DVD Booklet 7/27/11 4:44 PM Page 1 Addressing Gender … leadership... · DVD_Booklet 7/27/11 4:44...

DVD_Booklet 7/27/11 4:44 PM

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Traditional LeadershipAddressing Gender

Based Violence, Sexual& Reproductive Healthand HIV in Nwa’mitwa

(Tzaneen, South Africa)

Traditional LeadershipAddressing Gender

Based Violence, Sexual& Reproductive Healthand HIV in Nwa’mitwa



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Acknowledgements

Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service(SAfAIDS) extends sincere appreciation to Hosi Nwa’mitwa II forgiving the documentation team an opportunity to documentand share her story of how she rose to become Queen of theValoyi in Nwa’mitwa, Tzaneen, and of the stories of success inimplementing the Fit for Life, Fit for Work which is targeted atyouth infected by or made vulnerable by HIV, and empoweringthem to maintain optimal sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

Sincere gratitude is also extended to the community ofNwa’mitwa, and in particular to students and beneficiaries ofthe Fit for Life, Fit for Work project for their candid responsesand feedback during the interviews and focus group discussions.

This booklet was written by Maserame Mojapele and RouzehEghtessadi, supported by Lois Chingandu and Sara Page. Editingwas done by Petronella Mugoni of SAfAIDS. Design and layoutwas done by Victor Mabenge.

We thank Kevin Mazorodze for doing the Digital Story Tellingand development of this DVD.

June 2011


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Documenting Stories of Successful Leadershipat Community Level

Hosi Tinyiko Nwa’mitwa II has the distinction of being the first woman formally recognisedas a traditional leader in South Africa, a title previously reserved only for men. She rulesNwa’mitwa in Tzaneen which is in South Africa’s Limpopo Province. Hosi Nwa’mitwa IIis an exceptional woman who experienced trials, tribulations and great resistance onthe path to asserting her position as Hosi Nwa’mitwa II. She eventually won her rightto lead the Valoyi through South Africa’s courts in 2008.

It is time that cultural thinking

patterns respond to questions

regarding the status and position of

women in traditional communities,

not just in representational terms,

but with leadership and decision-

making powers that influence

community welfare and development.

Since her inauguration Hosi Nwa’mitwa hascommitted herself to identifying communitychallenges, with the aim of supportingmembers of her community to implementcontext-specific and relevant interventionsthat will help them to address sexual andreproductive health and the HIV epidemicand mitigate against its impact.

Traditional communities, and the beliefs and structures that support them are continuallychanging, even if this change is not rapid. The story of Hosi Nwa’mitwa II illustrates theability of cultural structures to adapt and change to meet health needs. It also illustratesthe role of key customary laws and structures, in this case the Royal Family, in interpretingthese changes and making the necessary decisions to ensure they accommodate thechanging environment. This story also illustrates how, as an absolute imperative, theprinciple of equality which is enshrined in the South African Constitution has been upheldwithin a cultural context.

The High Court decision which established Hosi Nwa’mitwa II’s rule, although widelyviewed as a triumph of women’s rights in South Africa, does not categorically settledebates on unequal gender relations, especially in traditional communities. Male-dominated cultures and systems of traditional leadership, even with women at thehelm, will not change as a result of this judgment, and women traditional leaders oftenfind that they have to mould themselves to the established way of doing things. It doeshowever create spaces for creative thinking which contribute to a groundswell ofmovement towards a gender-just society.

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Figure 1: Entrance to the Valoyi Tribal Authority, Tzaneen, South Africa

Hosi Nwa’mitwa II’s Road To Queenship: Support andProtection Of Women’s Rights Through Legal Systems

“Becoming Her Royal Highness is not by choice, it’s a birthright…ever since myfather became a Hosi, taking after his father who took after his father…unfortunately when I was born I was a girl while in previous regimes, it wasonly a boy who could take over, it was a primogenital that was accepted tobecome Hosi…when I was born my father did not have a choice and said aHosi was born, notwithstanding the constraints that were there…”

- Hosi Nwa’mitwa II

Hosi Nwa’mitwa II is Chairperson of the Valoyi Trust and a Member of the South AfricanParliament. The Valoyi Traditional Authority was established in 2004 with the aim ofimproving the social and economic well-being of the Nwa’mitwa (Valoyi) community.Limpopo, where the Nwa’mitwa Community is located, is considered one of the mostimpoverished provinces in South Africa; 70% of residents in the Nwa’mitwa region livebelow the poverty line. Furthermore, 22% of inhabitants have no formal education, andHIV rates are estimated at 20.7%, this is higher than the national prevalence rate whichis estimated at 18%1.1 UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2010.

