Date: 04/08/2005
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Debate on National Women's Day, NCOP
Address by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, to the National Council of Provinces, in the “Women Building a South Africa that truly belongs to all” Debate, Cape Town
Deputy Chairperson,
Honourable Premier of Gauteng, Mbhazima Shilowa,
Honourable Premier of the North-West, Edna Molewa
Honourable Premier of the Northern Cape, Dipuo Peters,
Honourable Members,
The winner of last year’s Business Woman of the Year Award, Futhi Mtoba,
The Winner of this year’s Business Woman of the Year Award, Monhla Hlahla,
Honoured Guests,
It is a singular pleasure and privilege for me to participate in this debate. I should like to congratulate this House on holding this debate, just a few days before National Women’s Day.
This is a period not only for celebration but for renewed commitment and reflection among all our citizens – both women and men. We need to look back at our history, and assess our achievements in the context of where we have come from, while at the same time looking ahead.
We also need to plan our way forward, in the global context of the Beijing Plan of Action and the Beijing +10 assessment. In the spirit of celebration, let me warmly welcome our special guests, Ms Monhla Hlahla, Businesswoman of the Year 2005, and Ms Futhi Mtoba, Businesswoman of the Year 2004. Their achievements make them the role models of women throughout our country, and they are proof that women have what it takes to succeed in the corporate world.
Honourable Members, we are in a season of milestones. We look back over 49 years and celebrate the historic and courageous march of women to the Union Buildings on August 9, 1956; the fifty years since the adoption of that epochal human rights document, the Freedom Charter in Kliptown on June 26, 1955; and the 51 years since women adopted our Women’s Charter on 17 April 1954.
In all of this is reflected the central role that women have played in the national democratic struggle, and indeed in defining the character of the country’s democracy.
We must remember also the countless other women, at all levels of society, who endured imposed servility for decades and centuries. We remember those who sacrificed in order to ensure that women enjoy the rights they do today. We also use this occasion to celebrate the advances that have been made by our country since 1994 with regards to gender transformation, while also taking note of the challenges that remain.
Honourable Members, South Africa’s second Progress Report to the United Nations, on measures that have been implemented since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPA) in 1995, provides an extensive overview of progress achieved during the entire decade of implementing the Beijing Platform for Action, which is also our decade of freedom.
The Commission on the Status of Women 49th Session held in New York from 28 February to 11 March 2005, further reaffirmed the decisions taken at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. The significance of the reaffirmation of the Beijing Plan of Action for South Africa’s national gender programme is that it provides further impetus to the country to take forward its commitments made in Beijing in 1995, with respect to, amongst others, the following:
* The eradication of poverty
* The eradication and prevention of violence against women and children;
* strengthening of the International Research and Training Institution for the advancement of Women
* Women, the girl-child and HIV and AIDS (tabled by Southern African Development Community - SADC)
* Mainstreaming a gender perspective into national policies and programmes
In line with the commitments made at Beijing, our government continues to work tirelessly at all levels, to foster a climate that affirms women and facilitates their full participation in, and equal benefit from the fruits of democracy.
Our 2005 progress report to the United Nations indicated visible signs that the tide has undoubtedly shifted with regard to women’s emancipation. This includes indicators of improved women’s integration into all aspects of democracy and of their enjoyment of basic human rights such as access to clean water, education, primary health care and civic participation.
Women are generally more involved in governance, including development planning. In fact with women’s representation in the executive at above forty percent and in Parliament over thirty percent, South Africa has within a short space of time significantly altered the gender profile of the highest institution of political power in the land. Some of the critical areas covered in the country report to the UN include the following:
Women and Poverty
Programmes include the Expanded Public Works Programme, which has given many women an opportunity to enter the labour market. Visible changes include an improved quality of life for many women characterised by, amongst other things, increased access to clean water, sanitation, primary health care, education, civic participation and incomes.
Education and Training of Women South Africa has implemented various transformation interventions to address the legacy of apartheid and the patriarchal education system. In addition to formal schooling, Adult Basic Education and Training and vocational skills development have been implemented rigorously. In the process, women, particularly, the girl-child have become significant beneficiaries.
Women and Health The policy on universal access to primary health care introduced in 1994 forms the basis for health care delivery programmes. This has had a major impact on the South African population and a particularly significant impact on women’s health. In this regard, achievements also include access to Reproductive Health Care Programmes and a marked increase in access to antenatal care services.
