As a former Parliament speaker, Dr Frene Ginwala resumed a role that is familiar to her when she chaired the parliamentary proceedings of the Girl Child Parliament held at Rhodes University’s Faculty of Law Moot Room on Tuesday.
As a former Parliament speaker, Dr Frene Ginwala resumed a role that is familiar to her when she chaired the parliamentary proceedings of the Girl Child Parliament held at Rhodes University’s Faculty of Law Moot Room on Tuesday.
She had to call the house to order a few times as constant fits of laughter and whoops of cheering burst forth. It wasn’t long before one of the participants fell asleep on her chair, just as can be seen in real parliamentary sessions.
The parliamentary sitting was organised as part of a programme tailored by the Rhodes University’s Dean of Students office to raise awareness about the role played by women in the liberation struggle as well as daily life.
Four groups of girls from four Grahamstown schools- Victoria Girls’ High School (VGHS), Ntsika High School, Nombulelo High School and Mary Waters High School- were divided into commissions, each one with a topic to present at the sitting. Each school brought ten representatives and each commission had representatives from all four schools. The different commissions covered entrepreneurship, gender, traditional affairs and education.
The Proceedings
In the beginning it appeared as if the parliamentary sitting could inspire some of South Africa’s members of parliament to behave as expected at such an occasion. The participants were generally well behaved, and appeared to be paying attention to the presenters. Yet, only a few minutes into the proceedings, occasional comments from audience members could be heard.
The girls had been advised to speak in the language of their choice, and the proceedings soon became dominated by words such as lobola, ukuhlolwa (virginity testing) and ulwaluko (initiation).
With so much participation, the central issue of concern soon became that of women’s ability to participate effectively in daily life with an audience member posing the question "How do you participate in culture effectively and still avoid gender bias?” to the traditional affairs commission.
A general lack of confidence, inadequate financial skills and lack of support were stated as some of the biggest barriers for women with entrepreneurial ambition.
The gender commission quoted a wide range of areas where gender is used against women such as sports, the domestic sphere, politics, the work place, religion and culture.
The education commission noted issues of increased learner drop-out rates, poverty and a lack of quality teachers as some of the biggest challenges hindering many learners from achieving their ambitions.
After a long debate surrounding the traditional affairs commissions presentation, Ginwala rounded off the debate and suggested that perhaps what is needed is to ”teach culture in schools to dispel the negative perceptions surrounding it.”
