By Jade Witten
Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi's statement that the lack of breast-feeding facilities in the workplace was a contributing factor to why fewer women occupied senior positions in government has been met with mixed reaction by the province's workforce.
Fraser-Moleketi said the government could not reach its target of 50 percent of women in senior management positions because of the lack of breast-feeding facilities in the workplace and said women held only 33 percent of senior posts.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) agreed with Fraser-Moleketi saying child-care facilities in the workplace were very important.
Cosatu's provincial gender co-ordinator Elma Geswindt said working mothers constantly worried about their babies and this had an adverse effect on the progress of the mother at work.
Geswindt said factory workers and those working in the retail industry were "worse hit" as they left home early in the morning and returned late at night.
Last month Old Mutual opened a R25-million day care centre at it's Pinelands office that caters for 75 babies and 300 pre-school children and is one of the biggest daycare centres in South Africa.
But Faiza Steyn, provincial spokesperson for the department of health, said even though breast-feeding reduced the risk of babies getting diarrhoea and other infections, having the baby in the workplace could be a "deterrent".
Newborn babies needed to be breastfed every four hours and stress in the workplace could adversely affect a mother's ability to produce milk.