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The digital story in the accompanying DVD highlights the challenges and achievementsof a phenomenal female traditional leader who has a deep respect for her culture, andwhat it means to protect and lead her people. Culture is dynamic. Within a continuouslychanging world, Africa today will continue to develop and progress as long as there aremore enlightened leaders like Hosi Nwa’mitwa II, who are not afraid to stand for andactively lead in the process of social change for the good of their communities.


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“…it did not stick so much in my

mind that I will become a Hosi, because

subconsciously I told myself that

being a woman means that you are

a perpetual minor, you cannot lead in

this world of patriarchal system…”

Hosi Nwa’mitwa II’sjourney to the thronebegan in 1968 whenher father, HosiNwa’mitwa, diedwithout a male heir,leaving a vacuum in theleadership of the Valoyi.It was inconceivable atthe time that a woman Figure 2: The monkey is the symbol of the Valoyi Tribal Authority

would become Hosi even though Hosi Nwa’mitwa II was of age at the time, so theposition went to the late Hosi’s brother.

After South Africa transitioned from the racist apartheid system to a liberal democracyin 1994, complete with a Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for women, the Valoyitraditional authorities and royal family, including Richard, declared it only right torestore the throne to its original bloodline and make Tinyiko Nwa’mitwa the next leader.This was contested by Hosi Richard’s son, who insisted that it was he who should inheritthe throne from his father. It was under these circumstances that Tinyiko Nwa’mitwaentered into a six-year battle with her cousin. He claimed the 70,000-member tribe'stradition of male leadership gave him the right to be Hosi. After lengthy proceedingover a number of years South Africa's High Court ultimately disagreed with this claimand declared that Hosi Tinyiko Nwa’mitwa II assume leadership of the Valoyi; she

assumed this status officially in 2008.

The ruling from the South African HighCourt has made Hosi Nwa’mitwa II aphenomenon and an epitome of justiceand success in securing traditional rights,irrespective of sex. Hosi Nwa’mitwa II’s casebecame a notable reference case for theclashes between tribal customs and

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democracy. Women's rights activists hailed it as a key victory over patriarchal traditionsfor women’s empowerment efforts. Hosi Nwa’mitwa II reacts to all this with modesty,but concedes that the case has provided important leverage to all women of SouthAfrica, and even beyond.


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The Fit For Life, Fit For Work Programme:Changing Young Lives By Transforming GenderAnd Cultural DynamicsHosi Nwa’mitwa II’s primary pursuit in her community is to promote youth and women'srights through implementation of a job and life skills training programme called theFit for Life, Fit for Work programme. Fit for Life, Fit for Work is a six week work preparednessand sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) programme offered to vulnerablepost-matriculants (those who have completed Grade 12) between the ages of 18 and30 years. Some of the recruits are living with HIV, have been orphaned or made vulnerableby HIV or are young single mothers with no source of income. Graduates are supportedto access tertiary education and scholarships, start up their own small businesses or to

“...My first intake for this project was to

look at girls and boys, they don’t even

know their rights, they just exist… ”

- Hosi Nwamitwa II

Figure 3: Hosi Tinyiko Nwa’mitwa II during her inauguration

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Hosi Nwa’mitwa II is one of thevery few women among SouthAfrica's approximately 750traditional leaders. A tiny numberof tribes pass authority frommother to daughter, and somewomen lead as placeholders forunderage sons. Within thiscontext, the decision of theConstitutional Court wasextremely revolutionary, and itwas also transformational,

because it celebrates gender equality in chieftaincy succession disputes.

find formal employment. The SRHR component of thecourse is aimed at equipping learners with informationto prevent HIV, STIs and gender based violence.


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“As a young person around

Nwamitwa, this project led by Hosi

Nwamitwa II, made me realise that

as a woman I have power to do

whatever I want to do and to be

whatever I want to be…In some

villages women do not have the

opportunity that we have here in

Nwamitwa.” - Programme beneficiary

“I thought women cannot lead communities, they are not leaders, and they

are not strong enough…, but Hosi Nwamitwa II demonstrated that women

can lead through this project… As a man I feel that I must support other

families… I don’t think I would be the person I am if it was not for Hosi

Nwamitwa II… I would be staying at home…there is no more discrimination

in the community in terms of gender.” - Male beneficiary

Figure 4: Hosi Nwa’mitwa addressing her headmen andheadwomen

The Fit for Life, Fit for Workprogramme was adapted forimplementation in rural Tzaneenand launched in Nwa’mitwa onthe 1st of August 2009. The ‘Fitfor Life’ part of the programmeincludes strategies forempowering young rural women,in particular to enable them tomake healthy life choices in termsof their sexual and reproductive

health. The programme also offers English literacy training, capacity building in computerskills, driving lessons, catering and training for work preparedness in the hospitalityindustry and in the commercial sector.

Although the programme is primarilytargeted at matriculants with a Grade 12qualification and who are between the agesof 18 and 30 years, vulnerable youth whohave gone up to Grade 10, and girls whohave dropped out of school as a result ofteenage pregnancy are offered work skillstraining or encouraged to return to completehigh school if they have not done so. Thekey focus for this sub-group is to preparethem to start small businesses of their own, to enter into the informal work sector, orreturn to school to complete Matric. This strategic economic empowerment is a growingfactor for them to also make informed decisions and to assert their rights in accessing theirsexual and reproductive rights.

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Work skills training for Grade 10s therefore mainly consists of block and brick making,bricklaying, plastering, painting, carpentry, plumbing, food gardening, communitycaring skills (counselling, home care, etc), educare, administrative skills and craft orother income-generating skills (sewing, beading, embroidery, etc).

The Valoyi Traditional Authority requested Ford Foundation for assistance in replicatingthe model of a community-staffed centre in Nwa’mitwa after witnessing the success ofthe Etafeni Trust. The Etafeni Trust runs an integrated HIV community centre in NyangaTownship, Cape Town.

Programmes in the community are implemented through the active participation andleadership of community members and the beneficiaries themselves. Communitymembers are currently building the community centre where the Fit for Life, Fit for Workprogramme will be housed. The community centre activities will ultimately be broadenedto cater to the needs of the wider community.

Through the Fit for Life, Fit for Work programme, youth are empowered to set andachieve their goals and to build their lives so they can support themselves. Girls andboys who enrol in the programme are encouraged to abstain or postpone sexual debutto a later stage. Youth commit themselves during graduation through poems narrating:“I am not infected, I am not taking any antiretrovirals, and I abstain as I understand thatabstaining is the way to a good life. I cannot be fit for work without being healthy”.

The programme has been very successful in affording youth, who are selected for theprogramme based on vulnerability to HIV, to get employment and to start small businessesso as to support themselves, their families and other dependants.

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Responding to HIV in Nwa’mitwaHosi Nwa’mitwa II makes sure that basic services, including water, shelter, roads,electricity and health (including antiretroviral drugs), are delivered to the communitythrough the coordination of her 34 headmen and headwomen. Youth participating inthe Fit for Life, Fit for Work programme can also access medication for HIV through theprogramme as it incorporates HIV prevention and treatment components, as well as ayouth and women empowerment focus.


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“I am the type of person who never gives up, people can never fail if they

really want to achieve what they want to achieve. Being a female traditional

leader, you are like a mother; you have passion for what you do. You have

feelings for people, especially youth and the aged. A woman is a gift from

God to make peace and make things happen. If there was no woman, there

would be no Nelson Mandela” - Hosi Nwamitwa II

Figure 5: Women dancing during the launch of theirbeadwork project which also has HIV prevention andmitigation components

Explaining the main ways inwhich she is responding to HIV inher community based oncommunity members’ needs HosiNwa’mitwa II has been previouslyquoted as saying:

"For 15 years when I sat inParliament, each time I went homeI knew that the Parliament was inCape Town but that my

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Encouragingly, the Nwa’mitwa Centre which is being constructed in the communitywill house a pre-school and after school care facility to cater for children affected by orvulnerable to HIV; a skills training and income generation programme for HIV positivewomen and a large food garden to support community members’ nutrition needs.

community was in Limpopo, in the most rural area. Being in Parliament I had to gothrough all the workshops [on HIV] so I was aware of it but I didn't have the mandateto act before I assumed the chieftaincy.

Women, men, children, when you looked at them you could see they were havingreal problems with HIV. Our culture usually waits to bury people on Saturday but nowthey were also burying people Monday through Friday because of HIV.

But people in my community didn't want to come out, so that's why my first task asHosi was to visit the clinic. We've got 1,000 people on antiretrovirals (ARVs) butstrangely enough, people would only come between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. because theywere afraid to be seen. I had to say let me make an effort to... let these people know


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what it is to come out and say they are HIV-positive, and when they take the ARVsyou immediately see the change.

It does not end there; when we have the weekly lekgotla [royal meeting] with all myindunas [village headmen], we speak about HIV, that it is not a myth, it's a reality.We even have rural doctors come to the lekgotlas to talk about HIV.

