Date: 04/08/2005
Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government
Title: Peters: Debate on National Women’s Day, NCOP
Premier Dipuo Peters’ address at the occasion of the sitting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP)
Chairperson and deputy chairperson of the National Council of Provinces; Honourable Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka;
Premiers of provinces;
Members of the NCOP;
Distinguished guests;
Friends and comrades;
We are meeting here today, just two days after we held a successful provincial launch of South African women in Dialogue (SAWID). As the people of the Northern Cape we were exceptionally pleased to have in the presence of our Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka who gave an inspiring keynote address.
Addressing the gathering of women from all sectors, business, agriculture, mining, domestic workers, professionals, women in government, media, religious organizations, traditional leaders and many other fraternities, our Deputy President gave the women of our province courage and hope, She taught us the true meaning of bravery, sacrifice and the determination of women in pursuit of the noble goal of equality, freedom and justice.
Indeed our Women’s month programme kicked off at a high note.
On behalf of the people of our province I extend our warmest gratitude to you for your commitment in advancing the development of women in our country.
The challenges you outlined at our launch have lead to several resolutions which will give strategic direction for our women and the establishment of Youth South African women in Dialogue (YSAWID) in our province.
Our discussions were on various topics such as gender based violence, young women’s experience, social/economic development, moral regeneration and the structure of SAWID.
Chairperson
The history of the oppression and our people’s struggle against racial and national oppression are well documented.
However, the history of the role and the leadership of the women’s movement and struggles against the most brutal system of racial, gender and national oppression have in many instances not adequately engaged and told so as to ensure the legacy of those laid the lives for the attainment of freedom are adequately acknowledged and celebrated.
For this reason and many others, during this month of August, women’s month, we should strive to celebrate and rekindle that undying spirit that propelled those who came before to selflessly struggle for the emancipation of all of the people of South Africa, particularly the women! 'Wathin't a bafazi, way ithint'imbolodo uzo kufa' (Now you have touched the women (Strydom), you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a boulder; you will be crushed). Freedom Song sung by South African women protesting against the extension of Pass Laws to African women, 1956
The unprecedented militancy demonstrated by South African women during the 1950s advanced the liberation struggle significantly. However, to speak generally of South African women is to obscure the real importance of these bitter struggles. Indeed it was the African women in particular those who suffered from both national and sexual oppression who sacrificed most in the struggle against the apartheid South African state's definition of them as 'superfluous appendages' of African male workers.
Among others the African women workers’ had a specific role to play. Exploited as workers, oppressed as Africans, they bore the additional burden of sexual inequalities. It is also true that in apartheid South Africa, women provide another source of readily available cheap labour so necessary for the system to survive. Yet these women, whose consciousness has spanned several dimensions of oppression, played a crucial role in the advancement of the working class struggles spearheaded by South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) then.
Similarly, women played a leading role in the general political struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. Specific campaigns led by the women were those which attacked the basis of their particular oppression.
In their campaigns against the extension of pass laws to African women, against the government-sponsored beer halls and their attacks on the dipping tanks in the rural areas, the women represented a strong, united force to be reckoned with. Their strength and determination inspired the men who fought alongside them (side-by-side) and they advanced the liberation struggle considerably during that period.
The origins of the oppression of the African women and women in general, in apartheid-colonial South Africa are similar to those which characterized all colonized nations during the plunder of previous centuries. Expropriation of tribal lands, slavery, forced labour, destruction of indigenous culture these were the effects of the onslaught of colonialism on the people of Africa and elsewhere.
In apartheid South Africa, the apartheid state ensured the continuation of a system in which African women were oppressed on the basis of their skin colour and their sex. Through the system of migrant labour, the pass laws and other special laws affecting African women, the regime created a particularly unique form of oppression, distinguishing it from other forms of female oppression within capitalist societies.
In apartheid South Africa women were stripped off all those rights considered basic human rights throughout the world, the right to choose where to live and work, the right to live with their partners and husbands, the right to bring up and care for their own children, the right to adequate health care. Yet, these women never gave up and mounted huge struggles at personal and many other enormous sacrifices for the advancement and realization of the goals of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa, which belongs to all who live in it!