Violence against Women South Africa’s approach to addressing violence against women and children is multi-faceted and integrated. Success indicators in this regard include among others, increased national awareness and condemnation of violence against women. Government has put the legislative framework in place to deal with this scourge.
In terms of the law reform process dealing with gender based violence, decisive statutory interventions such as the Domestic Violence Act, and the Maintenance Act, as well as the introduction of minimum sentences for serious crimes in the criminal justice sector have since been made.
The Domestic Violence Act is intended to provide victims of domestic violence the maximum protection from domestic abuse that the law can provide.
Amendments to existing legislation have also resulted in significant headway in combating violence against women and children.
Two such examples are the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, which limits the granting of bail for persons accused of having committed specified serious offences, which includes rape and the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, which provides for minimum sentences for murder and rape with aggravating circumstances.
There is also a number important Bills that have been or will be tabled at Parliament soon in order to plug the gaps in the criminal justice system. These include a proposed Sexual Offences Bill which is primarily aimed at encouraging victims of sexual offences to report the occurrence of such offences to the authorities and to prevent secondary victimisation upon entering the Criminal Justice System. The Bill broadens the definition of rape and declares certain victims, such as children and women as vulnerable witnesses. This will entail more protection for such victims in court, such as the obligatory appointment of intermediaries and giving evidence through a CCTV-system. = I am mentioning these in detail Deputy Chairperson given the challenges we face in our country, of violence against women. As we speak, one perpetrator of such crimes, Donovan Moodley, the self-confessed killer of young Leigh Matthews, was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier today. We congratulate our law enforcement agencies for putting him behind bars where he belongs.
Sadly, no information has come to light regarding what happened to Constable Francis Rasuge of Themba in Hammanskraal, who disappeared in August last year. We reiterate our call for anyone with information to please come forward and assist the police in solving this case.
Constable Rasuge and Ms Matthews are powerful symbols of the crimes committed against women in our country. We all have a responsibility to work tirelessly to ensure the total eradication of violence against women.
I urge Honourable Members to intensify the oversight role to ensure that the laws put in place are implemented, and that they protect women.
Women and Armed Conflict The last decade has seen increased involvement of women at all levels of decision-making relating to armed conflict. This has included women’s participation in peace negotiations in war-torn parts of the African continent and in facilitating dialogue. We have experienced, with a great deal of pride, greater women’s deployment to participate at operational levels in the United Nations Peace-Keeping Missions and African Union sponsored peace-keeping missions.
Women and the Economy
State measures to equalise opportunities for women have covered issues such as Equal Pay for Equal Work or Work of Equal Value, Equality and Non-Discrimination laws, Enhancing Women’s Participation in Fiscal and Economic Policy and facilitating Women’s Access to Economic Resources.
Women in Power and Decision-Making
Women’s access to political power, decision-making and meaningful participation in governance has dramatically improved since 1994. Affirmative action interventions by this government resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of women elected to national and provincial parliaments, and in other spheres of decision-making.
Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women
South Africa has established an extensive network of interrelated institutions that have been established to facilitate gender transformation, including gender mainstreaming at all levels of governance. These include an Independent Commission on Gender equality, the Office on the Status of Women, the Parliamentary Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of life and the Status of Women and Gender Focal Points in all government departments and at all levels of governance.
Human Rights of Women
We have one of the world’s most progressive constitutions. The founding values of South Africa’s constitutional democracy as articulated in the Constitution include non-sexism, non-racialism, human dignity and the achievement of substantive equality and advancement of human rights and freedoms.
Women and the Media
Law reform and transformation policies have laid the basis for equalising opportunities between men and women in the media while at the same time serving to discourage the media from stereotyping women and discouraging practices such as child pornography, which undermine women’s dignity and gender equality. The South African Broadcasting Act requires the public broadcaster to strive to ensure that its programming does not promote violence against women; depict women as passive victims of violence and abuse; degrade women and undermine their role and position in society; promote sexism and gender inequality; and reinforce gender oppression and stereotypes.
Women and the Environment
The last ten years have seen natural resource management and conservation in South Africa move squarely into an arena of respect for human rights, inclusive access to natural resources, environmental sustainability and gender equity.
