SUN CITY, SATURDAY, 12 AUGUST 2000
Master of Ceremonies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is indeed a great pleasure to attend your conference, and to contribute to emerging perspectives on empowerment. The WHIPHOld Conference comes at a very important time in the history of our transition to democracy. The past three days have been dominated by two important national developments: the celebration of National Women's Day and the launch of our governments restructuring policy framework.
The celebration of National Women's Day is both a reminder and confirmation of the type of society we seek to build. It is a people-centred society that puts the majority of its citizens at the heart of development. Most importantly, the celebrations recognise the plight facing the majority of women of our country who are located primarily in the rural areas that are subjected to grinding poverty, unemployment, inequality and domestic violence. It is therefore our collective responsibility as government and social partners involved in the fields of business, health, education, etc, to make a fundamental difference. National Women's Day is always a reminder of the role that women have and continue to play in the political, economic and social development of our society and continent.
South Africa and Southern Africa face many challenges. The commitment to the total eradication of poverty and achieving development defines the moment of our peoples struggles for freedom. The emancipation of women remains at the top of our government's list of priorities. There are more women affected by policy and programmes than men. If we are to address the development of our country then we need to address the development of women. We are all aware of the legacies of apartheid. Black people were discriminated against but black women suffered from triple oppression: discriminated against, first for being black, exploited as part of the working people of our country and for being women.
For black women involved in business, there is therefore a critical challenge to connect with the plight and efforts of the masses of women in our country, particular in the rural areas. It is essential that your call for empowerment should always be located within this broader transformative vision. Our government, based on the experiences of the past six years, is always reviewing its policy and grappling with the challenge of transforming the conditions facing the women of our country.
It must be said that this section of the emerging petit bourgeoisie will move closer to the levers of economic ownership and production. It should assume an entrepreneurial role and be actively involved in economic democratisation and sustainable growth.
This class, moreover, has the potential to play a progressive and positive role if its version of empowerment is connected with the plight of the majority of women. These are poor black women who continue to suffer most from the legacy of apartheid and have an interest in the total emancipation of women. They should be empowered to be at the head of the struggle of women for emancipation.
The emergence of WHIPHOLD as a publicly listed company managed and owned by African women, whose central objective is the economic empowerment of their shareholders who are predominantly African women is a pioneering step in the political and economic emancipation and empowerment of African women. The women responsible for the creation of this business are role models for all African women. Their contribution to the positive forces currently emerging within the continent is invaluable. It is a success story that instills in African women everywhere the motivation and confidence to create their own successful business ventures.
We must also locate ourselves beyond the boarders of our country and contribute to the emancipation of women in our continent. A central element of the vision for an African Renaissance is a commitment to gender equality and the eradication of women's oppression. Indeed, a key element of African renaissance is the emancipation of African women from the shackles of patriarchy to enable them to make their rightful contribution to a stable and prosperous continent.
South Africa needs to play an important role in these struggles worldwide, on the continent and in the SADC region.
The current realities of the African continent are, however, far removed from the vision of an African renaissance. Former president Mandela has argued that as the world frees itself from the dominance of bi-polar power the stark division of the worlds people into rich and poor comes all the more clearly into view. And within that division Sub-Saharan Africa occupies the most extreme position. Associated with extreme levels of poverty on the African continent are low literacy rates, low life expectancy, high infant mortality and the rapid spread of pandemics such as AIDS and cholera. African states are prevented from breaking out of this vicious circle of poverty by extremely high levels of external debt, reductions in social expenditure imposed on governments under structural adjustment programmes and the absence of democracy and political stability in many African states.
The female population of Africa countries - both women and children often bears a disproportionate burden of the continent's underdevelopment and poverty. Their burden is exacerbated by patriarchal social and political formations that lie at the core of women's disempowerment in Africa.
While the continent is currently characterised by poverty and political turmoil, some positive signs are emerging which bode well for the rebirth of the continent.
African states are seeking practical ways for the peaceful resolution of conflict, the entrenchment of democracy and the pursuit of policies conducive to economic growth as the continent emerges from the failure of development, the end of the cold war, and the liberation of South Africa from apartheid.
There are many concrete examples to support the emergence of such a trend. In particular, in the past three decades alone, more than 25 African states have undergone democratic transitions. A further positive trend on the African continent is the emergence of a new proletariat class, unionised into new forms of trade unions that are carving a role for themselves in the marketplace of economic ownership, production and distribution. This group is demanding a more respectable relationship in the workplace as it is convinced that economic sustainability and growth can benefit from its say at this level. In addition, there is a large emerging urban middle class comprising teachers, intellectuals, nurses, traders, artisans and civil servants. African states now encourage SMMEs that promise to produce a strong propertied class.
The issue that has been neglected in the emergence of these positive political and economic trends is the role of women and, more particularly, how these processes can be harnessed to empower women. We need to engage and strengthen some of these processes.
On Thursday, I launched a Policy Framework for an Accelerated Agenda for the restructuring of State Owned Enterprises. What I would like to do today is to talk about what the Policy Framework means for women and why it is important to them.
