N Mapisa-Nqakula: Women in Agriculture and Rural Development
conference

13 October 2006

"Emancipation and empowerment of rural women through human rights"

Chairperson
Cabinet colleagues
Premier of the Eastern Cape
Fellow panellists and guests
Friends

I am indeed very pleased that the events marking the 50th anniversary of the
women's march have not fizzled with the ending of the month of August. I am
also particularly happy that amongst the activities and programmes for this
year, there has been a particular emphasis on the plight of rural women and the
poor. This emphasis has been in line with government's commitment to make the
fight against poverty the focus of our second decade of freedom. So, I must say
that it was with great enthusiasm that we accepted the invitation to come here
today, given the fact that a considerable amount of time has been set aside to
discuss empowerment issues as they relate to opportunities for rural women.

Chairperson, the liberation of all our people, and the dawn of a new
dispensation in our country, is something that should have profound meaning for
all women as well. This is the premise from which we move when questions are
posed as to whether, after a decade of freedom, do women in this country have
something to celebrate?

Despite the many challenges that our society still faces towards total
emancipation of women, at least in this country, women can attest that
democracy has brought about a level of advancement in championing our cause
that could not have been remotely imaginable during our apartheid past.

The common nationhood that we share as a people, the envisaged equality, and
the space opened for women to contribute to the rebuilding of our country, form
the cornerstone of a new society that emerged from the struggles of all our
people, including women. This first and foremost, is the real reason why can
respond in the affirmative, to the question as to whether women have something
to celebrate at the dawn of democracy in our country.

Chairperson and friends, the Bill of Rights as enshrined in our constitution
represents a consolidation of the collective will of the people to define the
nature of the society we should all live in. In the traditions of similar
expressions as enshrined in the Freedom Charter, our people have declared that
they do not want to live in a society where there is subjugation of one by the
other. They have said that the colour, sex or social standing of an individual,
should never be the determining factor in deciding their contribution in
shaping our future.

We have every reason therefore, in these celebrations of the 50 years of
united women's action, to look back at where our society has come from in
relation to the social standing of women, to acknowledge what we have achieved
so far, and to identify how we can further deepen the gains that women have
made as result of freedom in our country.

The role of women in as equal partners in driving rural development

The first of the rights enshrined in our Bill of Rights is the right to
equality, which gives everybody the equal enjoyment of rights and freedoms and
outlaws discrimination.

By extension it allows all of us equal space to actively participate in the
programmes to build this new society that has emerged in the aftermath of our
freedom.

The equality clause in the constitution gives practical expression to our
desire to see a society where women can freely play a decisive role in the
development of our people, including their role as leaders in the process of
change.

When the African National Congress (ANC), took a decision that we need to
increase the participation of women in leadership structures of public
governance, we had anticipated that, at a local level, space would also be
created for women to take charge of the development of their communities.

Not only did we anticipate this role in terms of the number of serving
councillors, but also that women would partake actively in other vehicles of
social change such as their ward committees and local development fora.

While women have always played these leadership roles in their communities,
the right to equal space has extended the scope through which women can be
equal partners in an unhindered environment to lead our society towards a
better future.

Rural women need to occupy this space and contribute or lead in areas of
social policy, economic activity, and development within rural communities.

With the advent of democracy and the regime of rights, women can no longer
continue to be seen or see themselves as mere recipients of empowerment
deliverables, but as key drivers in achieving both the empowerment of women and
the transformation of our society broadly.

Rural women and the right to security and freedom from abuse

The abuse of women and children in our communities, whether rural or urban,
is potentially the greatest threat that undermines all that we have achieved in
the emancipation of women.

As part of our democratic social policy, the state has enacted legislation
aimed at protecting women from such abuse, and to restore human dignity.

While these polices have created avenues through which women can seek
recourse and protection from abuse, the challenge still remains in changing
society's attitudes towards this kind of violence and abuse.

Like any other prejudice, violence against women is a form of
discrimination. The law does not tolerate it and it is high time that we
educate society not to tolerate it either.

Community campaigns in the rural areas, in schools, churches and elsewhere
should be strengthened to educate society on this matter.

At Cabinet level we have discussed the need to spread the activities of the
16 Days of No Violence Against Women into rural communities and run this
campaign throughout all 365 days of the year.

