Date
: 28/09/2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mlambo-Ngcuka: Launch of Black Business Women
Association
Address delivered by the Deputy President, Ms Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the launch of Black Business Women Association
(BBWA), Moyo's Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch
Minister of Minerals and Energy, Buyelwa Sonjica,
Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Lulu Xingwana,
Premier of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool, Deputy Minister of
Social Development, Jean Benjamin,
Deputy Minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge,
MEC for Economic Development and Planning,
Tasneem Essop,
Local Government and Housing, Richard Dyantyi,
Chairperson of BBWA, Hilda Ndude,
Distinguished guests,
Leadership of Black Business Women Association,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to be standing here tonight, invited to
participate in the launch of the Black Business Women Association
in the Western Cape. There could not have been a better province to
launch an initiative of this nature for various reasons.
The Western Cape has a bright outlook in terms of various economic
development opportunities but black businesswomen in the Western
Cape remain on the periphery of the economy. Their economic
activities are largely concentrated in the areas of crafts,
hawking, personal services and working in the retail sector. They
form the bulk of people in the second economy, and are still
outside the first economy.
This scenario needs to change as soon as possible. The creation of
an enabling environment, therefore, coupled with a structured body
that will be a voice for black businesswomen is of critical
importance and an urgent matter if black businesswomen are to
benefit as an equally important community in the Western Cape
economy. I, therefore, applaud the Black Business Women Association
(BBWA) for this launch and forward-looking initiative.
The fight that the women marchers of 1956 embarked on is in many
ways still relevant to the situation today. Those women were not
only fighting for political emancipation but economic emancipation
as well. This is the fight that you are engaged in now.
As you do this an added responsibility rests on the shoulders of
those black women who succeed in the business. These women have to
continue to be the light as they climb. They have to be mentors and
assist other women who are interested in following this business
route.
However, for this to be a success, the current situation needs to
drastically improve.
*Gender make up of South African women *Women in the South African
economy
*(I) Education by gender:
*Women in South Africa
No schooling
1996 ? 25,35 percent
2001 ? 11,93 percent
Some primary
1996 - 40,65 percent
2001 - 51,65 percent
Complete Primary
1996 - 7,9 percent
2001 - 8,11 percent
Some Secondary
1996 - 23,36 percent
2001 - 24,77 percent
Standard 10
1996 - 2,57 percent
2001 - 3,25 percent
Higher
1996 ? 0,1 percent
2001 - 0,28 percent
*(II) Women unemployment from 1996 - September 2005
African - 37,1 percent
Coloured - 24,6 percent
Indian - 18,6 percent
Whites - 6,9 percent
Average women employment is 31,7 percent
*(III) Earnings by women
* Unskilled women only ? 87 percent of male counterparts
* Semi skilled - 106,4 percent
* Skilled - 82,8 percent
* Highly skilled - 73,8 percent
* Managers - 80,3 percent
Furthermore, disabled persons make up five percent of the South
African population. Clearly disabled women have an additional
burden.
The decrease in representivity of executive managers from 19,8
percent in 2005 to 16,8 percent in 2006 is a worrying factor.
Particularly, because the numbers indicate that there has been a
significant increase in the number of executive manager positions
(from 5 558 in 2005 to 7 890 in 2006). This implies that there were
opportunities to hire female candidates but the appointments
shifted the pendulum away from the desired goals of gender equity.
Even the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) which generally do well on
the improvement of representivity made more appointments of male
executive managers than female.
The SOEs increased their executive management positions from 99 in
2005 to 149 in 2006. From the 50 new appointments only 10 were
women.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) / Securities Exchange (JSE)
companies moved from 1 102 female executive managers in 2005 to 1
323 female executive managers in 2006, however, more men were
appointed to executive management positions than women in that
period. This indicates that there is still a culture of
prioritising men for leadership positions and that unless criteria
and selection processes are monitored it will be difficult to
maintain the momentum of improvement. While women make up 52
percent of the adult population in South Africa and only 41 percent
of the working South African population, they constitute only 16,8
percent of all executive managers and only 11,5 percent of all
directors in the country and only 6,4 percent of chief executive
officers and chairs of boards are women.
All of this does not take away our advances in women development
and support but it is to ring alarm bells on the challenges we
still have to make.
