SACP want changes for women

2008-08-09 21:00

Johannesburg - South Africa needs a change in economic policy to change the conditions of the majority of women in the country, the SA Communist Party said in its Women's Day message on Saturday.

"Fourteen years into our democracy, women remain locked in the crisis of Capitalism. The soaring prices of food and now lately the rise in the electricity crisis has worsened the living conditions of ordinary women," the party said.

It said women have been at the receiving end of the "neo-liberal policies of the [President Thabo] Mbeki administration", and lack of access to basic food had deepened the crisis of those infected and affected by HIV/Aids.

"When we say we need change in the economic policy, we say so because we need to change the conditions of the majority of the women in this country."

It called for increased support to women co-ops in fields like baking and agriculture in order to increase food production and secure food for the poor.

It called for a move away from black economic empowerment, which it believes has benefited elite women, while most women are turned into "mere recipients of the top down approach delivery".

The party also called for the mobilisation of women into street committees as part of a broad movement against crime, and supported the Young Communist League's calls for free sanitary towels and free female condoms to be made available in public places.

- SAPA