“Unity in action towards socio-economic freedom for women, children and people with disabilities”
Chairperson,
Honourable Members
Opening the first democratic Parliament in 1994, former President Nelson Mandela had this to say: "... And so we must, constrained by and yet regardless of the accumulated effect of our historical burdens, seize the time to define for ourselves what we want to make of our shared destiny ... And in this glorious vision, ... our endeavours must be about the liberation of the woman, the emancipation of the man and the liberty of the child". With those words, our former President defined what must constitute the building blocks of our collective goals as a nation.
The 1994 democratic breakthrough marked a decisive milestone in the creation of a society based on the principles of equality, justice, human dignity and non-sexism.
Corporate Governance
Honourable Members, in our speech last year, we said: “To ensure good governance and transparency an independent labour law firm (Fluxmans) has been appointed to investigate allegations of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement in the department”.
I am pleased to inform you that the investigation has been finalised and its recommendations have been implemented. This included disciplinary hearings against those implicated, and those found guilty were dismissed. As the African National Congress (ANC) government, we have declared zero tolerance to corruption and mismanagement.
We now have improved the capacity of the department with the appointment of the Director-General, Ms Veliswa Baduza and the Chief Financial Officer. We also have a fully functional Audit Committee, Risk Committee, a Supply Chain Management Unit and an improved Human Resource Management Unit. We are therefore confident that we have established the necessary systems, structures, controls and procedures that will enable us to discharge our mandate more effectively. The turnaround strategy we adopted in consultation with National Treasury last year is being implemented. The results and improvements are now being realised in the department.
Women empowerment and gender equality
As a nation, we have made significant progress in promoting women empowerment and representation in the key decision-making structures. Before 1994, the South African Parliament had a mere 2.7% representation of women. Through the visionary leadership of former President Nelson Mandela and the ANC, women representation immediately increased tenfold to 27% following the 1994 elections. After 1997, having adopted the 30% target for women representation as ANC in the Mafeking Conference, we stood at 30% and 33% representation of women after the 1999 and 2004 elections respectively under the leadership of former President Thabo Mbeki.
In its Polokwane National Conference held in 2007, the ANC adopted the 50\50 representation. This jumped women to 44% in Parliament and 43% in Cabinet under President Jacob Zuma. Chairperson, the progress our nation is making is mainly due to the commitment of the African National Congress to women empowerment and gender equality. If the other parties in this august House could follow suit, we would have long reached the 50/50 target in SA.
Chairperson, this year we mark the 100th anniversary of the historic women’s march, led heroically by Charlotte Maxeke, against the discriminatory pass laws which restricted black people’s movement and affected families through the 1913 Native Land Act. The sad and harsh reality of the 1913 Land Act, whose sole objective was dispossession of millions of African people of their land, was succinctly captured by the former Secretary General of the ANC, Sol Plaatjie in his book, Native Life in South Africa, where he acclaimed: "Awakening on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth". For rural women in particular, the impact and effect on the Land Act was devastating.
During this year, the year of the women’s movement centenary, we will advocate that more land must be allocated to women. We are calling on all our partners in government across all three spheres in partnership with CGE, together with the agricultural and business community, to join in this partnership. We will ensure that the campaign includes young women and women with disabilities.
Last year we informed this House that we were finalising consultations towards the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill. This Bill is based on the International Instruments that South Africa has signed and ratified including the Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, the AU Protocol, the SADC Gender Protocol, our Constitution and Bill of Rights. I am pleased to inform this House that the Draft Bill was approved by Cabinet last year in August for public consultation. The draft Bill that incorporates inputs from the public participation process was tabled at NEDLAC for negotiations. The revised Bill, will be tabled in Cabinet for its consideration before presentation to the National Assembly.
We believe that this Bill, once enacted, will become a powerful instrument to advance the objectives of gender equality and women empowerment. It will enforce compliance both within and outside the public service. We will continue to influence policy positions and government programmes to reflect the imperatives of gender equality and women empowerment. This Bill will assist to accelerate the engendering of policies and programmes across the public and private sector.
We continue to work with government departments and state-owned enterprises such as DTI, DED, DRDLR, IDC, IDT and SEDA to facilitate opportunities for women in rural, peri-urban and informal settlements to participate in the economy.
