Chairperson, the Western Cape legislature cannot support the Bill because of the following reasons.
After the department was allowed to oppose the amendments that were submitted by the province, people were not given sufficient time to express their views. The Western Cape Provincial Parliament supports the empowerment of women, but it does not believe that this Bill will bring about meaningful change to the millions of unemployed women. The feasibility and constitutionality of the Bill is a major concern; and this Bill duplicates the constitutional mandate of the Commission for Gender Equality and certain provisions contained in legislation, such as the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, Act 4 of 2000, the Employment Equity Act, Act 75 of 1997, and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, Act 53 of 2013.
The Western Cape legislature cannot support attempts to impose quotas and the top-down manipulation of the labour market. This Bill fails dismally to adequately consider economically vulnerable women, such as unemployed women, rural women, disabled women, women working in the informal trading sector, lesbians, bisexual women, transgendered women and sex workers.
This Bill should be abandoned and not allowed to become an Act before all the areas of concern have been addressed and rectified. The Western Cape legislature opposes the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill. Thank you, Chairperson. [Interjections.]