"I realised that [we needed] to have an intervention with the youth... The challengewas where to start with this project because it was not a Government project. I had tosit down to find out who can fund us. We joined hands with the private sector; youcannot expect Government to fund everything. Our first founder was the Ford Foundation.

Someone told me that Elton John had a foundation that worked with AIDS and thathe was coming to South Africa, so I went to see him. I started telling him my story. Hesaid, 'When I go back to London I'm going to raise money for you with one song,' andhe did... we started a site for youth. I met a good Samaritan, Phillip van Royn, whocleared the site for us... he is so much involved …in volunteering to this project. Itwas like manna coming from heaven and those kids [in the project] were so excited.We created a legal body, a Trust, for the funds and a team of external auditors. Youhave to work with other groups in the community.

It's not that traditional leaders don't want to help; it's just that many don't know howto start; they think this is not their baby, that this is an issue for the Department ofHealth. But as traditional leaders we need to own our communities. Anyone withproblems, like a quarrel or a death, they go to the traditional leaders first. We needto be advocating against things like gender-based violence because it's only us astraditional leaders that can help. Traditional leaders are the first social worker [awoman] sees because they don't see a traditional leader as a foreigner2.

Africa Needs More Women Traditional LeadersHosi Nwa’mitwa II was called again to serve as a member of the South Africa Parliamentin 2010 after her retirement in 2009. In the course of her duties to the nation, she isleveraging this position to complement her tireless efforts to make a difference in thelives of community members, especially those of youth and women.

2 South Africa: Queen Tinyiko Nwamitwa-Shilubana “People didn't want to come out" accessed at

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/south-africa-queen-tinyiko-nwamitwa-shilubana-people-didnt-want-to-come-out/


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Figure 6: Hosi Nwa’mitwa II at her home inNwa’mitwa, Tzaneen

The story of Hosi Tinyiko Nwa’mitwa II bearswitness to the important role thattraditional leaders, given the rightresources and support, can play in reducingindividuals’ risks and vulnerability to HIV,gender based violence and sexual andreproductive health challenges. It is evidentthat women traditional leaders as mothers,nurturers and carers, are very capable ofsuccessfully exercising their rights to leadin communities for the improvement oflife for all.

African communities accord great respectand honour to traditional leaders. Most of

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Way forward - SAfAIDS Supporting TraditionalLeaders to Address HIV and GBV At Community LevelThrough the SAfAIDS Regional Leadership Rock Programme for HIV Prevention whichwas launched in April 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa, SAfAIDS recognises theimmense power and influence of traditional leaders and is moving to harness it. Theengagement of traditional leaders can make a significant difference in HIV interventionsand SAfAIDS is working with and supporting traditional leaders in a number ofcommunities in southern Africa to scale-up and use their influence in their communitiesfor HIV prevention and mitigation.

The documentation of the success story of Hosi Nwa’mitwa II’s work in Nwa’mitwa in thedigital story attached is the first step in showing the important work being done bytraditional leaders in southern Africa, and in encouraging others to harness their owninfluence and potential to prevent HIV in their own communities in countries in the region.

what they say is often respected and acted upon, especially when handed down asjudgments in traditional courts. There is room therefore to support and work withtraditional leaders so they can play the leadership roles in HIV and gender awareness,HIV and GBV prevention campaigns and in supporting treatment and redirection of carewhich they are called to do as the closest leaders to the people.


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Traditional Leadership Addressing Gender Based Violence,Sexual & Reproductive Health and HIV in Nwa’mitwa


Traditional Leadership Addressing Gender Based Violence,Sexual & Reproductive Health and HIV in Nwa’mitwa

(Tzaneen, South Africa)SAfAIDS Regional Office: 479 Sappers Contour, Lynnwood, Pretoria 0081, South Africa

Tel: +27-12-3610889; Fax: +27-12-3610899, Email: [email protected]; Website: www.safaids.net

Country Office - Zimbabwe: 17 Beveridge Road, P.O. Box A509, Avondale, Harare, ZimbabweTel: +263-4-336193/4; Fax: +263-4-336195, Email: [email protected]; Website: www.safaids.net

Country Office - Zambia: Plot No. 4, Lukasu Road, Rhodes Park, Lusaka, ZambiaTel:+260-211-257652; Fax: +260-1-257652, Email: [email protected]; Website: www.safaids.net

Country Office - Mozambique: Av. Paulo Samuel Kankomba n.2051, R/C Maputo, MozambiqueTelefax +258-213-02623, Email: [email protected]; Website: www.safaids.net

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