Date: 04/05/2009

Source: The Presidency

Title: SA: Tshabalala-Msimang: Address by the Minister in the Presidency to the National Gender Machinery, Commission on the Status of Women Report Back Meeting

Programme director
Honourable Ministers
Deputy Ministers
The Commission for Gender Equality
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Good Morning and welcome to what is most certainly the last National Gender Machinery (NGM) meeting under the current and outgoing administration. I must also take this opportunity to thank all of us for the successful elections that was held two weeks ago. We look forward to the announcement of the new Cabinet, the establishment of the new Parliaments and to the inauguration of the President. It makes us proud as the NGM and is cause for celebration today to note that women comprised 55% of registered voters.

We are indeed very proud of our achievements in the election as far as representation is concerned. According to the latest information from Gender links, South Africa has "soared from 17th place to third position in the global ranking of women in Parliament following 22 April elections."

This translates to an 11% increase in representation of women in the national assembly from 34% to 45%. South Africa is now only behind Rwanda at 56% and Sweden at 47%. This, distinguished guests is a remarkable feat for women in the country given that prior to 1994 there was only 2,7% women in Parliament, in 1994 we stood at 27% and fifteen years later we stand at 45%.

At the provincial level, women's representation increased from 30% to 43% after this election. We must congratulate the Limpopo province which has achieved a 53% representation of women, surpassing the Southern African Development Community (SADC) parity target. In this light, therefore allow me colleagues to share with you some of the highlights of the past six months. Even while I was still in the portfolio of health, I was asked to lead South Africa's participation in the discussions on the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development at the SADC Heads of States Summit in August 2008 in Sandton. Many of you will recall that the Protocol was adopted by Heads of States at this Summit.

Colleagues, since then we have collaborated with the SADC Gender Unit in hosting a Regional Workshop on the 50/50 representation of women in decision-making levels in December 2008 in Johannesburg, where we adopted the regional plan of action in this regard. Following this, we launched a national multiparty campaign in National Parliament on the 50/50 parity issue.

This has been a huge success and I want to encourage the NGM to ensure that we drive this campaign vigorously over the coming months. It gives me great pleasure to state that we are firmly on course to achieving the SADC parity target in political levels. However, we need to focus on local government elections to ensure that we maintain this momentum. Furthermore, we have yet to reach parity in the Public Sector but the greater challenge for the country still remains the representation of women in decision-making levels in the Private Sector, business and in civil society organisations in general.

I am also pleased to inform you that we have begun the processes towards our ratification of the Protocol. On 15 April 2009, Cabinet approved this process for submission to National Parliament. This will be taken forward in the next few months.

Colleagues

While still carrying the portfolio of Health, I was also requested by the Former Minister in The Presidency in September 2008 to present the draft Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Report to Cabinet. The report was approved by cabinet on 17 September 2008. Coincidentally this was also one of the tasks that was completed during the past six months and I am happy to announce that we have now submitted the report through the Department of Foreign Affairs to the UN CEDAW Committee.

In this regard, allow me Programme Director, to also inform the meeting of the bilateral held between the Chairperson of the CEDAW Committee and I as an aside to the 53rd Session of the UN CSW in New York this year. I was informed that the CEDAW Committee will look through our report and subsequently forward us with a set of questions to which we are expected to provide responses. Following this, South Africa will be called upon to present the report before the Committee in Geneva.

This is expected to take place sometime in 2010. However, we can expect the set of questions sometime during this year. While still in New York I had requested the OSW to send out correspondence in this regard to all Ministries and Departments informing them of the status quo and alerting them of their assistance that will be needed in the coming months.

Colleagues, it is also with great pleasure that we issue to you today the final printed copy of the CEDAW Report for the period 1998 to 2008. The OSW will be distributing copies throughout the country and you will be assisting us if you could contact them for your copies. The follow up processes of course therefore involve the country's interaction with this document and for the development of a plan of action to address the challenges.

Programme Director, while I am still on the issue of the CEDAW Report; allow me as well the opportunity to inform the meeting that we are collaborating with the Austrian Government in developing a report to the UN CEDAW Committee on Article five especially on harmful traditional practices. This process has already begun as many of you are aware, but that we are also linking it to the issue of "Ukuthwala", forced and early marriages that we have been focusing on in March/April this year - especially in the Eastern Cape.

In this regard, I am also pleased to announce that we have entered into a pledge with the Traditional Leaders in the community of Flagstaff and Lusikisiki. This was signed on 20 April 2009 in Lusikisiki. Colleagues, this is one of the things that really gave me sleepless nights, especially after getting the news that early and forced marriages practice, which is commonly known as "Ukuthwala" is happening in some parts of this country. When I visited the Palmerton Girls hostel, which is being used as a place of refuge by young girls, to escape being forced into early marriages, I was traumatised.

