Who we are
The Rural Women’s movement (RWM), created in 1994 and formally launched in 1998, has been fighting for indigenous women’s rights to own land and to be treated equally for more than 20 years. Over the last two and a half decades the movement has grown fast, and is now a coalition of 500 rural communities and counts more than 50.000 members, 98% of which are women.
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RWM advocates for women’s rights, and for the rights of anyone negatively affected by male dominance, this included out-of-school girls, young women, orphans, widows, single mothers, women living positively with HIV/AIDS, divorces, married women and LGBTI persons.
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We hold workshops on one’s constitutional, human, land, property and inheritance rights; leadership skills; economic empowerment through agriculture; and many others. RWM seeks to create strong, confident, independent and self-sustaining women.
Our achievements
PRIZES & AWARDS
NGO CSW62 Woman of Distinction Award - 2018 ​
Climate change and environmental justice EQUITAS International Centre for Human Rights Education (Canada), International Human Rights Training Program Ruth Selwyn Bursary in Empowering Women and Girls awarded to RWM Director Sizani Ngubane - 2011
Southern African Trust Drivers of Change Special Commendation awarded to Rural Women's Movement - 2010
"CIVICUS Nelson Mandela Graça Machel Innovation Awards" (Scotland) - 2005​
African Peer Review Mechanism (NEPAD) award to support the facilitation of active participation and engagement of rural women in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
NOMINATIONS
Africa Food Prize award - 2017
Shoprite Checkers/SABC 2 Women of the Year Award" Finalist - 2007; Nominated again - 2011
OUR VALUES
DIGNITY
Respect the primacy of the communities in their quest to seek sustainable rural livelihood.
COMMITMENT
Intervene with dedication in the efforts of meeting the needs and aspirations of the communities we are working with.
PARTNERING
Strengthen strategic partnerships to enhance the capacities of rural women for the advancement of the sustainable rural livelihood.
KNOWLEDGE
Use local groups knowledge and skills as resources, stakeholders, participants and beneficiaries.
INFORMATION
Put information in the hands of rural women and promote peer exchange among women dealing with land and development issues.
OUR ACHIEVEMENTS
In the communities where RWM works, women who once were not allowed to speak in community meetings are now challenging the traditional leaders in terms of women’s participation in traditional courts.
They are effectively taking part in the policy making processes, and some of them have joined the economic empowerment programme and are now successful in their businesses.
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RWM continues to fight successfully against ukuthwala, a local traditional harmful cultural practice that allows men to rape and abduct girls and women and force them to become their wives. RWM is celebrating seven years of no ukuthwala (forced marriage) in two communities. Fathers and uncles of orphaned girls and young women are now prioritizing school for their nieces and daughters rather than trading them off into marriage.
As a direct result there was a decrease in sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancies.
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Nationally, Rural Women’s Movement was the leader of the successful lawsuit that got the Communal Land Rights Act 11 of 2004 declared unconstitutional because it was unfair and enshrined gender bias.
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RWM campaigned tirelessly against the Traditional Courts Bill of 2008. This resulted in a vote against the government-sponsored draft law in parliament’s National Council of Provinces (NCOP). The RWM argued that the Bill would create a separate legal system for the 18-Million people living in the former Bantustans and make them subjects of traditional leaders with second class rights in the South African democracy. Many of the local leaders have a practice of not allowing women to represent themselves in court or to testify before the court, and it is all too common that they take land away from women whose spouses or fathers have died, to give to men who throw the women off the land they long worked to support their families.
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RWM has mobilized for the review of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act of 2003, which prevents rural people from addressing the complex legacies of the apartheid Bantustan. Such laws, policies and practices distort customary law, undermine security of tenure and rights in land.