Pretoria, 9 August 2000
Issued by: Office of the Premier
The President
The Speaker of Parliament
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Distinguished guest
All women of South Africa
Comrades and friends;
I greet you all.
Welcome to this beautiful province of Gauteng those of you have traveled from far places. A special word of welcome goes to all of you who have decided not to see today as just another holiday or shopping day. You have sacrificed many family commitments and decided to spend the day remembering our women and what they mean to us as a nation.
Today is an important day. It is a day to remember the heroic struggles of women in South Africa. Led by heroines like Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Dora Tamana and Bertha Gqxowa among others, on this day, 44 years ago, thousands of women marched against the apartheid regime to demand scraping of pass laws. Armed only with their passes which they were going to dump at Strydom's door, their courage and determination uprooted Strydom out of his sit to flee away with his armed troops in fear.
They displayed rare courage by marching to demand the scraping of the pass laws in the face of brutality and the possibility for torture and the likelihood of life imprisonment. While the protest was known to be against "dom passes" the women were acutely aware that this was part and parcel of a broader struggle for liberation in South Africa.
Accordingly we have to honour them as we are doing, because today many of us are reaping the fruits of their heroic struggles.
The women then, as they do today, represented what as a nation we are capable of becoming -a united non-racial and non-sexist democratic society. This monument shall serve to remind not only those who took active part in the struggle or even those who were mere spectators as well as the perpetrators of oppression about the struggles of women. It will have an important historical meaning to many generations to come. It must serve to create a sense of pride as a public platform to educate our children and their children about where we have come from as a nation.
For the people of Pretoria and Gauteng, the monument also has the possibility of attracting tourists, which means the creation of jobs and income for the local community.
It must create a sense of pride in all of us as South Africans and help to heal the wounds of decades of oppression and sufferings. This must be a place were ordinary South Africans can come with their families to play and enjoy the beauty of South Africa as a non-segregated society.
This monument, perhaps even more importantly, will also serve as a reminder to all of us of the work that still has to be done to ensure that South African women truly lead a better life.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in its Strengthening Women Capacity Programme has found that "women are still the poorest of the world's poor, representing 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people who live in absolute poverty." The report says that, "when nearly 900 million women have incomes of less than $1 a day, the association between gender inequality and poverty remains a harrowing reality." Another issue of grave concern is the increase in violence against women.
The trend for husbands and male partners to shoot their wives and children and later turn the gun onto themselves seems to be becoming fashionable.
Together we must join hands to turn the tide against the notion that women are just mere sex objects and homemakers. It is wrong for any society to see men as more important than women. However if we were to portray a different picture of women as productive members of society with equal opportunities, responsibilities and full obligations in society, equal to men, then we will get somewhere in our efforts to create a non-sexist society.
Recognising women as full human beings will guarantee the respect and enforcement of their economic, political and social rights with the result of a better life for women and a better life for humanity as a whole.
Ernestine Friedl in an article about Society and Sex Roles, asserts that the origin of the marginalisation and exploitation of women by men stems from economic control over resources.
He says: "in any society, status goes to those who control the distribution of valued goods and services... Equality arises when both sexes work side by side in food production... In such circumstances no person or sex has greater access to valued items than do others. But when women make no contribution to the food supply ... they are completely subordinate[to men]... Jobs that do not give women control over valued resources will do little to advance their general status. Only as managers, executives and professionals are women in a position to trade goods, and services, to do other favors, and therefore to obligate others to them. Only as controllers of valued resources can women achieve prestige, power and equality." Friedl is confronting issues of women emancipation from the root causes of the exploitation of women by men and society. Without this kind of confrontation male dominance will continue to exist, and without addressing the economic side of the debate around women exploitation, all we are doing is to pay lip service to the issue of women emancipation.
As we unveil this monument in recognition of the heroic role played by many generations of women, symbolised by that heroic march in 1956, we must recommit ourselves to the struggle for the full emancipation of women.
Once more I welcome you to this gathering and hope that today is indeed a day you shall remember for many years to come. Spread the message to those who did not make it today to come and witness for themselves the significance of this historic day.
Thank you