The girl-child
Special attention has been paid to the girl-child in the implementation of the National Programme of Action on children’s rights with particular attention paid to child abuse in the family and the community. Time does not permit us to go through all the key provisions of the report. I felt if necessary to share just a few issues raised to remind the esteemed members of this House how much progress we have made. Colleagues, in addition to the extensive gender machinery that exists in our country, the President last year convened an inaugural meeting of the Presidential Women’s Working Group, to enable consultation between the Presidency and women leaders representing diverse sectors. It has now been decided that the Working Group must begin to work in earnest. To this end a date is being set for its next meeting.
Deputy Chairperson, I would particularly like to commend the role played by women members of Parliament and provincial legislatures in mainstreaming gender issues, and also in setting an example to the people of our country that women from different class backgrounds and political persuasions can work together to advance the cause of women, without undue name calling, point scoring and heckling.
Whilst the structures are there, the political will to change things is perhaps more important. In this regard, my party the African National Congress has been consistent in ensuring increased representation of women.
In 1994 we said that a third of all African National Congress (ANC) members of Parliament, Provincial Legislatures and local government needed to be women.
We are now working to ensure that this is increased to 50% - an issue accepted without controversy by our recent National General Council – clearly an indication that this is an idea whose time had come. I therefore challenge other political parties represented in this House to ensure that women are adequately represented amongst the ranks of their representatives. The same challenge goes to the private sector. Whilst government has done much to meet these targets, the private sector needs to play its part as well.
At this point, allow me also to salute the non-governmental organisation (NGOs) working in the women’s sector. The tireless energy shown by many of these organisations which have accomplished much with very limited resources sets an example for all of us to follow.
Deputy Chairperson, in our report to the United Nations we acknowledged that there are enormous challenges that still lie ahead in our pursuit of gender equality.
We noted that while the gender gap is narrowing, structural and systemic gender inequality persists particularly at the level of attitudes and with regard to women’s enjoyment of socio-economic rights and freedoms. We also indicated that this was to be expected as a decade is too short a time-frame for addressing the legacy of centuries of a combination of patriarchy, colonialism and apartheid. The mindsets of the past have to be broken.
I must emphasise that we remain unwavering in our commitment to deal with these challenges. The BPA report states that government has placed the achievement of non-sexism amongst its eight national objectives for the next decade of democracy. The empowerment of women, particularly with respect to the economy and related socio-economic rights and the mainstreaming of gender into every facet of governance, is set be at the centre of government action in the next decade.
The challenge of delivering on social and economic rights and freedoms of women, especially black women, is one of the areas that South Africa’s gender transformation agenda will give priority to in the next decade.
I am convinced that if we work together in all sectors and political parties, we will be able to achieve these objectives.
Honourable Members, you would be aware of Government’s municipal Imbizo programme, aimed at assessing conditions at a local government level regarding to the implementation of our programmes on the ground and ensure that interventions such as Project Consolidate are taking off.
We believe that this sphere of government, which is closest to the people, requires our utmost attention. The President has already undertaken three municipal izimbizo. I will be visiting Beaufort West tomorrow, Friday the 5th of August for the fourth Presidency municipal Imbizo.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) recently launched a “Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign” designed to ensure that the conditions and challenges faced by residents of an area are known and attended to. Whilst not recruiting for the SACP, I believe it would be important for members of this House to follow a similar programme so that the problems experienced particularly by women in our communities can be addressed.
Honourable Members, as we salute our past heroines and heroes in the struggle for gender equality, let us not forget our future. We need to ensure that our children - both boys and girls know that equality also means equality between men and women.
Colleagues, I recently attended the “Shoprite Checkers/SABC 2 Woman of the Year Award” and was extremely impressed with the contributions made by ordinary citizens in our society. By way of example, let me highlight the work of just two of the prize winners.
Fiona MacDonald who won the Health category was retrenched in 1997 and together with two colleagues started an NGO called Choice Comprehensive Health Care which runs a home based care project that attends to no less than 5 000 impoverished rural people every month.
Beka Ntsanwisi won the social welfare category. Despite suffering from advanced colon cancer she chooses to make a difference in the lives of thousands of community members and most people in the area refer to her as Limpopo’s Mother Theresa. Let us learn from these women and show how we can make a difference to the lives of the people in our communities.
I want to end by saluting our women. You are the backbone of our society. You are the most cohesive social force in our communities and your leadership is found everywhere - in our churches and other religious institutions, in the stokvels, burial societies and many other societal formations. In all these institutions, formal or informal, women make a difference to the lives of many.
