SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY
EQUITY VS EQUALITY: ERADICATING POVERTY AND UPLIFTING SOCIETY THROUGH GENDER EQUITY Mrs Zanele Mbeki If there is ever a good example of why Equity and Equality are not the same, it is found in the many projects that Mrs Zanele Mbeki has started and is still involved with to this day. Her tireless work of developing and uplifting women is a testament to her passion and resolve to make a meaningful impact in her continent. She is able to work with all women, from the poorest of the poor who are unemployed to the low-income earners who are under employed, to the middle and upper class of society, thereby showing the depth of her vision. The projects that she has founded since returning from exile cater for all women in society. Mrs Mbeki was born in Alexandra township. She studied Social Work at Wits University and holds a postgraduate in Social Policy and Administration from the London School of Economics; she held a Social Work Fellowship at The London Institute for Social Work Training and completed her residency for a doctoral degree at the Brandeis University, Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She is married to the former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. Most of her projects were founded prior to her role as First Lady, and she remains actively involved in empowerment projects beyond her tenure. When interviewed by Business Times, she said of her vision “When I returned to South Africa from exile in the early ‘90s, I looked around and, as a social worker, asked myself: why are women in our country being denied access to finance and opportunities to participate in their own business ventures? The idea dawned on me that we should create a vehicle to focus on banking the ‘unbackable’ - women in the most rural and marginalised communities in South Africa. For, if poverty has a face, it is a woman’s face.” Her pioneering work in establishing the Women’s Development Bank is a case in point. She is also the founder of South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID) and the South African Chapter of the International Women’s Forum (IWFSA), with IWF being a global organisation established in New
DEI in the Global South | Edition 1
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