Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Mr Senzo Mchunu, today addressed the DPSA Men’s Forum at the DPSA Annual Men’s Forum Day held in North East of Pretoria.
In his closing remarks, the Minister said it is about time men realised that they are living in a modern society where there is a need to harmonise society and families and move away from the historical privilege of men being hunters and killers.
The Minister said the modern man needs a paradigm shift in order to embrace sharpness of the mind like a serpent and to make an effort to be soft like a dove.
“The modern man needs to aspire for wisdom and merit of thought because the population numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the youth and women.
“Historically, men have been in a dominant position in society just because they are born men, if we do not embrace the change, and if we do not become constructive instead of being destructive in harmonising society, we will become victims of our circumstances,” he said.
The Minister emphasized that a modern man lives with values and principles, does not exclude but includes, call for harmonisation and use privilege to attain the merit of thought to maximise for the good high morals, unity, peace and ethics. He said a Morden man is responsible and embraces love, health and non-racialism.
As much as the DPSA Men’s Forum is a good initiative, the Minister said the concept needs to be replicated to the rest of the Public Service and the Public Sector.
“This will help to develop programmes to keep families together, promote wellness among men and develop the ideal men required to take the public service forward.
The Minister stressed that the Men’s Forum should create platforms to deal with harassment, false accusations, unbecoming and immoral behaviour of sexual favours and violence on women and children.
The Forum should also be able to create a platform for social and health clubs including an environment for commercial discussions.
“We are no longer in the era where leadership was associated with men, times have changed, we want to build a nation based on gender equality where women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society.
“Our democracy is not aimed at regarding women as decorations, it is not about favouring men against women. We are using our democracy to promote gender equality and we do not expect anybody to be at pains about it.
“Men should accept and embrace that we are in modern times, where the era of destructive men and dominance is over,” he said.
Presenting on understanding Gender-Based Violence, Commissioner Mbuyiselo Botha from the Gender Equality Commission, said men should be able to learn to share their family, work or financial problems. He also encouraged men to create good relations with their kids.
Mr Julian Soupan from the Government Pension Fund presented on divorce and its effects on pension benefits.
The Forum also received a presentation from the Government Employee Medical Scheme on lifestyle diseases and ways to keep healthy.
