Department of correctional services (DCS) Amathole management area women employees staged a successful team-building session in East London last Thursday.
Among subjects on the agenda were breast cancer awareness, sharing common knowledge about personal information and educating one another on self-checking.
Area commissioner Nolitha Mangxila, during her presentation, said women were the leaders of households and if there was no leadership at home you would see ‘ijenteyis’, poverty and ill-discipline.
She also addressed sexual harassment in the work place.
“We are flowers, yes but a flower can also be admired from afar without having to be touched or picked, especially if it is not yours,” she said.
Mangxila said the DCS had launched a sexual harassment policy to protect its employees.
“We should not be victims. All of us must know how to identify it and report it and I will ask the Employee Assistant Practitioner (EAP) to do a roadshow to all centres in the management area which includes Middledrift, Fort Beaufort, Stutterheim, Makana [Grahamstown] and King William’s Town to conduct and present the sexual harassment policy to all employees.”
Mangxila motivated and encouraged officials, especially young employees, to study and empower themselves with education.