Let us continue to work tirelessly together, men and women, to build a South Africa that truly belongs to all.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
4 August 2005
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Debate on National Women's Day, NCOP
Address by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, to the National Council of Provinces, in the “Women Building a South Africa that truly belongs to all” Debate, Cape Town
Deputy Chairperson,
Honourable Premier of Gauteng, Mbhazima Shilowa,
Honourable Premier of the North-West, Edna Molewa
Honourable Premier of the Northern Cape, Dipuo Peters,
Honourable Members,
The winner of last year’s Business Woman of the Year Award, Futhi Mtoba,
The Winner of this year’s Business Woman of the Year Award, Monhla Hlahla,
Honoured Guests,
It is a singular pleasure and privilege for me to participate in this debate. I should like to congratulate this House on holding this debate, just a few days before National Women’s Day.
This is a period not only for celebration but for renewed commitment and reflection among all our citizens – both women and men. We need to look back at our history, and assess our achievements in the context of where we have come from, while at the same time looking ahead.
We also need to plan our way forward, in the global context of the Beijing Plan of Action and the Beijing +10 assessment. In the spirit of celebration, let me warmly welcome our special guests, Ms Monhla Hlahla, Businesswoman of the Year 2005, and Ms Futhi Mtoba, Businesswoman of the Year 2004. Their achievements make them the role models of women throughout our country, and they are proof that women have what it takes to succeed in the corporate world.
Honourable Members, we are in a season of milestones. We look back over 49 years and celebrate the historic and courageous march of women to the Union Buildings on August 9, 1956; the fifty years since the adoption of that epochal human rights document, the Freedom Charter in Kliptown on June 26, 1955; and the 51 years since women adopted our Women’s Charter on 17 April 1954.
In all of this is reflected the central role that women have played in the national democratic struggle, and indeed in defining the character of the country’s democracy.
We must remember also the countless other women, at all levels of society, who endured imposed servility for decades and centuries. We remember those who sacrificed in order to ensure that women enjoy the rights they do today. We also use this occasion to celebrate the advances that have been made by our country since 1994 with regards to gender transformation, while also taking note of the challenges that remain.
Honourable Members, South Africa’s second Progress Report to the United Nations, on measures that have been implemented since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPA) in 1995, provides an extensive overview of progress achieved during the entire decade of implementing the Beijing Platform for Action, which is also our decade of freedom.
The Commission on the Status of Women 49th Session held in New York from 28 February to 11 March 2005, further reaffirmed the decisions taken at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. The significance of the reaffirmation of the Beijing Plan of Action for South Africa’s national gender programme is that it provides further impetus to the country to take forward its commitments made in Beijing in 1995, with respect to, amongst others, the following:
* The eradication of poverty
* The eradication and prevention of violence against women and children;
* strengthening of the International Research and Training Institution for the advancement of Women
* Women, the girl-child and HIV and AIDS (tabled by Southern African Development Community - SADC)
* Mainstreaming a gender perspective into national policies and programmes
In line with the commitments made at Beijing, our government continues to work tirelessly at all levels, to foster a climate that affirms women and facilitates their full participation in, and equal benefit from the fruits of democracy.
Our 2005 progress report to the United Nations indicated visible signs that the tide has undoubtedly shifted with regard to women’s emancipation. This includes indicators of improved women’s integration into all aspects of democracy and of their enjoyment of basic human rights such as access to clean water, education, primary health care and civic participation.
Women are generally more involved in governance, including development planning. In fact with women’s representation in the executive at above forty percent and in Parliament over thirty percent, South Africa has within a short space of time significantly altered the gender profile of the highest institution of political power in the land. Some of the critical areas covered in the country report to the UN include the following:
Women and Poverty
Programmes include the Expanded Public Works Programme, which has given many women an opportunity to enter the labour market. Visible changes include an improved quality of life for many women characterised by, amongst other things, increased access to clean water, sanitation, primary health care, education, civic participation and incomes.
Education and Training of Women South Africa has implemented various transformation interventions to address the legacy of apartheid and the patriarchal education system. In addition to formal schooling, Adult Basic Education and Training and vocational skills development have been implemented rigorously. In the process, women, particularly, the girl-child have become significant beneficiaries.
Women and Health The policy on universal access to primary health care introduced in 1994 forms the basis for health care delivery programmes. This has had a major impact on the South African population and a particularly significant impact on women’s health. In this regard, achievements also include access to Reproductive Health Care Programmes and a marked increase in access to antenatal care services.