We need to invite all women in these areas to come out and support these
initiatives to ensure that women are educated about their rights and what
avenues are available both for protection and for post trauma assistance.

We shall live off the land

In the sphere of rural development, land for agriculture continues to play
an important role, both as means of subsistence but also as key driver for
local economic development.

I am aware that a lot of discussion in the workshops will focus on this
issue, but it will suffice here to say that most of the economic rights that
have been anticipated in the Freedom Charter are now realisable through our new
policy dispensation, including in the area of access to land.

This is particularly important, in that if women are to be equal partners in
the economic development of their communities, then they need to go beyond the
agrarian roles as mere tillers of the land, and use the space provided by
empowering legislation, to become key players in agriculture as a sector
driving local economic development.

Training and capital injection for rural women has been emphasised in this
regard, and I think if we can improve on the current initiatives, we can
achieve even more.

Chairperson, if women are to be truly free and emancipated, then we need to
take up these opportunities for economic empowerment.

The tendency has always been to inherently see these empowerment initiatives
in the form of small scale initiatives, such as small scale farming. We might
need to think, in the long term, of possibilities of starting small with an
intention to become major players in certain industries. These can include
local tourism, mining and entrepreneurship.

In so far as entrepreneurship is concerned, rural communities need to be
encouraged to take advantage of the right of protection for intellectual
property, including protection of indigenous knowledge systems.

The artistic and other innovative expressions of rural communities and
indigenous people have been exploited for a long time to make money for big
conglomerates due to lack of protection. We now have the ability to turn the
situation around by allowing people ownership of their innovative ideas and to
use these to support local economic development.

In Mpumalanga, the extension of this protection has seen the flourishing of
Ndebele art as a patented income generator for the people of the province.
There are many similar examples in communities that can be exploited to
stimulate economic activity.

Empowering rural women to take charge of decisions and choices about their
lives

Women in rural communities need to be reaffirmed, to be made to understand
that there is nobody who has a right to decide for them about anything that has
to do with their own lives.

Some of our most progressive aspects of social policy, such the right of
women to reproductive choices, might have found a society that was not
necessarily ready to accept change, but had to be implemented if women
emancipation was to form the part of the fabric of our new society.

Women themselves need to be empowered to boldly express and exercise these
rights and not to allow them to be eroded or traded.

We have also been talking about the protection that has been given to rural
married women as a result of the recognition and registration of customary
marriages. The point is that where cultural oligarchy is concerned, it has
always been expected that public policy should balance between the respect for
tradition and custom as juxtaposed with civil rights of individuals or groups
of people.

We have made it possible through legislation to ensure the protection of
women in customary marriages and allow them scope to be decision makers on
issues of estates and the marrying of second and third wives. The exploitation
of women married in customary marriages had to be addressed through a policy
that both recognises the custom, but is biased towards women.

I must however raise something that is very disturbing for us as government
with regard to the issue of marriages, and it has to do with the parents who
force minor girls to get married at an early age. This is normally done because
the parents want to make money and these children are normally forced to marry
husbands that are much older than them. This is happening mainly in rural
communities.

We have a responsibility as government, and particularly in my capacity as
Minister of Home Affairs, to protect these children. They have the right to
grow up in an environment that is protected and to be allowed a period of
innocence as children, and not to be removed from school for purposes of being
married.

This is very important because we have come from a past where young women
were not allowed to receive an education because they were regarded as inferior
and incapable of learning. If we are to maintain the participation of women in
building our country, then these young girls must be allowed all the
opportunities to go to school and to be protected.

Chairperson, democratic social policy has given women a limitless scope to
achieve the emancipation we desire. The biggest challenge, however, is that
most women in rural communities do not have information in this regard and
therefore can not have access to these benefits. Women continue to be
unemployed or left on the fringes of economic activity despite a favourable
policy regime to the contrary. They are supposed to have access to their own
housing if they wish to, but still have difficulties in this regard.

Our inability to empower women with information is tantamount to denying
them their rights and benefits of our freedom.

This should become the rallying point in entrenching the gains of women in
democracy. Awareness! Awareness! Awareness!

Thank you

Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
13 October 2006
Source: Department of Agriculture (http://www.nda.agric.za)