PRESIDENTIAL GUEST HOUSE - 6 SEPTEMBER 2000
The Director of the Global Summit
The Vice President of the Philippines
Deputy Speaker
Ministers Present
Premier & Mayors
Programme Director
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening. I regret that we were not able to personally welcome you earlier, due to government commitments.
This was compounded by the fact that the President of the country, who would have wanted to welcome you, is on State visits in the continent.
I would like to join my colleagues, the Ministers who have welcomed you. You are indeed warmly and heartily welcomed to our warm, beautiful country.
The role of women in any society can never be over-emphasised. In our own case women have played and continue to play an important role in shaping the direction that our nation has taken. From the days of our struggle for liberation to present times, women have been an integral part of our drive for a better life for all South Africans.
Moving from this, women have an important role to play in the movement to revive our Continent economically, socially and politically, and restore its dignity. I strongly believe that the African Renaissance that we are championing cannot succeed without the full participation of women.
While women have always played a visible role politically and socially, this has not translated into significant participation in the economic activities of our country and continent. Internationally, women have gone some way towards claiming their rightful place in the economy, but this has yet to happen meaningfully in countries in the developing world.
This conference is being held in Africa, at a time when a debate is raging about the effects of globalisation on the developing world. It therefore provides a valuable platform for women's views on this subject to be heard. It also provides impetus for further discussions, by women in general, and African women in particular, about how to gear themselves for the fast changing global economic order.
Following the 4th United Nations Conference on Women, to which we sent an official delegation, the Government committed itself to address all impediments to women's development, and providing an enabling environment for their economic empowerment.
That UN conference laid the foundation which has informed government policies on promoting gender equality, development and peace.
Various pieces of legislation are now in place, that make it possible for women to flourish in many spheres of life.
From the equality clauses in our Constitution to the Employment Equity Act and other anti-discrimination laws, we believe we have made a positive beginning towards providing the tools with which gender discrimination can be rooted out.
As South Africans we are also proud of the visible role that women are playing in the country's political affairs. They hold leading positions in the Cabinet, running important portfolios such as foreign affairs, minerals and energy, health, land affairs and agriculture, public service administration and public works, while there are also women deputy ministers.
The Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, and the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces are also women. The chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission is also a woman. South African women hold these leadership positions not simply because of their gender, they earned them through sweat and blood in the trenches of struggle, as we fought to liberate South Africa.
Many women paid the ultimate price for this country. For that, we salute South African women.
But, we now have a new struggle at hand, to liberate ourselves from poverty, underdevelopment, illiteracy and most importantly, to achieve prosperity.
We therefore challenge women to fight with the same spirit and resilience, side by side with their male compatriots, to ensure that we achieve our new national goals.
Having said all of this, we need to acknowledge progress already made by women in the business arena. Women-run companies such as Nozala Investments and the Women's Investment Portfolio Holdings continue to inspire all of us. Some women have also made great strides in the corporate world. They have become role models for other women and men who want to enter the business arena.
It also augurs well for the future of the country to see women entering fields previously dominated by men, such as information technology, mining and construction.
This proves that women have what it takes to contribute positively towards the economic growth of their country.
However, things are not rosy all round. There are still many challenges that face women in the battle for economic advancement. One of these is the fact that despite their talent and skills, the majority of women still do not get the recognition they deserve from the corporate world. A few women have been appointed to senior positions in the corporate sector but, as recent research has shown, the glass ceiling remains intact. A look at the demographics of the country shows that we have not even scratched the surface as far as representivity is concerned.
The findings of the report commissioned by Corporate Women Directors International released this week show that women occupy only 5.8% of the seats on the boards of directors of the top 300 companies in our country. Only 37.7% of South Africa's largest companies have female directors.
As Government we are encouraged by the finding that female board representation in the public sector is more prevalent and that when government is excluded, the overall representivity figure drops to 4.3%.
When you look at the senior management echelons of government, you find many women Directors-General, Deputy Directors General and Chief Directors, showing our commitment.
Although government leads, these figures send a wake up call to both business and government to accelerate programmes that will ensure that the doors of the boardrooms are open to women.
We call upon the business community to ensure that women get top priority for skills development, and also to provide an environment that is women-friendly in the workplace, free of gender discrimination.
It is imperative that we use all available resources to fast-track the training of women for management positions as well as other strategic positions in business and the public sector. The area of information technology is also crucial as women cannot participate in the new economy without technological skills.
Government also runs a successful Women-in-Technology programme to encourage and acknowledge the participation of women in this industry of the new century.
We thank you for holding this Global Economic Summit in our country. I hope it will have a meaningful impact on the ongoing debate about globalisation, and that its resolutions will be implemented.
We also hope that this Summit has looked at the critical issue of the international financial institutions, with regard to their restructuring so that they could be user-friendly to the developing world.
We wish all our visitors well on their journey back home. We hope you will return to enjoy the beauty that our country has to offer.
I thank you.