A new ministry for a minister dedicated to the empowerment of women

Following the April general election, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya was appointed minister of the newly formed Ministry for Women, Youth, Children and People with Disabilities. She hails from KwaZulu-Natal and trained as a professional nurse, serving at the Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital from 1985 to 2007, where she was later promoted to chief professional nurse.

A student of the nursing programme at the McCord Hospital School of Nursing in 1993, Noluthando went on to obtain a midwifery graduation from the King Edward Memorial Hospital. Her trade union activism began in 1985, and she later joined the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) in 1988. Noluthando was elected shop steward in 1990, and during that period also joined the ANC and later the South African Communist Party.

Between 1995 and 1998, she served as a provincial gender co-ordinator in KZN, actively participating in the Congress of South African Trade Unions and alliance gender activities serving at the time as the branch treasurer and later as secretary for their Durban branch.

It is no wonder she is a firm believer in women empowerment: Noluthando supports the crusade of South African women who believe the country needs to deal with the issue of access in order to ensure their success in the workplace, and that support is a necessary condition for the realisation of this dream of women empowerment.

The primary solution that they put forward to remedy social ills which affect women is to overcome the challenges that are faced by women in the workplace and society in general. In 1998 Noluthando took up the position of second deputy president of Nehawu, where she again showed her exceptional leadership attributes.

Inevitably, the only way for her was up and she finally took up the top position in the organisation when she became president in 2004, a position she holds until this day apart from being the minister of the Department of Women, Children, Youths and People with Disabilities. While being president of Nehawu, Noluthando is also a member of the ANC National Executive Committee.

Bafana Dlova

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