Violence against Women South Africa’s approach to addressing violence against women and children is multi-faceted and integrated. Success indicators in this regard include among others, increased national awareness and condemnation of violence against women. Government has put the legislative framework in place to deal with this scourge.
In terms of the law reform process dealing with gender based violence, decisive statutory interventions such as the Domestic Violence Act, and the Maintenance Act, as well as the introduction of minimum sentences for serious crimes in the criminal justice sector have since been made.
The Domestic Violence Act is intended to provide victims of domestic violence the maximum protection from domestic abuse that the law can provide.
Amendments to existing legislation have also resulted in significant headway in combating violence against women and children.
Two such examples are the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, which limits the granting of bail for persons accused of having committed specified serious offences, which includes rape and the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act, which provides for minimum sentences for murder and rape with aggravating circumstances.
There is also a number important Bills that have been or will be tabled at Parliament soon in order to plug the gaps in the criminal justice system. These include a proposed Sexual Offences Bill which is primarily aimed at encouraging victims of sexual offences to report the occurrence of such offences to the authorities and to prevent secondary victimisation upon entering the Criminal Justice System. The Bill broadens the definition of rape and declares certain victims, such as children and women as vulnerable witnesses. This will entail more protection for such victims in court, such as the obligatory appointment of intermediaries and giving evidence through a CCTV-system. = I am mentioning these in detail Deputy Chairperson given the challenges we face in our country, of violence against women. As we speak, one perpetrator of such crimes, Donovan Moodley, the self-confessed killer of young Leigh Matthews, was sentenced to life imprisonment earlier today. We congratulate our law enforcement agencies for putting him behind bars where he belongs.
Sadly, no information has come to light regarding what happened to Constable Francis Rasuge of Themba in Hammanskraal, who disappeared in August last year. We reiterate our call for anyone with information to please come forward and assist the police in solving this case.
Constable Rasuge and Ms Matthews are powerful symbols of the crimes committed against women in our country. We all have a responsibility to work tirelessly to ensure the total eradication of violence against women.
I urge Honourable Members to intensify the oversight role to ensure that the laws put in place are implemented, and that they protect women.
Women and Armed Conflict The last decade has seen increased involvement of women at all levels of decision-making relating to armed conflict. This has included women’s participation in peace negotiations in war-torn parts of the African continent and in facilitating dialogue. We have experienced, with a great deal of pride, greater women’s deployment to participate at operational levels in the United Nations Peace-Keeping Missions and African Union sponsored peace-keeping missions.
Women and the Economy
State measures to equalise opportunities for women have covered issues such as Equal Pay for Equal Work or Work of Equal Value, Equality and Non-Discrimination laws, Enhancing Women’s Participation in Fiscal and Economic Policy and facilitating Women’s Access to Economic Resources.
Women in Power and Decision-Making
Women’s access to political power, decision-making and meaningful participation in governance has dramatically improved since 1994. Affirmative action interventions by this government resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number of women elected to national and provincial parliaments, and in other spheres of decision-making.
Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women
South Africa has established an extensive network of interrelated institutions that have been established to facilitate gender transformation, including gender mainstreaming at all levels of governance. These include an Independent Commission on Gender equality, the Office on the Status of Women, the Parliamentary Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of life and the Status of Women and Gender Focal Points in all government departments and at all levels of governance.
Human Rights of Women
We have one of the world’s most progressive constitutions. The founding values of South Africa’s constitutional democracy as articulated in the Constitution include non-sexism, non-racialism, human dignity and the achievement of substantive equality and advancement of human rights and freedoms.
Women and the Media
Law reform and transformation policies have laid the basis for equalising opportunities between men and women in the media while at the same time serving to discourage the media from stereotyping women and discouraging practices such as child pornography, which undermine women’s dignity and gender equality. The South African Broadcasting Act requires the public broadcaster to strive to ensure that its programming does not promote violence against women; depict women as passive victims of violence and abuse; degrade women and undermine their role and position in society; promote sexism and gender inequality; and reinforce gender oppression and stereotypes.
Women and the Environment
The last ten years have seen natural resource management and conservation in South Africa move squarely into an arena of respect for human rights, inclusive access to natural resources, environmental sustainability and gender equity.
