Date: 08/08/2003
Source: Department of Correctional Services
Title: Damons: Free State Correctional Services' Women's Day celebration


WELCOME SPEECH BY CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER, W DAMONS, AT NATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY CELEBRATIONS HOSTED BY the FREE STATE PROVINCE, 8 August 2003

Programme Director
MEC Safety and Security: Mr Kotsoane
Members of The National Management Board of DCS
Representatives from the Office of the Minister
Provincial Commissioner SAPS: Commissioner Goabepe
Genl Nqyaphayi from SANDF
Area Commissioners DCS
NGOs
Distinguished guests
Members of the Media
Female/Male Offenders
Ladies and Gentleman

We would like, on behalf of the Minister of Correctional Services, Mr Ben Skosana, and the Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr Linda Mti, who are in absentia because of other national government commitments, to welcome each and everyone at the DCS National Women's Day celebrations hosted by Free State province here today.

It was indeed a great, great honour and privileged for us as Free State people to be part of all the arrangements and excitement around the celebrations.

Celebrating Women's Day is in many ways very, very important to the Department of Correctional Services:

(a) Around the country we have a number of female offenders and babies in our facilities
(b) We are moving towards a well represented staff component in the Department on all levels of management
(c) We as a department acknowledge the fact that a united workforce in terms of gender is a successful recipe towards our objectives
(d) We promote like all other departments gender equality
(e) We investigate any gender-related issue on receipt of a complaint
(f) We protect the rights of our people.

Although I believe every day is women's day, we are very lucky in South Africa, because we get two days to celebrate with women their womanhood. It is the national commemoration day as well as the International Women's Day.

In the history of our country women played a pivotal roll in all walks of live especially politically. Take for example the fight against the impending pass laws. But more significantly the role played by women since 1994 to transform South Africa.

The creation of a non-sexist South Africa entailed the movement away from a patriarchal society where males dominate women. It implies gender equality, affirmation of women and greater participation by women in all spheres of life. This task is part of our constitutional obligations and as Department of Correctional Services we rank this commitment very high. This department also continues to build a people's contract to promote and consolidate women's empowerment behind bars so as to break the cycle of poverty.

In essence we have an African designed agenda to deal with poverty and development in which the substantive and sustainable empowerment of women behind bars is a leading and recurring theme.

In his Sate of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki noted that the government had as yet, failed to achieve the necessary progress on gender equity, a fact that is and will continue to impact negatively on South Africa's growth and development. He sounded a clarion call for even faster and more effective implementation of policies and practical programmes to facilitate women's empowerment.

I think that Johanna Kehler's description of the challenges that face us, as South Africans are largely indicative of the international experience. In her June editorial for the publication Rights Now, she says, I quote " What ever the way forward might be, it seems that as long as the discourse about the realisation of women's rights is not contextualised within women's realities of increasing poverty, as well as within process of privatisation and globalisation, the discourse will remain on the surface and the real issue will not be addressed. Secondly, as long as the issue of achieving gender equality is not linked to the issue of poverty eradication, the achievement of gender equality will remain a theoretical exercise and finally, as long as measures aiming at the promotion of equality and elimination of gender-based discrimination are not coinciding with measures aiming at women's empowerment, women will be further marginalised and discriminated against based on their womanhood"

The Department of Correctional Services has shown and continues to show its determination to incorporate gender into all its policies, plans and programmes. We do not bank on miraculous overnight changes; transformation is a long-term process. It is and will continue to be implemented in stages and phases that always remain subject to national priorities as well as sufficient capacity and material resources available.

Let us echo the song from 1956: "You have tampered with the women, you have struck a rock."

Women today should maintain and uphold what has been struggled for by so many women, like Mrs Albertina Sisulu and others.

My role was just to welcome you and to say enjoy the day in the presence of all of us.

I thank you

Issued by Department of Correctional Services
8 August 2003