A number of women projects are unfolding positively, with some women businesses growing in leaps and bounds. For example, in Gauteng Ms Anna Phosa has her business (Dreamland Piggery) doing exceptionally well, with her piggery production supplying Pick and Pay. She recently acquired an abattoir and is training other women in piggery production. In Limpopo, a cooperative of women led by Ms Mavis Mathabathe is becoming a South African brand in the production of Moringa supplements. They are already exporting to Indonesia, Swaziland, Botswana, USA, UK and the Netherlands.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has agreed to build her a pack house in the village. Ms Nobuntu Landiwe Saka, in the Eastern Cape has also grown her business to become a household brand with her traditional attire and beadwork. She is now running a sewing training centre with the support of the DRDLR and the Eastern Cape Provincial Government, who have agreed to build a factory for women in the village.
In KwaZulu-Natal, women cooperatives - led by Maureen Magubane Chairperson of WARD have established five bakeries. They have also been awarded a feeding scheme contract by the MEC for Education in KZN, Mr Senzo Mchunu. They are getting a contract from Simba to supply them with potatoes from their farms to produce Simba Chips.
We also have Mrs Ventura of Molo Songololo, a children’s organisation that helps poor mothers through economic empowerment programmes such as growing vegetable gardens, sewing projects and a bakery. One of our VVIP’s today in the gallery is Mr Nenio Mbazima a deaf author and comedian. Please buy his book; you will laugh from the first page to the last.
As a department, we continue to support and coordinate the development of rural women in all sectors. We will again observe International Day for Rural Women on the 15th of October to highlight the situation of rural women in South Africa, and bring their priorities to the attention of the nation, policy makers and the private sector, as we did last year in KZN in partnership with the Premier’s office and the Rural Women’s Movement (RWM).
With regard to the Traditional Courts Bill, we will continue to work with rural women and other stakeholders to ensure that the provisions of the Bill are consistent with our Constitution and protect the rights of women.
Gender responsive budgeting is an essential tool for development, poverty alleviation and redistribution. Chairperson, you will recall that last year we made an undertaking that, together with the Motsepe Foundation, we would pursue the Women Budget Initiative to ensure that our budgeting processes and allocations are gender-responsive. I am pleased to inform the House that the Motsepe Foundation has completed a baseline research with the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, the DTI and Health in partnership with the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities and UN Agencies. This output will reinvigorate multi-stakeholder Gender Responsive Budget Analysis in South Africa.
As part of our monitoring mandate, we have developed the Integrated Mainstreaming Framework, as well as sector-specific Monitoring and Evaluation Strategies to monitor progress made in the realisation of the rights and empowerment of all three sectors. We have also developed a quarterly reporting tool so that we can be able to determine trends and progress or regression.
In line with the undertaking we made last year, we launched the National Council Against Gender-Based Violence under the leadership of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe on the 10th December 2012. The Council has finalised its Annual Action Plan, and will be engaging with communities through awareness- raising programmes and educational campaigns across the country. This will include road shows, consultations summits and driving the 365 Days National Plan of Action to fight gender based violence.
Working together with the Ministers of Police, Justice and Correctional Services, we will continue to support, promote, coordinate and monitor access to justice. This includes the effective and efficient services to all victims, such as the Sexual Offenses Courts, the Family Violence and Sexual Offences Units in the South African Police Services, the training of police and forensic social workers, restorative justice as well as effective rehabilitation of offenders. These pillars constitute the key element of our fight against gender- based violence.
Chairperson, during the 57th UN Commission on the Status of Women, the department managed to stage a special parallel signing ceremony on 11th March 2013 at the UN-Women Headquarters in New York, where we registered South Africa’s commitment to the United Nations - Campaign on “Commit to End Violence Against Women and Girls”. The ceremony was led by Ms Michelle Bachelet, the Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN-Women. South Africa was commended for its solo stance in Africa on the issue of sexual orientation and gender identities as well as on the matter of sexual and reproductive rights for women and girls.
