E Molewa: Selo Sa Basadi Community Trust launch

19 August 2006

Programme Director
Chairperson of Selo Sa Basadi Community Trust, Mme Lindiwe Modise
Deputy Chairperson, Adv Molly Malete
Executive Mayor of Rustenburg, Cllr Matthews Wolmarans
Distinguished guests
Bo Mme Dumelang

I am extremely delighted to join all of you today as we officially launch
the Selo Sa Basadi Community Trust on this warm North West day.

I would like to begin by telling you a story about a normal modern family in
the evening after work, about to retire to sleep. They are watching television
when suddenly the man of the house announces to no one in particular, that he
is going to sleep. He stands and goes straight to the bedroom.

The woman of the house makes the same announcement. She then stands up,
clears the sofa and the floor of the lounge to make sure it is not left untidy.
She takes the dishes to the kitchen and washes them. She remembers to prepare
the children’s and the husband’s lunch-boxes for the following day. On her way
to the bedroom, she calls by the children’s bedroom and checks whether they had
finished their schoolwork, examines the readiness of their school uniform and
shoes and tugs them nicely to bed.

Eventually, she arrives in the bedroom in which the husband is soundly
asleep. She instinctively decides to check all the routine things that the man
will need for the following day. Upon satisfaction, she gets into her pyjamas
and goes to sleep, more than one and a half hours later.

I think this anecdote demonstrates the instinctive qualities that women
possess, including human solidarity, compassion, foresight, care-giving,
planning and responsibility. Women have the incredible power to change any
social environment within which they find themselves. It is this unmistakable
spirit of women that we celebrate as we launch Selo Sa Basadi Community
Trust.

It is the same spirit that propelled the thousands of women who marched to
the Union Buildings in 1956 to demand a better life and that the apartheid
government scratches the Pass Laws, among other things.

In this month of August, the whole of South Africa pays tribute to these
gallant sisters, mothers and grandmothers of our nation. We thank them
sincerely for the role they played in selflessly and at great risk to
themselves delivered our country from the many painful and bloody years of
repression, teargas, rubber bullets, police dogs, torture, rape and abuse.

As we relive the memory of 1956, we must therefore renew our commitment to
continue the fight to emancipate all women completely and usher our society
into a non-racial, non-sexist, equal, democratic and prosperous nation for
which many of the women paid with blood, sweat, tears and even death.

We therefore view the launch of the Selo Sa Basadi Community Trust as part
of our collective arsenal to confront the common challenges of poverty,
unemployment and underdevelopment as well as the social ills such as rape,
abuse and violence against women and children that engulf our society.

We are extremely heartened by this initiative and we are certain that it
will continue to strive for the development of women in all manners including
socially, politically, economically, emotionally, morally and legally.

We are further pleased by the fact that Community Trust is operating mainly
in the rural areas of our country, having started in this province of ours in
2003. We add our support as the Provincial Government in ensuring that the
Community Trust optimally benefits the women of our province and indeed our
country.

I am told that the women who make up the Community Trust are already
actively involved in income-generating projects as well as life-changing
initiatives that assist in lifting the standard of living of our
communities.

We commend the Community Trust for these gallant efforts and hope that they
will motivate other women in business, in leadership and all spheres of life to
follow in their footsteps.

We are delighted to have learnt from the Women of 1956 as well as the
Community Trust we launch today that none but ourselves can uplift the standard
of living by building houses and schools, creating jobs, fighting poverty and
disease, as well as translating into reality the equality for all that our
Constitution provides for.

In conclusion then, allow me to challenge all of you here. When you announce
that you are going to bed tonight, ask yourself what it is that you have done
and you can still do, to improve the lot of our women, thereby making a
positive contribution to the society that initiatives like the Selo Sa Basadi
Community Trust assist us in reaching that goal.

I once again thank you for the opportunity to be part of this important
occasion and I would like to wish the Community Trust all the success it
deserves.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
19 August 2006