Programme Director: MMC for Social Development, Cllr Sello Pitso;
Rev. Moerane;
Cllr MP Gqelosha, Speaker of Emfuleni Municipality;
Mr Thabo Nzimande, SAPO representative;
Capt. Mofokatsane, SAPS representative;
Mpolokeng Jona, PWMSA Sedibeng Region;
Tshidi Mokoena, Dept. of Labour;
Ms Yolanda Van Niekerk, Emfuleni NGO Forum;
DTPS Officials
Ladies and gentlemen
We are here today to live a talk, South Africa has long said, activism for no violence against women and children is a 365 days campaign. The Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services is best positioned to use its techno applications, implementing South Africa Connect policy, but also create platforms for safer communities, by continuously putting aspects of gender equality and women’s rights as human rights at the centre of all our policy platforms. Our Department postal services company has a foot print throughout the valleys and villages of South Africa, another possible platform for our sustained advocacy agenda.
Since a call was made by the UN in 1991, that citizens of the global community, should advocate and campaign against gender based violence, annually, for Sixteen Days, SA responded in 1998 by providing a conventional platform for the government, NGOs, business and other stakeholders to organise events around the country aimed at raising awareness, influencing behaviour change and securing high level political commitments to end gender based violence. South Africa has taken a step further in 2013 to not only make it 16 Days of Activism Against Violence on Women and Children but increased it to be 365 days a year.
As we all know the campaign takes place annually in the period between 25 November and 10 December. This is indeed an important period for others as we are not only commemorating the 16 Days of Activism For No Violence Against Women And Children but also the International Day Of Persons With Disabilities, celebrated on 3 December.
The theme for this year was "Sustainable Development: The Promise of Technology", and this gave us an opportunity to re-plan for technological needs of our disabled learners, especially the blind and deaf learners in schools where we connect south African schools so as to improve the quality of our education. During the same period, we also join the international community in observing International Human Rights Day, celebrated on the 10th December. This year’s theme, chosen by the UN, is "Human Rights 365". Amongst other human rights transgressions the UN made mention of gender equality, as patriarchal tendencies seem to be at the centre of all women’s rights violations, including the social ill we are tackling today. Again socio-economic rights are entrenched in our constitution, hence, inclusive economic growth and the inclusive agenda from skills to economic transactions is at the centre of all our priority strategies, throughout the year.
In the words of the UN Secretary General, we are expected to create Orange communities. Whatever platform of action we come up with will be a form of reparation. For this community, a coordinated and integrated program of action will be in a way a guarantee for non-repetition and a measurable step towards the creation of a non-violent society. We cannot consolidate the program of action without evaluating progress made since gaining democracy. The democratic government introduced and adopted a landmark constitution which has a chapter on the bill of rights. The bill of rights is centred around the values of human dignity and equality. We have also passed the Gender Equity Bill in 2003. As a country we have ratified the agreement of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1995. The Convention is often described as an international bill of rights for women as it sets up an agenda for national action to end discrimination against women. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention in 1979. Subsequent to this we ratified the African Charter on Peoples and Human rights in 1996. Article 18 of the African Charter compels member states to ensure the elimination of every discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of women. All of these call for all of us to reflect back and evaluate progress we have made since their accomplishment.
The date November 25th of every year since 1991 was chosen to commemorate the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic, who were brutally assassinated in 1960 during the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship (1930-1961). This year marks the 54th anniversary of the murder of the Mirabal sisters, who are also known as Las Mariposas or The Butterflies. The four Mirabal sisters were civil rights activists in the Dominican Republic. Three of them were assassinated on orders from dictator Rafael Trujillo, and they quickly became heroines and martyrs in the fight against his repressive regime. Worldwide, The Butterflies became symbols of resistance and democracy, and they inspired the creation of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The big question is why are we experiencing the highest levels of violence against women and children in a constitutional democracy. In the 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), South Africa ranked fourth among 87 countries. This high ranking reflects the country’s strong legal framework in respect of gender equality and women’s rights. However the high prevalence of GBV is a contradiction, which talks to an invisible wind which is continuously and systematically undermining our democratic values. As we speak out throughout the year, we are saying to perpetrators enough is enough.
