Multi-Award Winning Princess Royal(Rakgadi) of the Mogane Royal Family and Mogane Traditional Council, HRH Eurika Mogane was among the few community leaders representing the African Women Leaders Network South Africa, in
the call for more Positive Masculinity around our country.
“The rise of women, does not mean the fall of men. It truly is an honor to be one of the few
females appointed to convene with key male leaders from distinguished industries and countries.
Charity surely begins at home, and if we can address and be sensitized to the development of our
male children, then we would be able to unpack the impact that avoided-trauma can have on
these future male leaders.”, said Princess Mogane.
The vision of the 3rd African Union: Men’s Conference aims to educate many more about how
we may all make a practical difference, end violence against women and girls or boys, and
ensuring there are resources and materials ready for access from such an engagement. The
tremendous role that the pandemic in 2020 played in a rise of GBV cases led to the urgent call to
action to African Presidents to come together with the hopes of combating this harsh reality.
H. E Ellen Johnson who serves as the AWLN Patron, approached H. E President Cyril
Ramaphosa with the aim of requesting that there should be an Annual Conference set up to honor
and empower men to take their much-anticipated roles as leaders and molders of visions for the
society.
“As the leader of the African Women Leaders Network for the Youth Caucus South Africa
,our goals are to ensure that we as the youth start bridging the gap between children and our
elders. We need to take a stand in ensuring that we don’t allow societal pressures to undermine
the good males playing key roles in our lives, so that they too may be empowered to stand
against the monsters who are crippling our trust in men altogether. We are no longer going to
paint me with the same brush, but ensure we too play our nurturing roles to ensure that there is a
balance in our societies,” added Kgadi Eurika Mogane.
This conference took place over 2 days and with it’s conclusion, an MOA is set in place to
ensure that both the roles of men and women in society is balanced and made apparent for the
aim of building a better future for all. Key delegates from African countries convened and
painted the town purple – as a symbol of Positive Masculinity. The call to action from various
leaders inspired majority of the attendees from their respective jurisdictions to start
implementing the need for more practical research and practical action plans to ensue that change
is sustainable.
“Being a representative of the Mogane Royal Family and Mogane Traditional Council also
means the need to ensure that I become the voice of the people and ensure that with the guidance
of HRH Kgoshi F Mogane and our Community Leader Apostle Peter Jones, we are able to do
more of the ground work and reach those who do not have access to smart phones, radio,
newspapers. Driving deep into the rural villages and being able to address the heart-breaking
issues they face is the base on which we are hoping to bring more change,” said HRH Princess
Eurika Mogane.
Convened under the theme “Consolidating Commitments Towards the African Union
Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls”, the Conference will provide an
important platform to assess progress made by male leadership across respective sectors and to
articulate specific priorities to decisively end VAWG in the Continent. Building onto the critical
work undertaken in the previous conferences, the 3rd Men’s Conference on Positive Masculinity
in Leadership to EVAWG will deepen the understanding of structural drivers, to take firm actions
towards addressing them.
A focus on deepening an understanding of structural drivers of VAWG in the Continent is four-
fold:
1.It serves to emphasize the importance of harnessing law and policy as instruments to
accelerate changes that protect women and girls from violence and uphold their rights to
life, security, freedom, dignity and physical and emotional integrity.
2.It makes the strategic linkages between the lack of economic and financial inclusion with
vulnerability to violence and as a form of structural violence itself.
3.It develops an African compendium of evidenced-based interventions to prevent violence
against women and girls.
4.It provides a framework to deeply explore harmful social norms relating to masculinity
and violence that have resulted in the normative character of violence – permissive
societies across the Continent.
