and Liaison, Mr FK Morule, on the occasion of the celebrations of Womenâs Month
held at Bothaville
19 August 2006
Programme Director,
Honourable Mayor of Nala, Me Mpai Mogorosi,
Honourable councillors,
Acting Provincial Commissioner of SAPS, Assistant Commissioner Le Roux,
Members of the South African Police Service,
Esteemed guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Malibongwe
Programme Director
In 1984 Comrade OR Tambo asserted that âour national and social emancipation
can never be complete if we continue to treat the women of our country as
dependent minors and objects of one form of exploitation or anotherâ.
Such an expression was partly in full honour of the 1956 defiance march by
women when they collectively expressed their disgust at all forms of injustice
against the oppressed and discriminated.
When they said âStrijdom, you have struck a rockâ, they registered their
resolve to the ideals of the Womenâs Charter of 1954 which in turn came to be
recognised as a landmark in the process of asserting and demanding the rights
of women and freedom from discrimination on the basis of gender.
Their belief that âMma ngwana o tshwara thipa ka bohalengâ was demonstrated
to the fullest when their petition warned that:
âWe shall not rest until we have won for our children the fundamental rights
of freedom, justice and security.â
However, it is disheartening to realise that the battle for womenâs equality
has yet to be won. Women are still forced into prostitution, coerced into
situation of exploitation considered as commodities and sexually abused.
The promotion and respect of womenâs dignity and rights should by all means
involve the fullest participation of the victims and members of the
community.
We need to acknowledge that the majority of gender-based offences take place
behind closed doors and it is obviously difficult to police them.
Therefore, it is imperative that victims should themselves report such
crimes. The under-reporting of crime poses a serious threat to the efforts of
government to develop effective preventive strategies against those who
disrespect and violate the rights of women.
Furthermore, members of the community also have a critical role to play,
particularly by providing information to the police whenever there is a
possibility that gender-based crime will be or has been committed.
The misery of the majority of our mothers, sisters and daughters emanates
from the excessive and irresponsible use of alcohol and drugs by their abusive
partners even here at Bothaville.
It is therefore cardinally important that municipalities in partnership with
your local community police forums (CPFs) take the peculiar problems of women
into consideration when developing local crime prevention strategies.
We are also aware that the community here does experience sporadic acts of
gangsterism.
I am delighted to announce that government in partnership with
Business-Against-Crime (BAC) and Harmony Gold, communities, educators and
learners recently launched the Tiisa Thuto Safer Schools Project in Phomolong,
Hennenman.
The paramount objective of such an endeavour is to ensure that effective and
quality learning and teaching do take place in a safe and secure
environment.
It is within such an environment that girl-children and women educators will
find and provide meaningful expression to life without any fear of crime and
victimisation.
One would definitely hope that your local schools will take an initiative of
prioritizing Tiisa Thuto Safer School Project.
However, in order not to turn schools into islands of peace and security and
disregard the safety of the broader communities such projects need to be
located within your broader local crime prevention strategy.
Programme Director
For us to say that women's equality has been won, women in their various
communities must be able to affirmatively and comfortably answer the following
questions:
* Do men and women experience distinctions in the processing of their cases
either as claimants or defendants in terms of access to justice; speed of
proceedings; ability to receive legal counsel through the state or other
aspects?
* What particular problems confront women as defendants in criminal
processes? What problems confront women who seek to utilise the criminal
justice system to bring a complaint?
* Is there specific legislation to punish violence against women?
* What precautionary measures exist to protect a woman who has been
attacked? What precautionary measures exist to keep the attacker away from the
victim? How are such measures obtained? What obstacles, if any, impede access
to such protection? Are measures of protection enforced?
* Does the victim of violence or a sexual crime have access to a civil
action for the recovery of damages? Are the public legal services to assist a
victim in such civil actions?
Conclusion
I would like to warn that as long as women live with the fear of crime and
victimisation, their options will be restricted and their movements
curtailed.
As we formulate and implement policies and programmes to address the issue
of the creation of a non-racial society, we have to integrate within this, our
objective of non-sexism. We need to do so because it is not possible to deal
with the challenge of a non-racial society without attending also to the task
of building a non-sexist country.
In 1985 comrades Oliver Tambo and Sam Nujoma made a joint pledge to the
women of South Africa and Namibia that we would not âconsider our objectives,
our task completed or our struggle at an end until the women of South Africa
and Namibia are fully liberatedâ.
I thank you!
Issued by: Department of Public Safety, Security and Liaison, Free State
Provincial Government
19 August 2006
Source: Free State Provincial Government (http://www.fs.gov.za/)
