Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government 27 July 1999
JOHANNESBURG CITY HALL
Chairperson
Today marks yet another milestone in the history of our country, particularly for women who as we all know has borne the brunt of oppression and exploitation in the hands of the apartheid regime, the bourgeoisie and men. I stand here with a great sense of duty for a crucial component of the unfortunate legacy in society, a duty to rid our country of the ills of discrimination of one section of the population by another. How unfortunate, that over and over again we are still faced, not just with the ugly yoke of oppression that women have had to endure, but also that violence against them seems to intensify by the day.
The time has come for us to intensify the struggle for the rights of women. All of us have heard many sentences and paragraphs in speeches, which purport to be dealing with the issue of women in our society. In most of them one gets a sense of a very partenalistic and condescending attitude even as we commit ourselves to gender equality. We must all accept that issues of the rights of women and violence against them are not just side issues that must occur outside the whole agenda of the transformation of society and the state. These range from political issues, economic issues, management of our political and economic life, etc. If the center-piece of our programs for the economy is the pursuit of development then we should know better that everyone regardless of their sex is part of the wealth base that must be developed as part of our commitment to "a better life for all".
The role of women in the struggle for human emancipation is indisputable. In Mozabique, South Africa, Latin America and Asia we have countless examples of the core role played by women in such struggles for liberation, in spite of their own oppression by the very societies they fought so hard to liberate. Therefore the challenges of gender that we confront are not sectarian issues to be dealt with, only when we are through with the "real issues". They are the real issues of society in all its manifestations. At the same time we must always be unequivocal in our assertion that there is nothing like women issues. All issues related to abuse, suffering and discrimination are societal issues. To the extent that there is such thing as women's issues, then all issues are women 's issues.
I am raising this because of the usual portrayal of women as the weak in life and in need of protection. The issues affecting women are among a list of all great challenges facing society and government. They are part and parcel of the political puzzle that we have to deal with. We are not going to solve it by throwing some partenalistic and condescending life in some speech as if they are like the weather. They are part of the broad national/ global political climate we are duty-bound to engage.
As we talk about labour-market issues we must know that women are part of that. As we talk about multi-skilling they are part of that too. We would not be serious about any transformation if it did not entail genuine economic empowerment. I believe that the issues of gender are our collective responsibility. But if males in our society do not pursue such issues, then we must know that this is because they have not felt it as yet. It is then crucial to know that at moments when women face a total resistance or lack of vigour they must asset their leadership on issues where our male dominated society seems reluctant.
But there is need for all of us to reengineer the gender issues to be part of our broad thinking and part of our agenda. Where women themselves have tended, through sectarian and separatist notions to negotiate themselves out of the main agenda, they must correct such notions.
There have been many schools of thought on gender issues. Some have only thought there is seriousness about such issues when a few women are put in some powerful appearing position when the majority of rural and urban women continue to face the age-old repression and violence.
Some have only concentrated on the linguistics of the gender struggle, making sure that they correct everyone who makes the mistake of say "him" instead of (her/ him) or chairperson instead of "chairman". Sometimes such schools of thought have themselves trivialized the issues of society's violence against women.
While some of these things are crucial, it is important for us to know that when abuse of women happens, abuse of society happens. That when we pay no attention to the plight of women, we are like a person who while working hard to lay a foundation for a strong house puts a landmine in it. What a contradiction The Gauteng Provincial Government since 1994 has made great strides in putting in place mechanism of ensuring that gender issues are an integral part of our delivery programs. We continue to respect the role of women in our society. We will continue to place them as part of our delivery programe. The programme on gender equity must remain an integral part of our departments. The respective MEC's will be pursuing such programmes and writing with the ones, which are already in progress.
I want to take a moment to raise the issue of HIV/ AIDS. As I speak to you there is a training workshop involving government personnel on this deadly virus. We cannot over-emphasize the seriousness of this issue. I raise the above because it has not dawned on some sections of society that this scourge threatens the very fabric of society and has implication for economic stability. We must deal with these issues now or there is great possibility that our democratic gains might perish in no time. I want to challenge all of you, as the theme says, that it must mark the beginning of a round bell, the breaking of resistance. It must be declaration of war against the beastly criminals who rape and kill. It must be a declaration of war against domestic violence, whether victims are women, children or men.
Gender issues must stand firm in the national agenda. We owe it to the country. We owe it to activists like Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, MaFlo and many more; some of who are still with us fighting even harder for genders equity.
I thank you