We were praised for our valiant efforts in ensuring that for the first time in the Commission there were agreed conclusions on violence against women that were adopted in the session itself. Several concrete recommendations have emerged in the final outcome document which we need to domesticate in the country as well as monitor the progress thereof. We were also congratulated for developing a multi-sectoral approach towards fighting gender-based violence, by launching the National Council Against Gender Based Violence on International Human Rights Day last year as well as launching the Orange Day campaign as part of our 365 Days National Action Plan.
Children’s rights and responsibilities
The post apartheid ANC government has always prioritised children’s rights and wellbeing as part of our overall development plan. Our first President, Nelson Mandela said: “There is no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children”.
Therefore, to give concrete expression to this vision, the ANC government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as the first of a number of international and regional treaties that we ratified in 1995. We are happy to announce that we are ready to submit the next report to the UN and AU in July this year. This report indicates that we have made remarkable progress since receiving our last comments from the UN Committee.
One of the main achievements during this reporting period was the establishment of the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities (DWCPD) in 2009 to improve the coordination and monitoring of policies and programmes for children. Since this government came into power, there has been considerable improvement in the lives of vulnerable children in general, access to their rights, services and benefits, and a reduction in their poverty levels and inequality. These achievements were brought about by the numerous progressive legislation and social and economic policies introduced by the ANC government since 1994.
The Department of Health and UNAIDS data show substantial progress in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV since 2004. This resulted in a significant drop in new child infections during this period. Progress has also been made over the past four years in the implementation of the national Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission programme that has enabled South Africa to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV from 8% to an estimated 2.7% at six weeks after birth. We are working towards zero transmission.
Through Department of Social Development (DSD), the child support grant (CSG) has had a significant impact on the wellbeing of vulnerable children. A study conducted in 2012 by the DSD, SASSA and UNICEF found that the CSG promotes early childhood development, reduces stunting, improves school retention and better school outcomes, increases access to health care, lowers the risk of child labour (especially for girls), and lowers risky adolescent behaviour for the most vulnerable children. It therefore reduces poverty and vulnerability as well as helps to break the inter-generational transmission of poverty.
The universalisation of a formal pre-primary year (Grade R) through the public school system in terms of the White Paper 5 on Early Childhood Development (ECD) (2001) has made early childhood education in the year prior to the start of formal schooling universally available. I am looking forward to the policy process that will address the feasibility of introducing two years of universal access to ECD before primary school as proposed in the National Development Plan. The introduction of pro-poor education policies such as “no-fee” schools in the poorest three quintiles and school fee waivers for poor learners in fee-paying schools through the National Norms and Standards for Public School Funding (1998, as amended) and the Exemption of Parents from the Payment of School Fees Regulations has made primary and secondary education free for more children.
The scourge of violence against children remains a concern though. We are coordinating and continuing through numerous advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns, such as child protection week led by DSD which starts next week, the promotion of the use of positive discipline rather than corporal punishment and the prevention of all forms of violence against children as articulated in the programmes of the National Council Against Gender Based Violence, working together with SAPS and DOJCD.
To improve government’s coordination, advocacy and monitoring capacity, we have revised the National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC) 2012 – 2017 and a monitoring strategy which establishes a mechanism for coordination, collaboration and mainstreaming of children’s rights.
Chairperson, you may recall for example that last year we made a commitment that with regard to the Techno-Girl programme, 1 829 girls will be part of the June school holidays intake from both the public and private sector. Over 3 920 girls, including girls with disabilities, have undergone job shadowing. As a nation, we must continue relentlessly to encourage girls to pursue careers in the natural sciences to change both the mindset and this professional technical labour market which remains predominately male-dominated.
Furthering the inclusion of children’s voices in matters that affect them, we have in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, instituted an annual Children’s Parliament to provide our children with a platform to report on how government and civil society are responding to their rights and needs. We first went to Gauteng legislature in 2011. Last year, we held the Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament in Mpumalanga. At both sessions thus far, the children pleaded with all leaders to urgently address the scourge of violence and abuse. This year, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament will be held in the Eastern Cape Province in partnership with the Eastern Cape Provincial government and legislature.
Last year, we launched an On-Line Child Safety campaign in partnership with government departments and Google SA as part of Child Protection Week. The fundamental objective of this campaign is to protect children from harmful online activities.
