Date: 25/11/2004
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Mapisa-Nqakula: Launch of 16 Days of Activism Campaign
ADDRESS BY NN MAPISA-NQAKULA, RSA MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL LAUNCH OF THE CAMPAIGN ON THE 16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM FOR NO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN, Port Elizabeth
Programme Director
President Thabo Mbeki
Colleagues
Friends
The 16 Days Campaign is succeeding in unifying greater numbers of South Africans behind the fight to stop violence against women and children. The significance of the National launch and its ability to draw out more and more people every year is testimony to this.
It has been said many times that the Campaign itself is not isolated from the many other programmes aimed at addressing the plight of women and children in our country. It is for this reason that we were invited here to share with you some of the work that is being done as part of the general struggle for the emancipation of women and to report back to the nation progress we have made as a Department as part of our contribution to this struggle.
On 3 August, as part of the activities of Women’s Month, we launched a drive to mobilise all women to verify their marital status with the Department of Home Affairs. Through the campaign, we wanted to address a number of problems faced by women when it comes to the registration of marriages and related circumstances.
In the first place the Department was receiving a growing number of complaints from the public about women who find themselves married without their knowledge, either as a result of corrupt officials in the Department or by impersonators who obtained lost ID documents, pretended to be the owners and got married. This is normally done to assist a foreigner to acquire permanent residence or citizenship status in South Africa.
Secondly, we wanted to intervene to assist women who are married in terms of customary law, who have not yet registered their marriages to come forward and do so, in order to protect themselves legally in cases of disputes. Many women who are married in terms of civil marriage laws also found that their marriage officers were not registered with the department of Home Affairs and as a result their marriages were also not registered.
Additional to these objectives, it was also key to our plans that this campaign should address the need to educate young girls, mostly school going age about their rights in law when it comes to the issues of marriages. We have been concerned that many young girls, particularly in rural areas, were being forced into marriage at an early stage and forced out school for good.
The Campaign has been a great success and through it we have managed to address several problems both within the Department and in the communities at large. It has helped us to start the process of cleaning our national Population register in order to ensure its integrity as well as apprehend a number of officials who are conducting corrupt activities within the department.
The campaign has continued beyond the month of August and has now entered its 17th week, during which period we have had a total number of about 72 000 women coming to verify their status in our offices nationally. Among these, about 1720 have claimed that they were married without their knowledge. We have investigated the authenticity of these cases and have since expunged 1127 genuine cases of fraudulent marriages from the register. A total of 3336 women and men have come forward to register their customary marriages.
These statistics might not give us a full picture of the extent of the problem, but they do demonstrate a worrying trend. We believe that as the campaign gains more momentum, we can do more. This is where we need to call upon all of you to come forward and join us in mobilising communities to use this opportunity to verify their status.
We thank the organisers of the launch for giving us this opportunity to report back to you on the campaign. We cannot take more time on the programme as the President is still going to address us.
With your permission now, Programme Director, I will proceed with the next task that you have given me, which is that of introducing and raising the President to officially launch the Campaign on the 16 Day of Activism For No Violence Against Women and Children.
And before I call on the President to address us, I just need on behalf of all the women of our country, to once more thank the president for his direct contribution and leadership in advancing the struggle for the emancipation of women. Of course we could not have expected any less from a leader of your calibre and political upbringing, nevertheless we extend our gratitude.
May I then call upon the President of the republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki to address us.
Thank you.
Media Enquiries can be directed to: Paseka Letsatsi
Cell: 082 883 9969
Nkosana Sibuyi
Cell: 082 886 6708
Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
25 November 2004
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Mapisa-Nqakula: Launch of 16 Days of Activism Campaign
ADDRESS BY NN MAPISA-NQAKULA, RSA MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, ON THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL LAUNCH OF THE CAMPAIGN ON THE 16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM FOR NO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN, Port Elizabeth
Programme Director
President Thabo Mbeki
Colleagues
Friends
The 16 Days Campaign is succeeding in unifying greater numbers of South Africans behind the fight to stop violence against women and children. The significance of the National launch and its ability to draw out more and more people every year is testimony to this.
It has been said many times that the Campaign itself is not isolated from the many other programmes aimed at addressing the plight of women and children in our country. It is for this reason that we were invited here to share with you some of the work that is being done as part of the general struggle for the emancipation of women and to report back to the nation progress we have made as a Department as part of our contribution to this struggle.
On 3 August, as part of the activities of Women’s Month, we launched a drive to mobilise all women to verify their marital status with the Department of Home Affairs. Through the campaign, we wanted to address a number of problems faced by women when it comes to the registration of marriages and related circumstances.
In the first place the Department was receiving a growing number of complaints from the public about women who find themselves married without their knowledge, either as a result of corrupt officials in the Department or by impersonators who obtained lost ID documents, pretended to be the owners and got married. This is normally done to assist a foreigner to acquire permanent residence or citizenship status in South Africa.
Secondly, we wanted to intervene to assist women who are married in terms of customary law, who have not yet registered their marriages to come forward and do so, in order to protect themselves legally in cases of disputes. Many women who are married in terms of civil marriage laws also found that their marriage officers were not registered with the department of Home Affairs and as a result their marriages were also not registered.
Additional to these objectives, it was also key to our plans that this campaign should address the need to educate young girls, mostly school going age about their rights in law when it comes to the issues of marriages. We have been concerned that many young girls, particularly in rural areas, were being forced into marriage at an early stage and forced out school for good.
The Campaign has been a great success and through it we have managed to address several problems both within the Department and in the communities at large. It has helped us to start the process of cleaning our national Population register in order to ensure its integrity as well as apprehend a number of officials who are conducting corrupt activities within the department.
The campaign has continued beyond the month of August and has now entered its 17th week, during which period we have had a total number of about 72 000 women coming to verify their status in our offices nationally. Among these, about 1720 have claimed that they were married without their knowledge. We have investigated the authenticity of these cases and have since expunged 1127 genuine cases of fraudulent marriages from the register. A total of 3336 women and men have come forward to register their customary marriages.
These statistics might not give us a full picture of the extent of the problem, but they do demonstrate a worrying trend. We believe that as the campaign gains more momentum, we can do more. This is where we need to call upon all of you to come forward and join us in mobilising communities to use this opportunity to verify their status.
We thank the organisers of the launch for giving us this opportunity to report back to you on the campaign. We cannot take more time on the programme as the President is still going to address us.
With your permission now, Programme Director, I will proceed with the next task that you have given me, which is that of introducing and raising the President to officially launch the Campaign on the 16 Day of Activism For No Violence Against Women and Children.
And before I call on the President to address us, I just need on behalf of all the women of our country, to once more thank the president for his direct contribution and leadership in advancing the struggle for the emancipation of women. Of course we could not have expected any less from a leader of your calibre and political upbringing, nevertheless we extend our gratitude.
May I then call upon the President of the republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki to address us.
Thank you.
Media Enquiries can be directed to: Paseka Letsatsi
Cell: 082 883 9969
Nkosana Sibuyi
Cell: 082 886 6708
Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
25 November 2004
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