According to the United Nations, one in three women will suffer physical or sexual violence at some point in her life, from rape and domestic violence to harassment at work and bullying on the internet worldwide. This therefore calls for us to double the effort in putting an end to all forms, including emerging forms of gender based violence, brought by the technology revolution.
Each country will have its different story to tell especially on issues connected to gender based violence. Starting in this region of Sedibeng is the right thing to do given its history in struggles for freedom and human rights in democracy. The region is well known worldwide because of the stand that the people of Sharpeville took against apartheid in 21 March 1960 and the protestors were shot by the police. That incident is recorded in history as the Sharpeville massacre. The Sharpeville six survivors were on a death row and the international community protested and that lead to their release.
As such this region is a strategic focal point to conscientize on women's rights as human rights. This is the same region where the Boipatong massacre occurred on 17 June 1992. It was the bloodiest and brutal moments of political violence that engulfed South Africa at that time. The freedom we enjoy today cannot be taken lightly as the blood of victims, the pain and suffering of all survivors, the primary as well as the secondary ones, which today refers to today' s youth who were not born but have questions in their mind , why were so many defenceless people shot dead, including pregnant women and children. Twenty years ago, the country was known worldwide for being an apartheid state with extreme levels of gross human rights violations.
The UN had debated the apartheid system and referred to it as a crime against humanity as far back as 1948. The ward we are in today, Ward 25, is 90% rural with squatter camps at Barrage and RDP Houses at Polokong. The unemployment rate is very high and has led to prostitution in the area. This is very disturbing as young girls from the age group 10-35 years are involved. Coming here we have seen that these activities take place at the Potchefstroom Road, Sebokeng to Parys Road, even during the day.
The statement made by the inspector from the department of labour is disturbing as well, we cannot as women and mothers, men and fathers be tolerating child labour be it in farms or anywhere else. Our children deserve our love and quality education in a violence free environment. Working together as government we need to create platforms which will use tools such as ICTs to promote awareness of women's rights as human rights.
At the centre of the struggle for liberation and equality, there were strong women who fought nail and tooth making sure that their rights were also recognised as human rights. There are lessons learned from the women's movement during colonial years and later the apartheid years. These women carefully identified specific issues affecting women across race, class and gender and devised strategies on how to tackle those challenges. They were always extremely vigilant and alert to practices either in the form of legislation or policies which will undermine their human dignity and curtail their freedoms. We are all familiar with the major struggles which they waged like Mme Charlotte Maxeke who gave leadership against the Natives Land Act of 1913. She led protests against this act because she realised that women will be locked into a cycle of poverty over many generations if they allowed land to be stolen.
The 1954 Women's Charter was part of the vigilance that women exercised using the power of mobilisation to say lets articulate the things we want to see which will restore our dignity. The 1956 march was a culmination of all their struggles where they said its time we march to the Union Buildings where the Prime Minister sits. The message was to say, no to the introduction of pass laws which were meant to limit women's movement. I am making reference to the above strategies waged by our fore bearers so as to remind you that whenever there are challenges, it is not enough to talk about them but strategic interventions meant to eliminate a social ill are critical. The 2014 16 Days of Activism Against No Violence on Women and Children campaign was launched by the President in Reiger Park, Ekurhuleni on the 25th of November 2014 under the theme: "Count me in: Together moving a non-violent South Africa forward".
United Nation's Orange Project
This year, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women and Children invited everyone of us to “Orange OUR Neighbourhoods.” We have been compelled to take the UNiTE campaign to local streets, shops and businesses, and organise “Orange Events” in our own neighbourhoods between 25 November and 10 December 2014. This historic campaign which the Department and other partners have brought here is certainly a good platform for creating these "Orange Events".
How Does Violence Against Women Intersect With ICTs?
We are all aware that ICTs are pivotal to societal and economic transformation. Governments all over the world, recognise that ICTs are not just enablers of development but are fundamental pillars that drive development in every aspect of modern existence. While we recognise the potential of ICT for stimulating economic growth, that is, its ability to create an enabling environment for the creation of jobs, for eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities, there is also a danger that the benefits of ICTs can be unevenly distributed. This unevenness is especially evident in the so-called gender divide as reflected in the lower numbers of women accessing and using ICT compared to men.