The girls have shared with me some of the reasons for ending up there, including that they have been victims of forced marriages. The condition in the hostel is appalling in many respects. Conditions are just not conducive to offer psychological, physical, educational and a healthy environment. Most of the girls stated that their own parents contributed to them landing in the hostel which is violation of human rights.

However, it was encouraging to learn that some ground work has already been done regarding this situation. I was informed that this nasty practice has drawn the attention of the District Municipality during the out-reach programmes in the area. Our going there as national was to strengthen and support the provincial interventions.

The Presidency, having consulted with the Premier's office in the Eastern Cape, provincial and national departments, District and Local Municipalities, developed an action plan that would be implemented to curb this problem. We are confident that, we will all subscribe to the intervention strategies that have been proposed. Some of the intervention strategies are long term, but we need to begin as a matter of urgency with areas that are doable.

The Palmerton hostel was officially opened on 20 April 2009, as a joint initiative between The Presidency, Department of Social Development, OR Tambo District Municipality and Methodist Church of South Africa. It is my fervent desire to ensure that the signing of the pledge brings the necessary changes in eliminating these harmful practices.

Colleagues

We have undertaken a number of other tasks throughout the past six months which I have been periodically reporting on progress at NGM meetings, and which I shall not repeat today. However I need to also mention the progress made with regard to the concept paper on the proposed Women's Ministry, which has been finalised and presented to the ANC WL NEC for consideration for implementation in the new administration.

Allow me also to inform you on those tasks which we have not quite been so successful to date, but which will need to be completed in the next few months:

a. We are still to review the National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality
b. We are still to compile the directory of funds available for women's empowerment
c. We are still to finalise the 15 year gender review report although this process has begun and we have a working draft in place. A number of departments have not still forwarded their inputs in this regard.
d. We are still in the process of finalizing the Beijing +15 Report although this too has begun.

Colleagues,

One of the biggest undertakings this year for us has been coordinating the national delegation's participation at the 53rd session of the UN CSW in New York from the second to 13 March 2009.

As a principal global policy-making body, the Commission annually holds a two week meeting which provides member states with an opportunity to evaluate progress made, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies on advancing women's empowerment and gender equality worldwide.

This year the CSW focused on three themes:
* Equal sharing of responsibilities between men and women, including care-giving in the context of HIV and AIDS.
* Equal Representation of Women and Men in decision-making at all levels; and
* Gender Perspectives of the Financial Crisis.

As many of you will recall, I have worked with the National Gender Machinery in preparation for the country's participation from as early as October 2009. To date we were able to hold four such sessions during NGM meetings when the different thematic areas were discussed. Today is actually the fifth meeting on this year's CSW alone, where we will provide you with a report back of what transpired during the CSW session. Some of the issues under discussion have serious implications for the women of our country.

Once all speakers have given us their input today, this meeting must look at what it is we need to prioritise towards achieving our goals. In this regard, we must identify policy issues, propose strategies and practices to ensure full participation and partnership of both women and men in productive and reproductive life, including shared responsibility for the care and nurturing of children and maintenance of the household. We must consider the issue of maternity, paternity and family responsibility leave; as well as child care facilities at the workplace towards increasing the shared responsibility between men and women. We must also look at how we can increase the role men play in respect to advancing women's empowerment in general, but in promoting sharing of responsibilities specifically.

We must identify what needs to be taken forward towards promoting appropriate measures to lesson the daily burden of domestic responsibilities, the greatest share of which falls on women and to truly recognize the unpaid work by women, and to look at the issue of flexi-time and flexi-hours of work for women and men in order to accelerate our progress towards empowerment of women and achievement of gender equality.

We need to also look at what is needed in terms of driving the 50/50 issue in the country and what realistic targets should we propose to Cabinet for the different sectors. We must also look at what measures do we put in place to ensure that we reach our targets.

The UN CSW also focused on the impact of the global financial crisis on women. Discussions on this topic at a previous NGM meeting raised the point on whether the current global economic meltdown should be looked at only as a crisis, or both a crisis and an opportunity at the same time. How do we take this forward?

Programme director,

I want to conclude at this point and allow the meeting to discuss the outcomes of the CSW session. However, I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all members of the NGM for so readily assisting me in the tasks we had undertaken. I especially would like to thank the delegates to the CSW for their hard work and dedication during the two weeks in New York.

May the struggle for women's emancipation and empowerment continue!

Thank you.