The inaugural Oshadi Mangena gender dialogue was held at the Durban University of Technology’s Ritson Campus on Friday, 24 November 2017. This dialogue was hosted by the Gender Forum at DUT in collaboration with uMtapo  as part of their Steve Biko transformative educational project.

Dr Oshadi Mangena was a political, gender activist and patron of UMTAPO who passed away on 24 September 2015. She played a key role in the planning of UMTAPO’s 10-day Women and Development Course which was conducted in all nine provinces in the 1990s. Dr Mangena was also one of the founding members of the Pitseng Trust Women’s Fund (an organisation that supplies grants to support women initiatives) and was a member of the National Working Committee of the World Affiliated YWCA of South Africa.

The purpose of the dialogue was to ascertain what the turning points are for the underlining crisis of patriarchy that sees women as objects and what can be done to change these mindsets.  Attendees agreed that there was a need to revive the spirit of Ubuntu.

UMTAPO board member, Ms Asha Moodley said; the issue of gender does not sleep instead it recreates itself in all forms.

“No political party can help women free themselves, instead we as a community can make a change no matter how small that contribution is,” she said.

The Gender Forum chairperson Dr Rosaline Govender and DUT’s Mr Jaya Naidoo said the issue of gender and patriarchy have been contentious issues for a long time in higher education, so as DUT, such partnerships are appreciated.

“This gender dialogue is vital as it has increased in this country affecting high schools and tertiary institutions. We are happy to be associated with UMTAPO and I applaud all NGO’s supporting this initiative,” said Naidoo.

Pictured: Attendees at the Gender Dialogue.

Nomfundo Ngcobo