media releases - TMALI International Women's Day

The Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute (TMALI) is hosting a Public Lecture and discussion to commemorate the UN International Women’s Day 2013.

The theme for the lecture and discussion is: OAU@50: Women at the Centre of Development, Celebrating women’s progress.

The purpose and theme of the lecture is intended to reflect on women’s issues since in the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)/AU 50 years ago, and also envision the role of women and African women in particular in the affairs of the continent into the future.

The keynote address will be delivered by Dr Onalenna Selolwane who is a retired professor of sociology at the University of Botswana; she will be joined by the following discussants:

·         H.E Ms Taylor Roberts ;High Commissioner of Jamaica

·         HE Ms Thenjiwe E Mtintso- South African South African Ambassador to Italy

·         Prof Pumla Gqola: associate Professor in the depart of African Literature at Wits University

·         Ambassador of Ethiopia

·         Ms Jain Devaki; Development Economist , Activist  and  Author many books and articles

Date:               8 March 2013

Time:               18h00

Venue:             ZK Matthews Great Hall, UNISA

For more information please contact Tshepo Neito on 011 337 6229/082 342 3839 or neitota@unisa.ac.za  

Additional information:

1. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) celebrates 50 years this year. The OAU was established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, on signature of the OAU Charter by representatives of 32 governments. A further 21 states gradually joined over the years, with South Africa becoming the 53rd member on 23 May 1994.

2. The International Women’s Day is celebrated all over the world to mark progress made in emancipating women from all forms of segregation, domination and marginalization, and with this in mind TMALI commemorates the 2013 International Women’s Day by reflecting and celebrating women’s progress in the last 50 years of the OAU.

    3.   Profile of Guest speaker

Dr. Onalenna Selolwane

Biographical details

Onalenna Selolwane is a graduate of the universities of Botswana and Swaziland (BA, 1978), Sussex [Mphil, 1984] and East Anglia [PhD, 1992]. She taught at the University of Botswana from 1984 to December 2012 where she also headed the Department of Sociology [July 1998 to June 2003]. She has served in the editorial boards the African Journal of Political Science (1997 to 2004), and Africa Insight journal [since June 2012] as well as editor of the African Sociological Review (2003 to present) and member of the International Advisory Board of the East African Journal of Peace & Human Rights (2001-2005). Between 2005 and 2011 she was a member of the executive committee of the Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa [CODESRIA] where she represented the southern Africa region.

As well as being a founder member and then President of the Emang Basadi Women’s Association, she produced some of the Association’s political education reports to train and assist women prepare to run for office in Botswana’s 1999 general elections.  She has served variously as a consultant in the development of government policies and programs for women, youth, rural development, agriculture, poverty reduction and crime prevention and has published in the areas of governance, electoral politics, agrarian studies, urban economies, ethnicity, gender, poverty and development policy analysis. Her most recent publication is an edited book on Poverty Reduction, and Changing Policy Regimes in Botswana which was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in September 2012.

Dr Selolwane retired from service with the University of Botswana in December 2012 and has embarked on a programme of economic justice and affordable housing to help poor plot owners mobilize resources to develop affordable and decent homes for themselves and low income renting tenants.

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