Johannesburg, 21 March: Today is Human Rights Day, the commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre in which apartheid police in South Africa gunned down 69 defenceless civilians, many of them children. Today, Ndemupelila Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah becomes the first woman president of Namibia; the second woman president in the Southern African Development Community (SADC); and one of a handful of women presidents in Africa.
Today most of the world is stunned into a deafening silence following the US elections and wave of right wing governments across the globe that threaten to roll back many of the fragile gains we have made for human rights and women’s rights. Today is a day not to be cowered, but to press forward our gains, to say, as African women did at the African Women in Dialogue (AFWID) summit in January, that we are the ones we have been waiting for!
I spent last week at the 69th meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women also the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, a watershed moment that I had the privilege of participating in those many years ago. I could not help but be struck by the muted voices around me. In 2016 when the US elected Donald Trump as president, the entire world, not just the US, erupted in protests – the start of the #MeToo movement globally, the #TotalShutdown campaign in South Africa and many more.
Eight years later, the emperor is back mightier than ever, issuing executive orders at breathless pace, slashing aid to vital SRHR services around the globe, denying activists visas, deporting those who dare to be different. If this were Africa, there would be a massive outcry against these dictatorial tendencies. It is not. It is the richest democracy in the world that has now declared there are only two genders; that all references to gender equality must be expunged from policy documents; that programmes to support diversity and inclusion should be slashed. Right wing governments take the cue. The Netherlands, once one of the staunchest supporters of gender equality, has announced that it is cutting aid to civil society, and specifically women’s rights organisations.
In moments of backlash it is the vulnerable who suffer most. Before all this happened, studies showed that despite being the single most important agent of change for gender justice, funding for women’s rights organisations constitutes a mere one percent of all funding to civil society. Now even that could be gone. Canada and the UK put on a brave face. But they have made it clear that security of their nations comes first. And the softest target for funding cuts is aid, with women’s rights the most vulnerable of all.
One thing is for certain: no amount of diplomacy will bring US aid back to South Africa, at least in the short term. The battle lines were drawn from the time South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice for alleged genocide in Palestine, with a display of legal prowess borne of the decades of struggle for this country’s own freedom. Now, South Africa’s Land Expropriation Act, signed into law in January 2025 by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has Trump offering white Afrikaner farmers refugee status they did not even ask for, while other immigrants are rounded up and deported using archaic laws.
Democratic constitutions around the world reserve powers of expropriation for the public interest including in the US. But South Africa’s ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool has been expelled from Washington. South Africa issued a muted response.
What should we do in the face of these developments, on Human Rights Day? How do we honour those who gave their lives that we may have freedom? A fitting tribute is surely to carry on their fight, no matter what. Think about our struggle against HIV and AIDS, an area that is reeling right now due to USAID funding cuts. South Africa, one of the most unequal countries in the world, also has the highest proportion of persons living with HIV and AIDS anywhere in the world, with young women the highest among those newly infected. We also have the biggest treatment and care programme anywhere in the world. The government funds 70 percent of that programme. USAID funded 20% and other donors 10%. Can we not, if we study our budget and reprioritise, find this 20%, and fund our own life saving programme for our citizens?
How do we seize the moment to proclaim that gender justice is not a western notion, and that it is not negotiable? South Africa currently chairs the G20 that represents 75% of global GDP. Ironically, South Africa should be handing over the chairing of this body to the US in November. The US has boycotted the preparatory meetings for the heads of state summit scheduled to take place in Johannesburg in November. The US will likely pull out altogether from this forum as it has from so many other multilateral forum.
That should not stop us from standing up for Equality, Sustainability and Solidarity – the three themes of the G20. Indeed, now more than ever before is the time for us to forge a new global order; for like -minded governments in the global south to claim the narrative on human rights and show we will not stand for oppression of any kind. As chair of the African Union (AU), President Ramaphosa nailed his colours to the mast, leading a HeforShe initiative. At home, the President has hosted two presidential summits on GBV and femicide. He has supported the Women’s Economic Assembly (WECONA) and pledged government support for the target of 40% procurement from women-owned businesses. President Ramaphosa initiated the GBV Fund – a wholly locally funded initiative to support community-based organisations that fight for gender justice. More is needed. But these initiatives show what we can do with what we have!
In neighbouring Namibia, a former freedom fighter and distinguished public servant who has held many ministerial posts including women’s affairs becomes president today. The US has still never had a woman president. The 2024 elections showed that the world’s richest democracy is not yet ready for a woman president much less a black woman president. Nandi-Ndaitwah is testament to the fact that in many ways our region is light miles ahead of many western democracies, some of whom we must now respectfully agree to disagree with. Who are we waiting for? This Human Rights Day, let us agree that we are the ones we have been waiting for!
(Colleen Lowe Morna is Special Advisor to Gender Links and editor of the Voice and Choice Barometer. This article is written in her personal capacity).