Women's resistance campaigns are not a recent phenomenon in South Africa. As far back as 1913 in the Orange Free State, African women in urban locations organized demonstrations against being forced to buy new residence permits each month.
Similarly in 1918, the newly-formed Bantu Women's League of South Africa launched a series of anti-pass campaigns which raised the political consciousness of African women and women in general. In later years, Indian women organized mass campaigns and strikes against the taxes they had to pay. These women, brought to South Africa as indentured labourers, recognized that they were a source of cheap labour on the colonial plantations and fought against these slave conditions. Coloured women too, continually resisted attempts by the successive racist regimes to use them as pawns in the implementation of segregation policies.
The profiles of those who led and played key roles and leaderships during these struggles also informed the non-racial struggles which became the hallmark of our national liberation struggle. Like the men who struggled alongside them, they were silenced in various ways by the ruthless policies of the regime. This did not, however, prevent the women from contributing to the struggle for the emancipation of the workers and the people of South Africa.
They continued to take the lead in resistance campaigns inside South Africa, for example, organizing the women of Crossroads squatter camp most recently in the 1980s, and in exile many women have joined the ANC military wing to carry the struggle forward. It is to these women that we should dip our banners in honour of their sterling contribution towards the attainment of freedom and possibilities of realising the goals of a better life for all!
We salute:
Ray Alexander, Phyllis Altman, Charlotte Maxeke, Rita Ndzanga, Viola Hashe, Mary Moodley, Liz Abrahams, Mabel Balfour, Frances Baard, Elizabeth Mafekeng, Lillian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Sophie Williams and Helen Joseph, Amina Cachalia and many unsung heroines of our struggle.
The month of August – women’s month must provide us with much more determination and commitment to ensure that the struggles of these celebrated women of our country are giving meaning.
Through the many huge social delivery achievements of the government, we should continue to make daily improvements in the conditions of women of all walks of life in our country. The women of rural-hinterland, women who continue to bear the brunt of domestic and others forms of violence, including violence against children must be the key programmatic areas of engagement. In the same way that those who fought the apartheid-colonialism, the women of this conjuncture must both, draw inspiration from past struggles and continue to struggle to achieve the goals we have set ourselves as a people.
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
04 August 2005
Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government
Title: Peters: Debate on National Women’s Day, NCOP
Premier Dipuo Peters’ address at the occasion of the sitting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP)
Chairperson and deputy chairperson of the National Council of Provinces; Honourable Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka;
Premiers of provinces;
Members of the NCOP;
Distinguished guests;
Friends and comrades;
We are meeting here today, just two days after we held a successful provincial launch of South African women in Dialogue (SAWID). As the people of the Northern Cape we were exceptionally pleased to have in the presence of our Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka who gave an inspiring keynote address.
Addressing the gathering of women from all sectors, business, agriculture, mining, domestic workers, professionals, women in government, media, religious organizations, traditional leaders and many other fraternities, our Deputy President gave the women of our province courage and hope, She taught us the true meaning of bravery, sacrifice and the determination of women in pursuit of the noble goal of equality, freedom and justice.
Indeed our Women’s month programme kicked off at a high note.
On behalf of the people of our province I extend our warmest gratitude to you for your commitment in advancing the development of women in our country.
The challenges you outlined at our launch have lead to several resolutions which will give strategic direction for our women and the establishment of Youth South African women in Dialogue (YSAWID) in our province.
Our discussions were on various topics such as gender based violence, young women’s experience, social/economic development, moral regeneration and the structure of SAWID.
Chairperson
The history of the oppression and our people’s struggle against racial and national oppression are well documented.
However, the history of the role and the leadership of the women’s movement and struggles against the most brutal system of racial, gender and national oppression have in many instances not adequately engaged and told so as to ensure the legacy of those laid the lives for the attainment of freedom are adequately acknowledged and celebrated.
For this reason and many others, during this month of August, women’s month, we should strive to celebrate and rekindle that undying spirit that propelled those who came before to selflessly struggle for the emancipation of all of the people of South Africa, particularly the women! 'Wathin't a bafazi, way ithint'imbolodo uzo kufa' (Now you have touched the women (Strydom), you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a boulder; you will be crushed). Freedom Song sung by South African women protesting against the extension of Pass Laws to African women, 1956
The unprecedented militancy demonstrated by South African women during the 1950s advanced the liberation struggle significantly. However, to speak generally of South African women is to obscure the real importance of these bitter struggles. Indeed it was the African women in particular those who suffered from both national and sexual oppression who sacrificed most in the struggle against the apartheid South African state's definition of them as 'superfluous appendages' of African male workers.