The girl-child
Special attention has been paid to the girl-child in the implementation of the National Programme of Action on children’s rights with particular attention paid to child abuse in the family and the community. Time does not permit us to go through all the key provisions of the report. I felt if necessary to share just a few issues raised to remind the esteemed members of this House how much progress we have made. Colleagues, in addition to the extensive gender machinery that exists in our country, the President last year convened an inaugural meeting of the Presidential Women’s Working Group, to enable consultation between the Presidency and women leaders representing diverse sectors. It has now been decided that the Working Group must begin to work in earnest. To this end a date is being set for its next meeting.
Deputy Chairperson, I would particularly like to commend the role played by women members of Parliament and provincial legislatures in mainstreaming gender issues, and also in setting an example to the people of our country that women from different class backgrounds and political persuasions can work together to advance the cause of women, without undue name calling, point scoring and heckling.
Whilst the structures are there, the political will to change things is perhaps more important. In this regard, my party the African National Congress has been consistent in ensuring increased representation of women.
In 1994 we said that a third of all African National Congress (ANC) members of Parliament, Provincial Legislatures and local government needed to be women.
We are now working to ensure that this is increased to 50% - an issue accepted without controversy by our recent National General Council – clearly an indication that this is an idea whose time had come. I therefore challenge other political parties represented in this House to ensure that women are adequately represented amongst the ranks of their representatives. The same challenge goes to the private sector. Whilst government has done much to meet these targets, the private sector needs to play its part as well.
At this point, allow me also to salute the non-governmental organisation (NGOs) working in the women’s sector. The tireless energy shown by many of these organisations which have accomplished much with very limited resources sets an example for all of us to follow.
Deputy Chairperson, in our report to the United Nations we acknowledged that there are enormous challenges that still lie ahead in our pursuit of gender equality.
We noted that while the gender gap is narrowing, structural and systemic gender inequality persists particularly at the level of attitudes and with regard to women’s enjoyment of socio-economic rights and freedoms. We also indicated that this was to be expected as a decade is too short a time-frame for addressing the legacy of centuries of a combination of patriarchy, colonialism and apartheid. The mindsets of the past have to be broken.
I must emphasise that we remain unwavering in our commitment to deal with these challenges. The BPA report states that government has placed the achievement of non-sexism amongst its eight national objectives for the next decade of democracy. The empowerment of women, particularly with respect to the economy and related socio-economic rights and the mainstreaming of gender into every facet of governance, is set be at the centre of government action in the next decade.
The challenge of delivering on social and economic rights and freedoms of women, especially black women, is one of the areas that South Africa’s gender transformation agenda will give priority to in the next decade.
I am convinced that if we work together in all sectors and political parties, we will be able to achieve these objectives.
Honourable Members, you would be aware of Government’s municipal Imbizo programme, aimed at assessing conditions at a local government level regarding to the implementation of our programmes on the ground and ensure that interventions such as Project Consolidate are taking off.
We believe that this sphere of government, which is closest to the people, requires our utmost attention. The President has already undertaken three municipal izimbizo. I will be visiting Beaufort West tomorrow, Friday the 5th of August for the fourth Presidency municipal Imbizo.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) recently launched a “Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign” designed to ensure that the conditions and challenges faced by residents of an area are known and attended to. Whilst not recruiting for the SACP, I believe it would be important for members of this House to follow a similar programme so that the problems experienced particularly by women in our communities can be addressed.
Honourable Members, as we salute our past heroines and heroes in the struggle for gender equality, let us not forget our future. We need to ensure that our children - both boys and girls know that equality also means equality between men and women.
Colleagues, I recently attended the “Shoprite Checkers/SABC 2 Woman of the Year Award” and was extremely impressed with the contributions made by ordinary citizens in our society. By way of example, let me highlight the work of just two of the prize winners.
Fiona MacDonald who won the Health category was retrenched in 1997 and together with two colleagues started an NGO called Choice Comprehensive Health Care which runs a home based care project that attends to no less than 5 000 impoverished rural people every month.
Beka Ntsanwisi won the social welfare category. Despite suffering from advanced colon cancer she chooses to make a difference in the lives of thousands of community members and most people in the area refer to her as Limpopo’s Mother Theresa. Let us learn from these women and show how we can make a difference to the lives of the people in our communities.
I want to end by saluting our women. You are the backbone of our society. You are the most cohesive social force in our communities and your leadership is found everywhere - in our churches and other religious institutions, in the stokvels, burial societies and many other societal formations. In all these institutions, formal or informal, women make a difference to the lives of many.
Let us continue to work tirelessly together, men and women, to build a South Africa that truly belongs to all.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
4 August 2005
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