As we edge closer to the end of August – a significant month dedicated to the trials and tribulations, as well as resilience, of South Africa’s women – it is fitting that we today publish a special supplement in honour and celebration of our country’s women.
Their courageous and endless journeys in search of lifting themselves and others out of despair and despondency is breathtaking.
These Unsung Sunday World Heroic Women of 2022 serve as an inspiration to many of us and demonstrate that women have capabilities and capacity to transform society and its structures for the betterment of the citizens of this country.
As they promote national efficiency, they refuse to allow fear to stand in their way of achieving greater good for the society they live in. We are alive to the significance of celebrating these heroic women during the week when Babita Deokaran was commemorated for refusing to allow a climate conducive to mass thievery of public resources at the Gauteng department of health, where she served as a senior official to thrive under her watch.
The irony of Deokaran being snuffed out in the cruellest of manners during the month of August is difficult to fathom. Instead of being feted, Deokaran was exposed to danger and left to die at the hands of those who are actively participating in the destruction of this country’s democracy and good governance.
She has become a martyr, a symbol of steadfastness whose courage is symbolic of the women of August 9 1956, and whose march to the Union Buildings heightened and inspired our collective consciousness and determination to finally reach our desired destination without submitting to the temptations of political fanaticism and dishonesty that appears to be shaping the disposition of many who currently occupy positions of public responsibility.
One can, however, not say the same about the beleaguered public protector, Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who is facing a parliamentary impeachment inquiry for a raft of alleged misdemeanours characterised by acts of deceit, fraudulent conduct, trickery, outright lies and lack of integrity not befitting the office of the public protector.
If anything, Mkhwebane is the antithesis of courageous women such as Deokaran, Lillian Ngoyi, Sophie de Bruin and many other women stalwarts we are celebrating at this time.
Many questions were raised about her uprightness and fitness to hold office when she was appointed public protector. Some of us nevertheless cautiously welcomed her appointment and elected to give her a chance to – like retired Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng – prove her critics wrong. We never wanted to judge her on impulse. We wanted to judge her on competence.
Her critics were correct. Mkhwebane is a disaster and the worst thing ever to happen to the office of the public protector.
Some of the evidence coming out of the parliamentary inquiry gives a sense that the public protector’s office was hijacked by political tricksters whose motives are not difficult to understand. The impeachment inquiry must go further and uncover those who participated in this.
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