What is to be done? What will our legacy be?
How do we deal with the pyramid and the women masses at the bottom
of that pyramid? How can we change the pyramid into a diamond
shape? How can we place women in a much better position in
society?
On 9 August 1956 thousands of women from all walks of life, all
racial groups, even those who were not required to carry a pass
marched to the Union Building in Pretoria. Women took part in the
national liberation struggle in the struggle for peace and
democracy in our country. This is what women are about, solidarity,
working together, unity in action.
The Progressive Women's Movement in its submission to the Head of
State noted some of the advances towards women's empowerment and
gender equality - especially in the form of women's rights as
guaranteed in the South African Constitution as well as other
national legislation and women's participation in political and
decision making positions - however they pointed out that many
challenges remain ... in their declaration they say that patriarchy
still remains dominant and is so wide spread within our society it
is accepted as "normal" and enforced through all our institutions.
They also articulate many challenges, which women continue to face
even within this democracy.
They express a concern that "many women particularly working class,
rural, farm and poor women have not yet tasted the fruits of our
liberation. Many of them have not yet accessed basic serves such as
sanitation, clean water, land, electricity, basic literacy, social
security, etc". Their words echoed the declaration of the women who
marched in 1956, "We shall not rest until and we have won for all
our sisters the right to the enjoyment of democracy, equality,
peace and development". This is what the Progressive Women's
Movement told us on the occasion of their launch and during the
proceedings at the national celebrations of the 50th anniversary of
the Women's March to the Union Buildings.
Equality and equity are the cornerstones of our democracy that is
why we introduced the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment
(BBBEE) legislation which I always say "is a piece of legislation
to which we are all married to and to which will remain
married".
*Business opportunities
Black businesswomen have still not fully benefited from the Black
Economic Empowerment (BEE) process especially in the Western Cape.
The Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have traditionally been strong
on clothing manufacturing.
Women in these two provinces now have an opportunity to revive this
garments-manufacturing industry with the agreement that we have now
struck with the Chinese to reduce the quota of Chinese imports.
This is your lifetime opportunity. Get in touch with the relevant
union in this industry and ensure that you get this going once
again.
Another viable business idea for the Western Cape is Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO). This is an opportunity for women here to
start their own BPO companies and partner with Indian or Chinese
companies in delivering this essential service. You may have to
learn Chinese in the process but if you do that you will already
have a great competitive edge over a lot of people.
Women also have an opportunity to enter the hospitality industry
especially with 2010 just around the corner. The Western Cape being
one of the most beautiful provinces has huge room for the inclusion
of black women in particular, in the provision of goods and
services. We have already sent a number of women to gain these
skills internationally.
Looking at the programme of the conference, you all had today and
I'm quite pleased that you have taken stock of the progress made in
terms of women economic empowerment in various sectors. I want to
believe that you have interrogated the outcomes thoroughly.
Although I was not part of your deliberations, I'm sure there is
still a lot that needs to be done.
Empowering women and in particular black women is an economic
necessity. They are still the primary caregivers of children and
the elders. We know that by empowering women, government is
including the whole family in economic upliftment, resulting in an
automatic multiple affect hence the saying, "You liberate a man,
you liberate an individual, you liberate a woman you liberate a
nation", is still crucial today.
*Government initiatives to empower women
I wish to share with you some of the efforts that government has
embarked on that assist women towards economic emancipation.
A. The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has published the
directory of women-owned businesses to enable companies and
government to procure from women-owned companies. This is surely an
effort that can be massified.
B. The dti has financed two studies which indicate the place of
women in society. They concluded that women-owned businesses are
mostly informal and survivalist, which then points to a policy
direction of investing in instruments to develop and grow women
businesses.
C. The other study financed by dti and women business associations
concluded that women were still underrepresented in corporates,
both as directors and managers. The Joint Initiative on Priority
Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) response is the placement of women
locally and internationally for work experience and for confidence
building. We have already placed women in economies like India,
United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany and the United Kingdom
(UK).
D. Government has recently launched a co-operative initiative
called Jobs for Growth which aims at mobilising women enterprises
at grassroots level and linking them to the mainstream
economy.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
28 September 2006
Edited by: Colleen Smith
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