Intersectionality of Gender, Race and Class: Experiences of Black South African Women
Apartheid signage, 1953.
Photo credit: Drum Social Histories / Baileys African History
Archive / Africa Media Online
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SA has one
highest amount of female headed households in Africa, according to the Departmentof Health, Medication Research Council (2007), nearly 50% of all households in
SA are female headed. This due to combination of complex reasons including prevalence
of HIV and AIDS economic conditions and migration. Consequently, these women
are responsible for the triple burden of providing economic and emotional
support while also performing the household tasks (Bradshaw et al, 2013). With the
privatisation of public services including water, many people cannot afford to
pay to their bills and so are consequently cut off from the water line (Kehler,2001). This has several gendered implications - when the water is cut off,
women have to rely on far away, potentially un-safe sources to look after the children
and the elderly, cook and clean. Furthermore, collection of water can be very
time consuming and so could hinder the women’s potential to generate an income.
One of the efforts
taken to reverse the inequalities brought about by the Apartheid system was the
National Water Act (1988). Under the act, the Water User Associations (WUAs) were created . The National Water Act and WUAs were introduced with the aim to transfer the responsibility of
water management back to the community (Ahlers et al, 2011). However, such schemes have largely
failed to incorporate the views of the black community members, particularly the
women. Kemerink et al's (2013) research on the WUA in the Thukela River Basin highlights this.
Despite 85% of the community being Black and 5% white, each group was equally
distributed in the committee with 5 members each. Furthermore, only 1 person in
the committee is black woman. Her role in the committee was severely undermined
and questioned by white male committee members, one of whom stated - ‘the black
woman from the township who sits in the management committee is growing some
tomatoes in a little garden or so. I don’t know what she will use more water
for, she does not need it'. He suggests that she doesn’t need any water,
clearly suggesting that he and other members are unable to understand the need
and interests of the black female committee members.
It is extremely
clear that the damage created by years of segregation on the ground of race,
ethnicity, class and gender still impacts South African society today. The
privatisation of water in many parts of SA means that black women still
remained disadvantaged, and so hindering their socio-economic progress. While
legislations such as the National Water Act appear to bring about changes in
paper but these changes have not translated in the practice.