Date: 07/08/2006
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government
Title: Balindlela: Queenstown Women’s Summit


    Opening address delivered by the Premier, Ms Nosimo Balindlela, at the Queenstown Women's Summit

Programme Director
All Women's Formations present
Members of the Executive Council
Members of Parliament
Executive Mayors
District Mayors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Igama lamakhosikazi malibongwe

It gives me great pleasure to stand before you on this 50th anniversary of the Women March to parliament. Chairperson, this summit is a sequel to the Women's Summit held in Graff Reinet on 9 August 2005, in which women called for:
* access to jobs
* access to better life
* development of women to enter into skilled labour
* ownership of land and economy

What we called for in the 2005 Conference resembles the aspirations of the Women's Charter which was drafted by Women in 1955. In our present day situation these aspirations resemble our own Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP) goals in which we aim to improve the lives of women. The PGDP strongly echoes the Millennium Development goals adopted by the entire world's government as a blueprint for building a better world in the 21st century.

It targets the issues of water, sanitation, shelter, eradication of extreme hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and reduce child mortality. What women were fighting for in 1956 is still the same as what we are fighting for in 2006. The difference is that we have done something about it in the last 12 years of our democracy, yet we still a long way go. We now have allowed access to water and sanitation to thousands of our people. The President has committed all of us that we need to do away with mud schools and sanitation problems by 2008.

The economic growth of women is still at a very low level. Recent studies show that women are still operating from lower to middle management and have insignificant numbers in the top management of the economy. This economic summit needs to give direction on how we can speed the economic growth of women. However, we realise that this cannot be done by government alone. Hence in this gathering today we have our social partners, the banks, business, entrepreneurs and financial services.

In our midst we have:
* the recyclers from the Creek area
* informal vegetable vendor who have appealed for business skills and shelter for their market
* young women farmers
* success stories from best practices

The people I have mentioned are responding to the call we made in August 9, 2005. We are mindful of certain obstacles that are barriers to women which are class, gender and race. Our MECs will give their report as to what they intend doing about the development of women in their respective administrations on the 31 August 2006. We need to totally overhaul our value system. As women we need to attack the virus of racism. We must also change the power relations and undergo a paradigm that says we cannot do anything because we are operating in male dominate women because that attitude is deafest. We need to carry our veterans history with us. We must find a home for all the women, particularly our rural women. We must be united and connected in various powers and positions we are holding. We need to use resources to transform women. We need to mobilise and not demobilise ourselves.
To end my presentation, Chairperson, the resistance and resilience of women in our country and all over the world is best captured in the poem by Maya Angelo in her poem,