Government's vision for the restructuring of state owned enterprises sets out the continued role of the state in the country. We would like to reiterate that the state has an important developmental role to play, particularly in the view of legacies of apartheid. The restructuring of state owned assets is not about the state divesting its interests in state owned enterprises or abdicating its responsibilities. It is about the state ensuring that it maximises the contribution that its assets make to the economy and the people of the country. We strongly believe that competition in the market will lead to lower prices and/or higher quality of service. We believe that the private sector has a role to play in expanding the services that the state alone can offer. We intend using a variety of restructuring options to achieve our aims.
We have noted the cynicism and negative approach of the prophets of doom. They fail to grasp that without the state playing this role, development and stability will not be realised. They continue to speak on behalf of a tiny minority. Whilst the response of our opposition is disappointed, it was however expected to remain negative. The bottom line is they are trying to weaken the state, marginalise the interests of the poor, and assert the selfish of the powerful in society. They treat the empowerment of the majority of our people as simply being peripheral.
It is this refusal to join the government and the great majority of South Africans in this transformation process that the so-called opposition will remain the voice of a negative minority in our society.
Our restructuring policy framework identifies black economic empowerment as a challenge and key objective of the restructuring process. We are concerned with addressing market distortions that prevailed in state owned enterprises and in the economy as a whole during the apartheid period. One of the most obvious distortions was the prohibition of substantial property ownership by black people. Black women were once again doubly disadvantaged. Correcting past wrongs requires a systematic, genuine empowerment strategy to bring black people and women into the mainstream of the economy, including into ownership, procurement and training relationships with SOEs, and into more harmonious, productive relations with each other.
Government's policy on restructuring SOEs should entail new, creative, diverse strategies for genuine empowerment so that SOEs more effectively spread the benefits of restructuring. These strategies of alternative service delivery may include broadened ownership, training, procurement and self-management opportunities for black people, women and the disabled, both directly through involvement in SOE management and indirectly through widespread ownership opportunities.
There are many ways to achieve this objective and it would be a mistake to seek a single, one-dimensional approach, particularly given the unsatisfactory record of SOE-related empowerment strategies. Our multi-faceted approach will therefore involve some degree of equity transfer or sale, whilst in other instances it will focus on changing operational responsibilities to ensure greater participation by employees and communities.
We wish to promote the concept of operational empowerment. Operational empowerment describes a variety of processes related to active, hand-on participation in industries affected by SOE restructuring. These range from more meaningful access to state-regulated activities, training and skills development, affirmative action in management, to entrepreneurial opportunities through outsourcing, partnerships, procurement and easier access to financing. By broadening the range of service delivery models to include greater worker, SMME and community participation, Government can ensure that a broader grouping of the historically disadvantaged is empowered. We are fully aware that many of those disadvantaged are women and we will ensure that they benefit from this process.
The recent Preferential Procurement Policy Framework (Act No. 5 of 2000), the 1997 Green Paper on Procurement and the Affirmative Procurement Policy set out a comprehensive scheme for increasing the participation of the historically disadvantaged in the activities of the public sector.
It is estimated that the procurement budgets of state owned enterprises amount to between R40 and R60 million. If the objectives of the Government in drawing up these policies and this legislation are to be fully realised then they should also be extended to the procurement policies of all SOEs. My Department will be leading an initiative to ensure those SOE procurement policies and procedures are aligned with government policy on procurement. We have just drawn up the terms of reference for a project to draw up a uniform procurement policy for SOEs. We will use the shareholder compacts to ensure that SOEs comply with these policies. We will also interact with the Department of Finance to ensure that appropriate regulations are put in place.
We want to ensure that historically disadvantaged individuals are given the opportunity to participate directly and productive and management activities and are not restricted to involvement as investors or fronts. Through judicious use of targeting we can ensure that the full spectrum of historically disadvantaged people, women and the disabled are included. A critical operational constraint that prevents SMMEs from effective participation in SOE restructuring is inadequate collateral for financial. Even if procurement contracts become available, commercial banks in South Africa have been unwilling to consider financing the particular project because a contract does not offer sufficient repayment security.
Of course, banks should be sufficiently confident of firms owned and managed by black, women and disabled South Africans to review and revise collateral requirements. However, given ongoing resistance we have to find other kinds of finance. One answer may come from the NE, which is setting aside some venture capital to finance such initiatives. Another possibility may be through the enhanced use of social capital.
We also intend looking at broadened ownership options for SOEs and operational empowerment through skills transfer and whether broader constituencies (low-income, black, women and disabled) can be better served by SOE restructuring.
One of the areas we are looking at as an option for restructuring is Employee Share Ownership Programmes (ESOPs). We want to see workers, and not just managers, owning parts of the enterprises. We are looking at international experience to see where these schemes have been successful and where they have failed.
In conclusion, we have noted other positive and creative responses to the need to revisit our collective concept of black economic empowerment. The interim report of the BEE Commission has put forward bold suggestions on taking forward and broadening black economic empowerment.
I hope and trust that WIPHOld will take advantage of these processes, harness their potential and links with the struggles of women in our country and continent for freedom from want, disease and ignorance.
The challenge is real; the rewards enormous; the prize is our children children's future.
I thank you!