The Honourable (and I do use that term very loosely here) Minister for Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities caused quite a stir recently with her blatantly racist remarks regarding white Afrikaner men.
I am not going to debate the veracity or otherwise of her comments, but what I would like to vent about is the name of her Department and its usefulness or uselessness as the case may be.
I may be the only one, but I find the name distasteful and offensive. Yes, all the groups of people mentioned in the name need protection, as do all citizens. We have had ample proof of that. What shouts out loud to me in the name is the omission of the word “Other” – read “Women, Youth, Children and OTHER People with Disabilities” or “Women, Youth, Children and People with OTHER disabilities”. I would really like to know, purely as a matter of interest and perhaps to make a point or two at a later stage, the ethnicity of the person who thought out that name and sort of “lumped” women and children in with people with disabilities. Why do men not have a Ministry ? Isn't that sexist ?
We all know that in the wild nature will take care of the weaker of the species or the physically deformed, sometimes by abandoning them, sometimes even eating them. The stronger species also usually prey on the more vulnerable. There are even some cultures that do this as well.
So my question is this : Is the “culture” of violence towards women and children of all races and ages in South Africa perhaps a “cultural” means of getting rid of those who are perceived as weak or unwanted or of little use ? Is the violence a demonstration of the place that women and children take in the lives of the perpetrators ?
And how is it that most of the perpetrators are men, and very few of them are white ?
I would also like to mention that I would take offence if my husband took a couple of other wives, had children with them and built them houses – and then expected us to all live together in peace and harmony. But then again that’s just MY culture kicking in.
Then there are some other Government Ministries whose names puzzle me :
Ministry of Basic Education – what is more basic to education than building schools and providing text books ?
Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs – whose traditions ? There are (I think) 11 official languages. Are there 11 Ministers to handle the affairs of each ethnic group ? And I include whites as an ethnic group
Ministry of Economic Development – It’s not doing anything noticeable so I say scrap it
Ministry of Higher Education – say what ?
Ministry of Human Settlements – is this the body that governs the human settlement at Nkandla ?
Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development – really ? Should justice not be for “all” and not only for friends and family ?
Ministry in the Presidency for National Planning – they must have passed the plans for Nkandla
Ministry of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency – does this Ministry evaluate performance in the Presidency, or is it a Ministry in the Presidency ? Either way -fail
Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform – what development ? or do they mean reclamation is a “development “? Should “development” not make things better ?
And the list goes on.
I think that South Africa could probably get by with one Ministry and thereby save the taxpayers a whole heap of money. And I would call it Ministry of Fraudsters, Thieves, Thugs and Murderers.
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