As Women’s Month draws to a close, the EFF’s outspoken MP Makoti Khawula said she has made it her life’s mission to never stop celebrating women, “especially the brave and the fearless”.
Affectionately known as Mam’Khawula, she became an household name for her boisterous speeches in the National Assembly. The 67-year-old from Durban said long gone are the days where men would suppress and bully women, “at least not on my watch”.
Khawula who said she was raped as a child, is of the view that the gender-based violence plaguing the country makes “it hard to celebrate Women’s Month”.
“The government has failed us,” said Khawula who used to be a member of the ANC for more than two decades.
“It’s each for their own. Women need to speak up against abuse even if it implicates their partners and the ones who financially support them.
“I don’t like to see people suffer, especially women. It’s my duty and responsibility to do something to help people who are suffering.”
“The other day I received a report that a woman from Empangeni was attacked by dogs because the (police who unleashed the dogs on her) thought she was a foreigner,” she said, adding that she “immediately intervened”.
“She was not a foreigner and the involved policeman is yet to be arrested… How in today’s day and age are men allowed to treat women like that?”
Khawula who was recently deployed to the Central Karoo district in the Western Cape said she also witnessed how women continue to be abused.
“I simply couldn’t allow this,” she told Weekend Argus, while speaking her “most favourite language”, Zulu.
Mam’Khawula, a mother of five, has fostered others because she loves children.
“I have so many foster kids, I always provide for them. Even before I became an MP, I was looking after them.
“Government has failed the people of South Africa, they didn’t build all the schools they promised, residents don’t have running water and the system is just so corrupt.”
Khawula said she was in the process of starting her own soup kitchen.
“I don’t want other children to grow up the same way I did. I’m in a position to help. So why not?”
One thing that upsets Khawula the most is the high unemployment rate. This week Statistics SA released data that showed that the country’s unemployment figures had dipped slightly from 34.5% in the first quarter to 33.9% in the second quarter.
“The unemployment rate is very high and (a large number of) youth are jobless, it sits heavy on my heart.”
Khawula said she joined the EFF in 2013 mainly because of the “ongoing land issues”.
“The ANC made bold promises about the land expropriation bill – they are yet to deliver. The EFF’s mandate about this is clear and their beliefs are in line with mine. It’s a no-brainer.”
Weekend Argus.