Dlamini-Zuma calls for ‘gender budgeting’

Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has explained comments she made during a panel discussion at an ANC Women’s League dialogue on International Women’s Day in Johannesburg on Thursday night.

She said she called on leaders in government to use gender budgeting as a tool for economic emancipation of women.

“Gender budgeting is a way for governments to promote equality through fiscal policy,” she said.

“It involves analysing a budget’s differing impacts on men and women and allocating money accordingly‚ as well as setting targets – such as equal school enrolment for girls – and directing funds to meet them.”

The ANCWL needed to put forward policies that led the emancipation of women, she said.

“This is a concrete issue we can mobilise around as women – the 2019-20 budget must incorporate gender budgeting.

“As we go and check our voting credentials this weekend, women within the ranks of the ANCWL will use gender budgeting as a mobilisation tool.”

Earlier‚ the SABC reported that senior women in the ANC had debated whether women should boycott next year’s general elections.

It reported that Dlamini-Zuma suggested the vote should be tied to a budget for gender parity. It quoted her as saying: “We will vote for the ANC, but we want a gender budget for the next year. We will vote for the ANC, but that’s one of our conditions.

“The budget must be desegregated to say what of this budget is going to women‚ young women and, of course, the youth. But let’s start with women.”