# Deputy minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Mmapaseka Steve Letsike, has called for structural women’s empowerment that rejects discrimination and advances equality, economic ownership and women’s leadership. Women’s representation in Parliament had risen from 33-percent in 2004 to 42.8-percent in 2024, while in the National Council of Provinces, women’s representation reached 44.4-percent. Letsike says empowerment is not the private escape of a few exceptional women from a structure that continues to oppress millions, but the collective redesign of that structure.
Deputy minister Letsike calls for structural empowerment of women