Parliament has called for an acceleration in gender equality and women's empowerment across the African continent.
Addressing Parliament's G20 special engagement between Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament's (PAP) women and young parliamentarians, held in Johannesburg on Friday, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, challenged parliamentarians to lead an "epistemic shift" by unlearning the colonial ideologies that continue to shape public policy, and to build a new legislative framework grounded in equity, reparations and dignity for all.
"Parliamentary diplomacy must be used not to mimic old power, but to dismantle the logics of exclusion, logics that sort bodies by race, gender and class, and determine who matters and who doesn't," Mtshweni-Tsipane said.
With South Africa preparing to host the G20 Parliamentary Speakers' Summit (P20) in October 2025, the Chairperson urged women and young African parliamentarians to seize this historic moment to speak with a united, unapologetically African voice that brings gender justice, feminist solidarity and people-first reforms to the centre stage.
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"The rights of women and girls cannot live on paper alone, they must be seen in courtrooms, in clinics, in classrooms and in every village across Africa. We must move from ratification to realisation and from symbolic gestures to systemic change," she said.
Echoing Mtshweni-Tsipane's sentiments, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Annelie Lotriet said the policy frameworks are already in place.
"The frameworks are in place, the statistics are known, and what remains is deliberate and determined action that is driven by political will," Lotriet said.
As South Africa is presiding over the Group Twenty (G20) Presidency, Parliament will hold the P20 Summit, a high-level gathering of Speakers and Presiding Officers from G20 member countries.
The summit serves as the parliamentary dimension of the G20, aiming to strengthen global legislative collaboration on key development issues.
