Deputy Minister for Provincial and Local Government, Ms Nomatyala Hangana speaks at the 16 Days of Activism Campaign Exit Report gathering

Programme Director
His Excellency, Dr Abdullah Alzubedi of the diplomatic corps
Your Excellencies, the ambassadors and high commissioners
Inkosikazi ND Mhlauli of the National House of Traditional Leaders
Commissioner T Maitse of the Commission on Gender Equity
Ms N Nkondlo of the National Youth Commission (NYC)
Mr Makue of the South African Council of Churches (SACC)
The Director-General (DG) of Department of Provincial and Local Government (dplg), Ms Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela and the team
All government officials
Friends and partners of the campaign
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Good evening

When we embarked on this campaign in 2006 we started on the right footing by recognising that the intensity of the scourge was beyond government's ability to handle on its own. We, therefore, made the right call to all sectors of our society to partner with us in our quest to freeing women and children in our society. Like a truly unified nation most South Africans overwhelmingly responded to this call and together we made some remarkable dents to the scourge. We set ourselves a number of goals which to a large degree, considering the time constraints, did very well to achieve. The most important one for me was the extent to which we were able to break the silence which in my view is the main contributing factor to the perpetuation of gender-based violence. Without exposing it, it would be highly impossible to measure its depth in our society and let alone even thinking about interventionist strategies to fight it.

You will recall that we made an announcement that the campaign would concentrate more on the rural areas and informal settlements. In line with this approach it was therefore not surprising that most of our activities took place in those provinces that are rural in nature. Having lit the Torch of Peace at the Union Buildings a few days prior to the actual launch of the campaign, we took the fight of ending violence against women and children to Limpopo on 25 November 2006 and had our closing ceremony in the Northern Cape, Upington, on 10 December.

What struck me with each and every visit we made to these communities was that people are hungry for information. In fact some of them told me it was for the first time that they were hearing about the campaign. This speaks to the communication challenges and community outreach programmes that we as the campaign need to deal with. I hope government communicators including those of our partner organisations are taking note of this challenge.

We had also planned to reach out to the farming communities. We did so by launching our very first Farm Workers' Awareness Programme in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal on 15 October 2006 which coincided with the commemoration of the International Rural Women's Day. Not only was I humbled by the fact that people came in their multitudes to listen, I was also mainly impressed by the outcome of this event when farmers associations committed themselves to this fight. As part of this year's programme we will be visiting farming communities in all provinces to spread this message, starting with the Western Cape.

We also did our best to achieve yet another goal we had set for ourselves which is getting men as partners of the campaign for we believe a thousand voices of good men will with no doubt eventually make the abusers understand there are so many ways of venting their anger and frustrations or proving their manhood, but turning women into punching bags and sex toys is certainly not one of them. Indeed good men responded. They are here with us tonight as partners.

In fact as also part of this year's programme is to join hands with men organisations and our sister Department of Education and take this fight to schools, targeting mainly boys. I am glad that the NYC is here tonight because I am challenging them to join us in this endeavour. I am also challenging the youth commission to come up with programmes aimed at educating their peers about the devastating effects of the scourge to both them as perpetrators, but especially those they victimise.

I am also glad that the SACC is represented here tonight because I have been dying to meet them and not just to say 'hallo', but also to tell them this important message. According to the holy book, rape and all forms of assaults against human kind which women and children are part of are sins before the eyes of the Lord.

In fact, if I had a way of instructing God, I would actually instruct Him to deem them not just as sins but unforgivable ones too. As people who are preaching the word of God, the churches should therefore see it befitting not to fold their arms but openly condemn this sickness. I am certain you will equally agree that as churches we can ill afford to continue to treat issues of sex and rape as taboos especially in view of the fact that religious leaders are at the coalface of our moral regeneration initiative.

We once again demonstrated our solidarity with those organisations that had been doing the work of caring for abused women and children long before we could intensify our fight against the scourge. We did so by inculcating the fundraising aspects in our campaign solely for the purpose of helping them.

You will recall that we launched our Senior Management Service (SMS) and postcards aspects a week before the launch of our campaign in Winterveldt. This was made possible by South African Post Office (SAPO) and Leaf Wireless in conjunction with our bigger cellular networks.

In as far as the distribution of the postcard which were supposed to be signed and returned to the post offices and thereby generating R2 for each returned postcard, we were helped largely by Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), our partner who didn't only do that, but also handled our entire communication. The SAPO also assisted with the printing of one million postcards and the distribution thereof. I won't go into details because the report captures all of it. Without sounding ungrateful to those who participated in these fundraising initiatives, I would like to however register my disappointment in how they fared.

I would like to believe that results could have been much better than they turned out to be. I am sure you will agree that fundraising initiatives like these have the potential to change the lives of those who need them the most. I am equally certain that you would agree with my suggestion that we need to beef up our action. I am certain that our partners, Foundation For Human Rights (FHR), who are responsible for the handling and allocation of those funds raised, can tell you a far better story than I can. By the way the FHR has proven to be a wonderful minister of finance in this regard. Talking about beefing up our action, as the campaign we have taken stock of our activities and how they impact on the lives of those we are trying to change for the better. We have conceded to constructive criticism from the media and our general partners that there is very minimal impact we can make during the 16-day period and that the issues surrounding gender-based violence require a more long-term interventionist approach.

In this regard government together with our partners have come up with the 365 Days National Action Plan, which we launched with the Deputy President in Pretoria early this year. The national plan is more programmatic in its approach and will run throughout the year.

With this plan we hope to deal with those rather complicated issues in a more systematic way. I would also like to state that the closest we can get to the ambitions of this plan is if we are all together in it and contributing as individuals or organisations. I am once more appealing to all of you to be integral part of this plan.

Early this week I attended a 10th year anniversary of the National House of Traditional Leaders and one of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) speakers talked about the progress they have made in what they call "Programme Ndabezitha", a programme aimed at ending gender-based violence. What intrigued me was that they have made these strides in collaboration with our traditional leadership which therefore goes to showing there is indeed a lot we can achieve if we have one problem and many hands.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all friends and partners of the campaign including big business for the support I hope the campaign will continue to enjoy. I would also like to thank the 16 Days Secretariat, who with the mere touch of the button made things happen. To the FHR please continue being exceptionally performing finance ministers. To Ilva and the GCIS team, continue the excellent communication supportive role you have been giving us. Since I am in the thanks giving spirit, I will go as far as thanking those who by merely thinking (to themselves) that violence against women and children is evil as by so doing you demonstrated your support but next time please act.

It feels right to remind you, don't look away and act against abuse!

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Provincial and Local Government
25 May 2007