B Sonjica: 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and
Children

5 December 2006

Programme Director,
Director-General (DG), Advocate Sandile Nogxina,
Ladies and gentlemen:

I have something to share with you about the 16 Days of Activism of No
Violence Against Women and Children, but am tempted to reflect on the report
that has just been given.

Management is work in progress. It is always important to give ourselves
time to assess and improve. There is no perfect management system. Life is
dynamic and therefore management is dynamic.

DG's response shows maturity and open mindedness that is expected from
leaders. Without that we would be autocratic and we have gone past that type of
history in our country. Senior managers need to copy from you. We need to be
practical in how we respond to this report. Executive Council (ExCo) needs a
session to deal with this report. There could be gaps in the policies that we
have in place. This report therefore could be a useful tool in our attempts to
refine these same policies.

I wish to start off by acknowledging the importance of this session. Today,
we as a family of the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) join the South
African society in the stance against violence on women and children.

Sessions like we are having today should be seen and used as opportunities
for each of us to contribute towards a healthy DME, clean from the ills of
undermining one another and disrespecting the very essence of our existence.
Mutual respect is one that we should be promoting all the time.

We hope that as a consequence of today, the message of no violence will
filter to our families and therefore ultimately permeate all spheres of our
society. We need to look at this effort as one way in which we also jealously
guard and continue to enhance our hard won democracy.

South Africa has been participating in the United Nations (UN) endorsed 16
Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children since 1998. There is
still a lot going wrong in our society. The campaign is an annual process that
starts on 25 November and ends on 10 December which is International Human
Rights Day.

Each year, we have seen South Africans intensify the national movement
against the abuse of women and children. We experience more reporting, which
has led to more prosecutions of offenders. As the movement grows more and more
linkages are forged amongst stakeholders thereby strengthening the hands of
those who fell victim to abuse as well as greatly assisting the justice system
to achieve its desired goals. Communities are, therefore, encouraged to use all
channels available to ensure the fight against this scourge is bolstered.

This campaign includes two other days of international significance, i.e. 1
December which is World AIDS Day and the International Day of the Disabled on 3
December. All these days provide us with an opportunity to mobilise support
around human rights issues of our vulnerable groups.

This year the Department of Provincial and Local Government is the lead
department for the campaign. All government departments are requested to
participate in the campaign to show government's efforts to reduce incidences
of abuse, especially in the workplace.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) is working closely with communities
and other departments to address social causes of crime and to reduce its
incidence. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is
finalising the Sexual Offences Bill which will broaden the definition of sexual
violence. The Bill will also help to ensure that heavy sentences are meted out
to convicted offenders. All these efforts by government can only succeed with
the involvement of society at large and partnerships between government and
communities.

This year's campaign comes after a year of increased gender based violence.
The rape rate has increased by four percent from 52 733 to 55 114 cases,
indecent assaults rose by eight percent from (10 123 cases), and adult women
who were victims of family murders rose to 13,9 percent according to the SAPS
annual report. The statistics on children who were victims of family murders
for 2006 are still to be released. The statistics in themselves hardly tell the
full tale of pain, trauma and humiliation associated with gender based
violence.

The rape statistics are said to be under-reported as half of the cases are
"resolved" between the accused and the accuser. We need to understand that some
reported cases are also withdrawn even before they go to court. This is mainly
due to the fact that the perpetrators are either breadwinners in the family and
are known to the family or even that some people see the process as being
scandalous and therefore would taint them. This is always sad and unfortunate
because then justice is never done or even seen to be done. The withdrawal of
such cases also undermines the impact of all the legislation that has been put
in place in order to respond to the needs of society. Legislation is the
responsibility of government and government is committed to a South Africa that
truly cares for all women and children living in it.

I think it is very important at this moment for me to thank the DG who acted
like a real democrat by allowing this kind of a special event to take place and
provide all of us with an opportunity to raise our issues of concern. This sort
of opportunity should be an annual consultation that should inform us about our
own environment and how we interact with one another.

We need to use this occasion to intensify efforts aimed at engendering a
spirit of solidarity amongst the employees of the DME. In our effort to sustain
this objective, government will continue to implement and support programmes
aimed at strengthening the advancement and development of women. Policies and
legislation are also in place to ensure compliance by everyone. All government
policies such as those of sexual harassment are specifically developed to guide
the way we conduct ourselves as human beings first, and as government
employees.

All our government's programmes are broadly aimed at creating work, fighting
poverty, promoting equality and are premised on the basis of improving the
quality of life. It is strong men and women like us gathered here today that
should insist on building and ensuring a better life for all. We can only be
able to achieve that if the working environment is conducive to deliver
such.

I would like at this point to express my sincere appreciation to the efforts
taken by South African women in the past years to speak up on their experiences
of abuse and therefore assisted the government to develop some policies (and
improve on them) and legislations that protect women and children from all
sorts of abuse be it sexual, verbal, financial or psychological.

The issue here now becomes whether men and women do understand what
constitutes sexual offences. On many occasions we hear men still questioning as
to whether their actions were offensive or not. This is solely due to ignorance
and lack of interest in the policies that are operational in our own
environments. I know some of you might think that it is a waste of time to
engage each other on these kinds of topics but to me it matters a lot because I
come from the known slogans of solidarity that says 'an injury to one is an
injury to all.'

If one of you can fall prey to the sexual harassment allegations by one of
your colleagues, you can never imagine the impact that this would have on me,
the DG, and all of you as colleagues. The impact would more especially be felt
by both the accused and the accuser. It goes without saying that the work
environment would also be adversely affected.

A fundamental point in this activism is to achieve a change of behaviour, a
change of mindset and empower both men and women about their rights and
responsibilities in terms of all pieces of legislations that aim to guide our
behaviour.

I cannot understand why it so difficult to achieve these objectives? There
are two major challenges that perpetuate abuse. The first is that men do not
understand that when a woman says "no" it means "no." The second challenge is
that some men rape in their homes and in their relationships. When they are
used to doing that at home, what will stop them from doing it outside their
home? This is the reason why HIV and AIDS are related to gender based violence
because not every woman can choose to use a condom without any resistance or
force. The result is that HIV and AIDS protrudes into the so called safe and
protected relationships.

As a people, we need to commit ourselves as ambassadors of this movement.
This will give practical support to the movement and hopefully persuade others
to realise the seriousness of the campaign.

On the face of this event today, therefore, real momentum has been
established for the abolition of all kinds of abuse in the DME. As much as that
is true, it is important not to get carried away. It would seem that even when
policies are there to guide us, there are so many other underlying causes of
the ongoing abuses. Our vigilance is still required to guard against these
kinds of situations.

As we move into the festive season we need to guard against risky behaviour.
Such behaviour raises the possibility of increased violence and vulnerability
of women and children. We must combine our efforts to extend the 16 Days of No
Violence Against Women and Children to 365 days of national action plan against
gender and child related violence.

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Minerals and Energy
5 December 2006
Source: Department of Minerals and Energy (http://www.dme.gov.za)