Challenges in the Era of Globalization - iaabd

Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference © 2011 IAABD
of senior management, although they are making in-roads in middle management and highly skilled
production jobs (BWA, 2010: 13, 68-71);
• There has been a steady fall in the number of ‘top-performing’ companies that is, those that have
more that 25 per cent women directors or women executive managers. In 2004, there were 10, rising
to 31 in 2007 and 58 in 2008; but falling to 46 in 2009 and 41 in 2010 (BWA, 2010: 15-17). In the
2010 Census, the BWA decided to include a new category of ‘worst-performing companies’, that is,
those that do not employ any women at the director and executive manager position levels. The
Census uncovered 26 companies in this category (BWA, 2010: 18-19). Six of these named and
shamed companies and six government departments have subsequently been asked to appear at the
Commission for Gender Equality’s (CGE) public hearings at the Constitutional Court in
Johannesburg to explain why they are not making gender transformation a priority (Khuzwayo, 2010:
1; Vena, 2010: 1).
Notwithstanding this, and taking account of the Global Gender Gap Index, it is noteworthy that South
Africa’s overall world ranking has fluctuated from eighteenth in 2006 to twentieth and twenty second in
2007 and 2008, respectively, while dramatically improving its position to sixth in 2009 but then falling
back to twelfth place in 2010. In the 2010 data, South Africa was ranked first in the income category for
upper middle-income group of countries (with Cuba coming second) and ninth in political empowerment
(having fallen back from fifth place in 2009). However, South Africa occupied fifty fifth position in
economic participation and opportunity, forty third position in educational attainment, and a
disappointing one hundred and first place in health and survival (Hausmann et al, 2010: 8, 10, 12, 16, 18-
19, 28, 272-73).
It is against this background that Ms. Mayende-Sibiya proposed a number of measures to improve South
Africa’s standing. She argued for a Gender Equality Bill with 50/50 gender parity, one that has an
enforcement mechanism (Mayende-Sibiya, 2010: 2). Furthermore, the B-BEE Advisory Council was
charged with finding ways of speeding up the transformative process. In this respect, she proposed the
(re) evaluation of ownership transfers to ensure that tenders did not benefit a few people (‘tenderpreneurs’
referring to politically connected individuals who have enriched themselves via irregularly awarded
government tenders). Such benefits had to be widely spread to women and the disabled. In addition, she
suggested that a system of quotas or affirmative action, and preferential procurement and enterprise
development, would address ‘issues of control and employment equity’. She also argued that social
investment should play a prominent role in B-BEE policies by up-lifting women and the disabled (see
also Ndhlovu, 2011a). Notably, unlike many countries, and despite ‘fronting’ practices by some
companies, scorecards have gone some way in evaluating the extent to which mainstreaming of gender
equality has taken place (Ndhlovu, 2011a; Ndhlovu and Spring, 2009).
Theoretical Overview: Equity and (in)equality
In September 1995, the UN’s Beijing Declaration purportedly sought to address questions of women’s
empowerment (UN, 1995: 3). Following the Millennium Declaration (UN, 2000), the MDGs were
adopted in 2001 with a view to advance the principles that had been set out in the Beijing Declaration
(UN, 2001; UNIFEM, 2002: vii; 2009:1; 2010: 1-3; World Bank, 2003: 1-3; 2007). These precepts were
contained in Articles 15 and 17 of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development (2008). Ms.
Mayende-Sibiya also concurred with this line of thinking. For its part, the World Bank regarded gender
inequality as crucial to both economic growth and economic development (World Bank, 2003: 1).
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