As South Africa celebrates Women’s Month, the country’s Health Minister has paid a heartfelt tribute to the women who keep the nation healthy, calling them the very backbone of the healthcare system, SAnews reports.
Speaking on the sidelines of the opening of the new King Nyabela Hospital in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, Minister Aaron Motsoaledi noted that women occupy every sphere of the health system, from the wards to the boardrooms.
“In healthcare, women are the backbone of the healthcare system because we’ve got more female nurses than male nurses, and I’ve always said that nursing is the backbone of the system,” Motsoaledi said. “We do have quite a number of women who are in charge. They are hospital CEOs, hospital medical managers, surgeons, gynaecologists and psychiatrists.”
Voices from the frontline
Healthcare workers at the hospital opening reflected on what Women’s Month means to them, and their pride was infectious.
“This Women’s Month, I call on women to stand up for themselves and for their children. They must not allow themselves to be distracted. I say forward with women and imbokodo,” healthcare worker Gladys Masina told SAnews, invoking the famous word for the rock that symbolises South African womanhood.
Her colleague Meikie Motau kept it simple and generous: “I want to praise all the women of the Department of Health; may they continue to provide lifesaving care.”
Seventy years of marching forward
Women’s Month commemorates the historic 1956 Women’s March, when 20 000 women walked to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Seventy years on, their legacy towers over South African life.
At the launch of Women’s Month on 1 August, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga described the marchers as “the authors of our liberation and freedom, the midwives of democracy, the first architects of a more equal South Africa”.
“They became the rhythm of a nation’s progress, echoing through every classroom, every boardroom, every parliament, every marketplace, and every enterprise led by women today,” Chikunga said.
Honouring them every day
From the community health worker doing home visits at dawn, to the theatre sister scrubbing in for a late-night emergency, to the hospital CEO balancing budgets and beds, women carry South Africa’s health system with skill and heart.
This Women’s Month, Mzansi says thank you. Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo: you strike a woman, you strike a rock, and our nation’s health rests on the strongest rock of all.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
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