Chairperson, our government has made remarkable progress through the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to address the barriers in registering children’s births and as a result, the rate of early birth registration has increased significantly over the last ten years. In 2003, 68% of births were registered within one year. This increased to 83% in 2010 and jumped a further 4% to 87% by 2011. The number of births registered within the prescribed thirty days also increased to reach 45% in 2010, and has increased further to 51% in 2011. The numbers of very late birth registrations have dropped by more than 50% between 2010 and 2011
It is therefore evident that there remain both major challenges and opportunities to unite around the vision of our first President for all children when he said “Our children are the rock on which our future will be built, our greatest asset as a nation. They will be the leaders of our country, the creators of our wealth, those who care for and protect our people”. Therefore, as a nation we must invest more in our children.
Rights of People with Disabilities
Chairperson, 1994 did not only bring about improvement in the lives of women and children. It also afforded people with disabilities recognition of their rights as equal citizens. The baseline Country Report to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, approved by Cabinet on April 17 this year for depositing at the United Nations, provides us for the first time with baseline information on the status of South Africans with disabilities, and enables us to sharpen our interventions to realise the rights of people with disabilities to equality.
Once again, it was the African National Congress which, in 1994, walked the talk and became the first party to have an MP with disabilities, the late Hon Maria Rantho, who went on to become the first disabled Public Service Commissioner. Parliament today boasts 16 MPs and altogether we have 96 public representatives with disabilities in the country.
Chairperson, it saddens me to report to the House that progress in both the public and private sector in attaining set targets for employment equity for persons with disabilities has not been met yet. The 2012/13 Annual Report of the Commission for Employment Equity reports that the national average for the employment of people with disabilities by designated employers only reached 1.4%.
Chairperson, unless we link these targets to the Directors-General’s Performance Agreements and Ministers’ Deliver Agreements, whatever we are planning to do with the Department of Public Service and Administration, we will not achieve these targets. Chairperson, I am proud to report that the best performing department in this regard is the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities with 5.55% for people with disabilities and 61% for women.
Chair I leave the further elaboration on our disability report to the Deputy Minister Bogopane-Zulu.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to express my appreciation to Deputy Minister Bogopane-Zulu, the Director-General and her staff, as well as the Members of the Portfolio and Select Committees for providing support and diligent oversight to ensure that the rights of women, children and people with disabilities are protected and promoted.
Honourable Members, as signatory to the various International Conventions and Protocols, we will continue to ensure that South Africa secures outcomes that will promote and protect the rights of women, children and people with disabilities. We will ensure that we discharge our reporting obligations to the United Nations and other bodies.
I would also like to express appreciation to the international agencies such as the UNDP, UNWomen, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNEP, DIFID,OHCHR and our private sector partners such as ACSA, Motsepe Foundation, MTN, ABSA, Old Mutual and Tirisano Travel for their support. Sincere gratitude to government departments, our provincial governments, municipalities and civil society, for their collective response and commitment to realise the rights of women, children and people with disabilities.
Members are reminded Orange Day on Saturday will take place in Khayitsha . Working together we can do more to build a fully inclusive society free from unfair discrimination, inequality, abuse and exploitation! Collectivism for an empowered society requires that we address the triple challenges of our time - inequality, poverty and unemployment.
While improvements have been made in this area, our baseline budget remains an area of great concern and discussions are on-going with National Treasury to ensure that we improve capacity within the core areas of the department. This is our area of great need, our core programmes on disabilities women and children . We also need financial support for the council against GBV. We thank DFID and UN Agencies for their pledge to fund the council. We trust more will join their example in this area of need.
Chairperson, as I step down, allow me once again to quote the immortal words of Charlotte Maxeke: “This work is not for yourselves - kill that spirit of self, and do not live above your people, but live with them. If you can rise, bring someone with you."
Halala Charlotte Maxeke Halala! Halala Lillian Ngoyi Halala! Halala Ruth First Halala! Halala Helen Joseph Halala! Halala Sophie du Bruyn Halala! Halala Victoria Mxenge Halala! Halala Albertinah Sisulu Halala! Halala Ruth Mompati Halala! Halala Dorothy Nyembe Halala! Halala MaDinoge Halala!
Malibongwe!!!!
