There are a few critical issues that pick themselves to be given proper attention by our womenfolk during and beyond their month, August 2009. The first issue must be the matter of where exactly their liberation is to come from. This is made an important matter by the array of challenges confronting women, especially young ones, who desire to make success of their lives.

The struggle for equal access to opportunity and resources between the sexes, as happened with the struggle for racial equality, has to be waged and won or lost by the victims themselves. This is one message that needs to be communicated effectively to the majority of our women.

There is a story that people have been told for years, which I believe to contribute significantly to the lethargy many women display towards the course of fighting for their liberation. The story in short says that gender discrimination is injurious not only to the interests of women, but to the interests of all humans. It goes on to say men, therefore, have a significant role to play in the fight to end the malady.

The argument that men will fight the good fight against gender discrimination is true only to the extent that women should not prevent those few men of vision and heart from joining them as volunteers in the trenches. But for women to remain nonchalant and expect men to do battle on their behalf is to take a good thing too far. Women are the primary victims of the antiquated practice. Men, while admittedly being members of the same society that suffers indiscriminately in the end, continue to benefit immensely from the practice.

History shows time and again that it is only the most prescient and charitable among people who will, of their own volition, relinquish privileges – even ill-gotten ones. We do not have too many of those kinds among us. That is based mostly on the complications the war on racial inequality has assumed in our society, especially since the inception of democracy in 1994.

Stories also abound about how white people assisted blacks to defeat the pernicious apartheid system. Great names like those of our JS – Joe Slovo for the uninitiated – and the twin Helens, Joseph and Suzman, quickly spring to mind. Dr Beyers Naude and Bram Fischer are other peerless examples. Former President FW de Klerk also continues to rank among the best sons of South Africa. And we duly pay them homage for their invaluable individual contributions. The truth, however, shall forever remain thus: The black people of South Africa fought and freed themselves from the shackles of apartheid.

Women must take the lead in a war they cannot afford to lose. They must take up positions in the forefront of the assault on the malady of gender domination. What we men will do, as did the architects and perpetrators of apartheid, is to cease fire and surrender when the heat in the kitchen reaches the appropriate level. It will doubtlessly be an uphill battle, but then its nobility is also without doubt.

Another important issue that also warrants specific mention here is the dire need for mentorship programmes among women. Lack of mentorship makes the learning curve unnecessarily steep and leads to many promising talents falling by the wayside. It also makes it difficult to distinguish between women genuinely hampered by poor operating conditions and the crooked types who consciously crawl the streets looking to con someone or have a free ride.

It important for this line to be drawn clearly. For any revolution to pursue its goals successfully, there must be a willingness to get people to account on the basis of individual responsibility. Blanket amnesty serves no good purpose. Individual accountability does not only expose poor performers or con artists in a system, it also allows resources to be spent on people with the potential to achieve success and reinvest in our society. Our society is currently under serious stresses and strains as a result of dysfunctional accountability mechanisms.

It is always very painful to see a young woman, one who possesses ample intellectual faculty and everything else to be just about anything under the sun, run into needless difficulties because of poor support systems and ignorance. Some talented women drop out of schools and jobs to enter into utterly compromising relationships with men who have neither intention nor capacity to take them anywhere.

Women should band together to reject with contempt the perverse demands of a society that denies them opportunities to earn an honest penny. It is this scourge of gender discrimination that compels many women with good intentions into moonlight occupations where they end up peddling everything from drugs to their bare bodies and souls.

Women must reject with contempt a system that prevents healthy and able-bodied human beings from tasting the fruits of success for themselves and those they care about through their own good efforts. It is the greatest feeling and sense of fulfilment anyone can ever have. But it possible only through individual responsibility, dedication and discipline.

Those women who are already high up on the ladder of success have a moral duty to place their valuable knowledge and skills at the disposal of those still aspiring to success. The victims of racial discrimination fought gallantly and freed not only themselves, but the entire human race too. Women owe their part to humanity.

Gibson Sakong
Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy