Know your Minister
Women, children and people with disabilities
The Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities (DWCPD) was established in May 2009. The Minister is Ms Lulu Xingwana.
When the announced the new department, President Zuma said the creation of the department was part of government’s renewed focus on doing things differently.
The department replaced the Office of the Status of Women, People with Disabilities, Youth and Children located within the Presidency. The new department works closely with similar sections in the offices of the premiers in the nine provincial governments.
Neglected groups
The department is headed by a director-general and three deputy directors-general each responsible for the portfolios of Women, Children and People with Disabilities.
The purpose of the DWCPD is to drive government’s programme on employment equity, equality and empowerment agenda with regarding neglected groups and historically disadvantaged communities in each of the three sectors.
The department’s mission is to create an enabling environment so that government can monitor and evaluate the carrying out of the three group’s rights as set out in the Constitution.
Goals for gender equality
The DWCPD also aims to assist public-funded institutions, organs of civil society, state-owned enterprises and the private sector to achieve national and global goals for gender equality and the rights of children and persons with disabilities.
- Mbulelo Baloyi
Minister Lulu Xingwana
Born in September 1955 in the Eastern Cape, Minister Xingwana has been involved in women development and empowerment activities during most of her adult life.
She has been a Member of Parliament since the inaugural democratic elections of April 1994. She has been and continues to be an active member of the Women’s League of the African National Congress (ANC).
Before her appointment to her present portfolio in November last year, Minister Xingwana was Minister of Arts and Culture from May 2009. Between 2006 and 2009, she was the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs now called Rural Development and Land Reform.
For more information, call the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities on: 012 308 1776 Pretoria or 021 469 8306 Cape Town