Among others the African women workers’ had a specific role to play. Exploited as workers, oppressed as Africans, they bore the additional burden of sexual inequalities. It is also true that in apartheid South Africa, women provide another source of readily available cheap labour so necessary for the system to survive. Yet these women, whose consciousness has spanned several dimensions of oppression, played a crucial role in the advancement of the working class struggles spearheaded by South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) then.
Similarly, women played a leading role in the general political struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. Specific campaigns led by the women were those which attacked the basis of their particular oppression.
In their campaigns against the extension of pass laws to African women, against the government-sponsored beer halls and their attacks on the dipping tanks in the rural areas, the women represented a strong, united force to be reckoned with. Their strength and determination inspired the men who fought alongside them (side-by-side) and they advanced the liberation struggle considerably during that period.
The origins of the oppression of the African women and women in general, in apartheid-colonial South Africa are similar to those which characterized all colonized nations during the plunder of previous centuries. Expropriation of tribal lands, slavery, forced labour, destruction of indigenous culture these were the effects of the onslaught of colonialism on the people of Africa and elsewhere.
In apartheid South Africa, the apartheid state ensured the continuation of a system in which African women were oppressed on the basis of their skin colour and their sex. Through the system of migrant labour, the pass laws and other special laws affecting African women, the regime created a particularly unique form of oppression, distinguishing it from other forms of female oppression within capitalist societies.
In apartheid South Africa women were stripped off all those rights considered basic human rights throughout the world, the right to choose where to live and work, the right to live with their partners and husbands, the right to bring up and care for their own children, the right to adequate health care. Yet, these women never gave up and mounted huge struggles at personal and many other enormous sacrifices for the advancement and realization of the goals of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa, which belongs to all who live in it!
Women's resistance campaigns are not a recent phenomenon in South Africa. As far back as 1913 in the Orange Free State, African women in urban locations organized demonstrations against being forced to buy new residence permits each month.
Similarly in 1918, the newly-formed Bantu Women's League of South Africa launched a series of anti-pass campaigns which raised the political consciousness of African women and women in general. In later years, Indian women organized mass campaigns and strikes against the taxes they had to pay. These women, brought to South Africa as indentured labourers, recognized that they were a source of cheap labour on the colonial plantations and fought against these slave conditions. Coloured women too, continually resisted attempts by the successive racist regimes to use them as pawns in the implementation of segregation policies.
The profiles of those who led and played key roles and leaderships during these struggles also informed the non-racial struggles which became the hallmark of our national liberation struggle. Like the men who struggled alongside them, they were silenced in various ways by the ruthless policies of the regime. This did not, however, prevent the women from contributing to the struggle for the emancipation of the workers and the people of South Africa.
They continued to take the lead in resistance campaigns inside South Africa, for example, organizing the women of Crossroads squatter camp most recently in the 1980s, and in exile many women have joined the ANC military wing to carry the struggle forward. It is to these women that we should dip our banners in honour of their sterling contribution towards the attainment of freedom and possibilities of realising the goals of a better life for all!
We salute:
Ray Alexander, Phyllis Altman, Charlotte Maxeke, Rita Ndzanga, Viola Hashe, Mary Moodley, Liz Abrahams, Mabel Balfour, Frances Baard, Elizabeth Mafekeng, Lillian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Sophie Williams and Helen Joseph, Amina Cachalia and many unsung heroines of our struggle.
The month of August – women’s month must provide us with much more determination and commitment to ensure that the struggles of these celebrated women of our country are giving meaning.
Through the many huge social delivery achievements of the government, we should continue to make daily improvements in the conditions of women of all walks of life in our country. The women of rural-hinterland, women who continue to bear the brunt of domestic and others forms of violence, including violence against children must be the key programmatic areas of engagement. In the same way that those who fought the apartheid-colonialism, the women of this conjuncture must both, draw inspiration from past struggles and continue to struggle to achieve the goals we have set ourselves as a people.
I thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
04 August 2005
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