A 2013 study by Deen-Swarray shows that income and education are key determinants of access and use of ICTs. The disparities in the access to ICTs mirror the increasing societal gender gap, which is compounded by the fact that access to ICT infrastructure and services have become more sophisticated and expensive, which require greater levels of income and education to access and operate. Stats South Africa’s data shows that on average, women earn comparatively less than men for the same type of work, which exacerbates the gender inequality.
The increased usage of ICTs presents new types of dangers for women and girls in particular. Technological advances now mean that women must be prepared to deal with new avenues for violence and need to be equally prepared to reclaim ICTs to further their own social justice struggles including that of combating violence perpetrated against them.
ICTs are now being used in various ways to perpetrate violence against women, through, for example, the commodification and objectification of women’s bodies and sexualities. Traffickers now use the internet to recruit victims more quickly, domestic violence perpetrators use tools such as spyware and GPS (global positioning systems) to track and control their partners’ movements and ICTs are enabling sexual predators to exploit women and girls anonymously. We are facing dangers of cyber stalking, cyber bullying, digital voyeurism which are violations typical of the internet age.
Against this background, we need to work together, government, civil society, gender advocacy groups and the private sector to ensure that we have strategies and tools that address the gender divide and reduce inequalities related to ICTs and to identify ways to use ICTs pro-actively and effectively to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Empowering Women in the Context of Violence Against Women
For ICTs to be effective tools for advocacy on violence against women, the needs and realities of women must be identified and addressed. This requires a multi-faceted approach to dealing with violence against women. Some of the strategies we need to employ are in respect of the following:
Use of multiple forms of media and communication technologies: we need to reach women, particularly those who are marginalized and are in remote communities using a mix of “traditional” and new technology platforms, for example using the combination of radio and the internet to strengthen existing communication strategies.
Implementation of gender mainstreaming plans will ensure that gender equality aspects are incorporated in all aspects of the work we do, particularly in terms of policies and regulatory frameworks as well as implementation of projects on the grounds. The needs and priorities of women must be reflected in policy-making as well as the implementation of strategies that support equitable access, use and benefits of ICTs.
Capacity building. The main barriers to women’s use of ICTs continue to be the lack of training, language and access to the necessary tools. Therefore capacity building activities and development must be geared towards specific training for women, women’s groups and networks.
Research on gender equality and ICT. We must continue to support the continued research on gender equality and ICT issues, which will deepen the understanding of policy makers and other role players on the linkages between ICTs and gender equality. This will ensure that we continue to mainstream gender perspectives in ICT policy development and ICTs for development initiatives.
Enhanced role for national machineries for the advancement of women. As government we will ensure that there is active participation of all stakeholders in the policy development processes, including national machineries for the advancement of women and women’s groups and networks. In this regard, the national machineries for the advancement of women should be capacitated to support their role as advocates and catalysts for gender mainstreaming. These machineries must be able to produce relevant information that can be utilised to influence national ICT policies and initiatives.
Conclusion
Being here today on a women and children’s rights as human rights campaign is about saying this generation should eliminate violence in society completely in honour of those who were prepared to die for a constitutional democracy. We need to recapture the importance of this year 's theme , especially the section which says Count me in. It talks to all of us . We are gathered here to re-pledge our support, by saying we, we are in, as boys and girls, men and women, we are all standing up, we cannot turn a blind eye, we are defenders of human rights and women's rights as human rights.
As a country we need to be working towards the transformation agenda of the criminal justice system. Through our sophisticated ICT systems we need to work towards coming up with automated services especially in areas such as our court of law and police stations.
Socio-economic challenges such as the lack of shelters needs to be addressed so as to empower women and reduce the chance of having them taken advantage of by men. Inequalities from traditional cultural positions as well as the structure of the economy which continues to fertilise inequities in society must also be addressed.
Real empowerment for women should radically transform measures like eliminating the barriers to development finance. We have institutions such as the IDC, Sefa and the Dti which are prepared to fund initiatives by women in business; all that which they are waiting for is a feasible business idea and your determination.
I thank you.
