City hosts women’s event

Dudu Lushaba

The City of Joburg’s Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (CRUM) Region F hosted a Women’s Month event at the Region F head office in the CJ Cronje building last Thursday.

The event, which was held under the theme Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow, commemorated the history and fights that women have waged in achieving equality.

It also brought to attention issues such as gender equality at work, sexual harassment at work, gender based violence, women in leadership and to show appreciation and acknowledge the greater participation of women in their professional and everyday lives.

Region F director Irene Mafune said: “As women we need to build ourselves from within and always remember to be sensitive and kind to other women.”

She added that women must appreciate themselves and appreciate the crucial role they play in their communities. “Women are going through a lot, let us listen more to others and acknowledge the role we play in the society.”

A social worker in the Social Development Department dealing with women empowerment and skills development, Gladys Mabunda informed the women that the City has programmes like the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to assist in genderbased violence issues, sexual harassment, mental health and other issues.

“Women are not sharing because they are afraid of each other. Let us develop a culture of reporting these issues. There is no house that has not been touched by genderbased violence. Let us work on restoring what has been taken away from us as women,” she said.

The speakers agreed that more should be done by institutions to raise awareness and address women issues. “Women should work together and empower each other in the workplace. More could be achieved when women come together and lend a hand to one another.”

The region will visit old age homes to celebrate women’s month with senior citizens and to raise awareness on human rights issues on service delivery and other issues affecting the seniors.

Scammers target digital payments

Johannesburg - According to the Kaspersky Digital Payment survey, 35% of South African respondents faced phishing scams when using online banking or mobile wallet services.

Forty three percent have encountered fake websites, and 59% experienced scams via texts or calls using social engineering. When asked about awareness of threats against digital payment methods, a majority of respondents said they are aware of financial phishing attacks and online scams, and stated that they are informed about banking malware on PCs and mobile. This type of malicious software steals money from users’ bank accounts.

However, 98% think that banks and payment companies should educate users more about the threats online. Security features that consumers would like to see more on existing banking apps and mobile wallets are the implementation of one-time-passwords (OTPs) via SMS for every transaction, biometric security features like facial or fingerprint recognition, automated detection and intervention for fraudulent transactions, requiring two-factor authentication and point-to-point encryption.

SADC Territory account manager at Kaspersky, James Gumede says: “Whether we talk about the proliferation of phishing scams or mobile malware, it is important to establish some basic cybersecurity standards. Advanced security solutions, which are able to filter out most of the generic attack vectors, supplemented with other preventive measures such as good cybersecurity awareness and regular password changes, can help to keep your financial transactions secure.”

“Between April 2020 and March 2021, 934 girls between 10 and 14 years old gave birth in Gauteng alone. Of the 1 764 babies born on 1 January 2022, 65 were born to adolescent girls; the youngest being a 13-year-old from the Eastern Cape.” Amnesty International SA director Shenilla Mohamed said these are the number of births, not of pregnancies, as some pregnancies ended in abortions and miscarriages.

“While this is a societal issue that needs to be tackled by the government and the people together, the State also has a responsibility to create an enabling environment for people to make informed decisions,” Mohamed said.

Often the pregnancies result in the girls being forced to drop out of school or fall behind with their schoolwork. This also results in a cycle of poverty, them requiring public assistance, being stigmatised and sometimes even being forced to marry early.

Other factors such as gender inequality, gender-based violence, substance abuse, poor access to contraceptives as well as limited education about available options, regulations around termination of pregnancy, as well as healthcare system challenges, negatively influence this further.

In 2020 more than 600 adolescent and young girls aged 10 to 13 were registered to give birth. This figure includes late registrations. In 2020, 33 899 births occurred to children aged 17 years and younger.

Stats SA noted that acquiring information about the fathers remains a challenge, with 64% of births having been registered with no details of the fathers supplied, or on how many cases of statutory rape were opened against men who impregnated underage girls.

Gender-based violence is a contributing factor to early pregnancies, as up to one in three children under the age of 18 experienced sexual abuse. According to the law, children below the age of 12 do not have the capacity to consent to sexual activity.

Sexual intercourse with a child below the age of 12 is considered as rape. Consensual sexual intercourse may occur between two children who are at least 12 years old and under the age of 16. Sixteen to 18-yearolds may only have consensual sex with persons no more than two years younger than them. This means that even though a child between the ages of 12 and 16 can consent, if there is more than a two year age difference, and one is over 16, the latter will be guilty of statutory rape.

If the pregnancy is a result of rape or statutory rape, cases must be reported to the police.

Amnesty International SA has launched an awareness campaign about the crisis of early pregnancy.

“The State needs to ensure the fulfilment of all rights that implicate the broader social determinants of health, including early pregnancy,” Mohamed said.

Early pregnancy prevents adolescent girls from progressing in the most important years of their lives.

“We hope that the message will reach the people who have the power to influence our laws and policies to protect adolescent girls. We encourage South Africans to help us play a pivotal role in raising awareness about the issue and to take action on the Amnesty International SA website, calling on government to ensure there is real change so our girls are protected and capacitated with information to make informed decisions about their bodies,” Mohamed said.