meeting took place at a difficult time, with an admission that "the union has done very little to achieve (the goal of 50% women leadership by 1998)". The Popcru report to Cosatu’s National Gender Committee berated its own union for its "Boys’ Choir" tendencies.
Weak gender programmes
The report attributed weak gender programmes to a lack of coordination at head office level, as well as a leadership who is not gender sensitive. It highlighted the need for women’s participation at collective bargaining and leadership level, as well as the need for gender education and training.
"There is still the tendency in the union (both at national and provincial level) to put gender last on the agenda. Gender programmes and meetings get postponed for financial reasons", said Mbude.
However, the union has a clear policy on gender equality. It is opposed to "any kind of discrimination … on the grounds of sex, race, disability, sexual orientation and calls upon all…members to campaign for equal opportunities and to ensure that the union structures are free from discrimination".
The programme of action adopted at the Gender Conference covered a wide range of issues including education and training, leadership workshops and violence against women.
"The programme of action is extremely important, especially the October campaign", said Mbude. "For the first time police men and women have acknowledged the role they play in treating victims of violence, especially women and children."
Popcru’s policy "recognises that women are the victims of violence at work, in the home and in society and that such violence is a reflection of the power relations between men and women".
Mbude reported that conference delegates admitted they need to change and that they have to start contributing to the gender struggle. This she sees as a positive first step, and although the details of the campaign haven’t been finalised yet, she believes the campaign will be successful.
"We will involve communities and organisations such as Sexual Harassment Education Project (Shep) and People Opposing Woman Abuse (Powa). The Commission for Gender Equality has also pledged their support and will be holding their own campaign from 25 November to 10 December. This will be a 16-day campaign dealing with violence against women and will involve various government departments.
While the conference does provide a positive framework for the gender programme, Mbude was quite honest about the frustrations faced by the department. The recent National Congress re-adopted a resolution on women leadership which stated that 50% of POPCRU leadership should be women.
However, at regional congresses held only a week after the Gender Conference, not one woman was elected onto regional leadership structures!
Mbude attributes these failures to the fact that "comrades are not yet able to internalise gender issues. This is still only taken up on a theoretical level".
However, this criticism is not just leveled at Popcru leadership. Mbude expressed her disappointment at the recent gender workshop organised by Cosatu for male leadership in the Federation. Although all affiliate General Secretaries and Presidents had agreed to attend, only two comrades arrived. "If the national leadership behaves like that, what do you expect from affiliate branch membership? What message are they sending to men in the unions, that "this whole thing is a joke and we have better things to do?", said a frustrated Mbude.
However, despite the political and psychological challenges facing the Popcru national gender desk, the coordinator emphasised the need to keep a positive attitude. "We can never appear to women members that we are giving up", said Mbude. "The gender struggle must continue."
No, the issue hasn't gone away. It is still alive and well in many, many companies around South Africa and the world.
According to the Sexual Harassment Education Project (Shep), 76% of working women have been subjected to some form of sexual harassment during their working lives.
Slow progress in South Africa
Since 1997, Numsa members employed by a sub-contractor to clean Eskom's offices, have complained that their supervisors have demanded sex and sexual favours in exchange for promises of job security. When the company eventually convened a meeting between the workers and the supervisors responsible, one of the supervisors stated that "he was only playing with the ladies".
In May 1998, when the problem continued, Numsa complained to Eskom. Eskom promised to call a meeting with the sub-contractor. Numsa has heard nothing from Eskom.
Meanwhile, Numsa approached lawyers to institute civil claims for its members for damages against the cleaning company. The cleaning company took disciplinary action against the Numsa shop steward who had reported the abuse to Numsa.
"This smacks of harassment and victimisation and it is clearly an attempt at silencing these complaints," said cde Reynaud Daniels, Numsa's national legal officer. "Numsa intends taking every possible form of action to protect its members against this abuse of power", he added.
New sexual harassment code
But victims may find new protection from a sexual harassment code recently adopted by Nedlac. This code is almost the same as the one that Cosatu adopted in May 1995. (See box for Nedlac code)
While South African employers still treat sexual harassment as a bit of a joke, car giant Mitsubishi in the USA, has just learnt the dangers of not taking it seriously.
In a recent court case the company has just had to pay out $44 million dollars to 300 women workers who claimed they were "forced to go to bed with their supervisors, frequently insulted and pawed by their male colleagues".
The company initially denied the women's claims. Then it said "yes, there are a few problems". When that didn't work, it tried, with some success, to turn some of the staff against the women accusers.
But after investigations by the Employment Equal Opportunities Commission, it was ordered to pay $44 million dollars to the women.
South African employers take note!
(Thanks to IMF and Numsa News for information)
Nedlac sexual harassment code
In terms of this code all employers:
Employers should also set out sexual harassment procedures to guide every worker.
There should be an:
The informal procedure encourages the victim of sexual harassment to speak to the perpetrator and to try and ask him or her to stop what she or he is doing.
If speaking to the person does not work, then the victim must lay a grievance against the person.
If the grievance is not resolved by the internal procedures, the victim can go still go to the CCMA.
In terms of this Code, if a person continues to sexually harass someone after being warned, s/he can be dismissed.
This Code does not stop a victim from laying a civil or a criminal charge against the person.
Definition:Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature. This can include unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct. Examples of:
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