Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga has called for a shift from symbolic commitments to measurable action on women's empowerment, warning that South Africa's progress on gender equality is being undermined by unemployment, violence and weak implementation of laws and policies.
Speaking at a National Press Club and stakeholder engagement at the UNISA School of Business and Leadership on Wednesday, Chikunga said the country had made significant gains since the 1956 Women's March, but that the economic and social realities facing women showed that much work remained.
The engagement formed part of Women's Month 2026 celebrations, marking 70 years since about 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956.
Chikunga said the demands contained in the 1954 Women's Charter remained relevant seven decades later, particularly those relating to equal pay, ownership of property, childcare, economic opportunity and protection from violence.
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"The Women's Charter is not a museum piece. It is the founding mandate of the Department I lead," she said.
She said government was working on several initiatives aimed at translating those historic demands into practical programmes.
These include the development of a national care economy strategy, gender-responsive budgeting through the Women's Economic Assembly, the work of the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, regulations following the signing of the Public Procurement Act, and progress towards a cooperative financial institution owned and governed by women.
Chikunga said the procurement reforms could bring government closer to legally requiring that 40% of government procurement goes to women-owned businesses.
"For years the 40% was a presidential target with no legal teeth," she said, adding that government now had an instrument to move the target towards implementation.
Despite these developments, the minister acknowledged that women continued to face severe economic inequality.
She cited Statistics South Africa figures showing that women's unemployment stood at 36.4% in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 29.6% for men. Among black African women, unemployment stood at 40.5%.
Women's median monthly earnings were also at 82% of men's earnings, according to figures cited by Chikunga.
"Implementation remains our weakest link," she said, warning that laws could exist without being effectively enforced and that procurement targets could fail to benefit women if government departments did not monitor compliance.
Chikunga also described violence against women as "our deepest failure".
Citing the most recent national femicide study by the South African Medical Research Council, she said three women were killed by an intimate partner every day and that South Africa's intimate-partner femicide rate was five times the global rate.
"We have the laws. We now have the Council. What we do not yet have is a fall in the number of funerals," she said.
The Minister also called on journalists to scrutinise government programmes rather than focusing only on announcements.
She urged the media to "follow the money" by examining how much of the country's R1.5 trillion procurement pipeline reaches women-owned businesses, follow gender-based violence cases from the police station through to conviction, and report on whether government commitments translate into actual delivery.
"An announcement makes a headline and delivery makes a life," Chikunga said.
She proposed establishing a standing partnership between her department, the National Press Club, the UNISA School of Business and Leadership and research institutions. The partnership, she said, should meet quarterly, examine data and publicly assess whether commitments made during Women's Month were still being implemented.
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Chikunga also called for greater resources for her department, arguing that its mandate covering women, young people and persons with disabilities was not matched by its budget.
"A mandate of this scale requires means of a matching scale," she said.
As part of her proposed long-term approach, Chikunga unveiled what she called the "Charter Compact: Seventy Years, Five Promises", designed to turn the theme "Empowered Women Empower Nations" into a measurable movement beyond the 2026 commemorations.
The five promises focus on ownership, earnings, care, safety and power.
Under the proposal, progress would be measured through indicators such as land and property ownership by women, the gender earnings gap, recognition and payment of care work, the number of women killed, and women's representation in institutions where decisions are made.
