Pregs Govender’s book, “Love and Courage: a story of insubordination” is due to be published and launched this year. She is currently Chairperson of the Independent Panel of eminent persons to review South Africa’s Parliament.
A feminist activist, Pregs works to strengthen the women’s movement for equality, peace and socio-economic justice. She writes researches and educates through her independent consultancy, WOMENS-LIP. She shares lessons learnt as an anti-apartheid activist from 1974 to that of an MP elected as a member of Mandela’s party, the ANC, in 1994-2002.
WOMENS-LIP builds women’s leadership in politics based on the power of love and courage. It develops the capacity to use power, position and access to act in the interests of the poorest. It partners with Parliaments, Governments, International Organisations and Civil Society on institutional, policy and leadership transformation.
In 1982, Pregs began her work as a teacher at high schools and at University. Between ’87-‘89 she was National Educator of SA’s massive garment workers union before she headed SA’s first Worker’s College to develop worker leadership. Many graduates today occupy leadership positions in the union movement or government.
From ’92 to ‘94, she was employed by the Women’s National Coalition to conceptualise and manage its Women’s Charter campaign. 2 million rural and urban women were mobilized to ensure SA’s Constitution committed to substantive gender equality.
As an MP, she convened the Finance Committee’s Group on Gender and Economics. Pregs initiated SA’s ‘Women’s Budget’ in ’94 and steered its political impact on SA’s 98/99 National Budget, which committed to gender budgeting. Since SA began its initiative in ‘94, over 70 other countries have studied and utilized SA’s Gender Budget experience. Pregs chaired Parliament’s Committee on Women and developed a political strategy that resulted in 80% of legislative priorities for women being enacted. These included laws on domestic violence, customary marriage and the workplace.
In 2001, she organized and chaired Committee hearings on the gendered impact of HIV/AIDS, when the ANC Caucus was silent on HIV/AIDS. She was the first ANC MP in the ANC Caucus to openly argue for a holistic approach to HIV/AIDS, including access to medication. Her Committee’s hearings brought women’s voices to Parliament and helped influence Cabinet’s turnaround on treatment in 2002. Pregs resigned in 2002, after being the only MP to register her opposition to the arms-deal in the Budget vote, arguing that government needed to address poverty, violence and HIV/AIDS instead.
Pregs and her partner live in Cape Town. She has three children, the oldest being her 25year old daughter. A student of yoga since childhood, she practices to develop self-knowledge and self-sustenance and will continue learning for the rest of her life.