Conservation and Environment, at the Gauteng 2006 Female Farmer of the Year
Awards ceremony, held at the Geluksdal Multi-Purpose Community Centre,
Ekurhuleni
24 August 2006
Programme Director, Ms Nakedi Ribane
Our guest of honour, the Premier of Gauteng, Mr Mbhazima Shilowa
Chairperson of the Gauteng Provincial Standing Committee for Agriculture,
Conservation and Environment, Ms Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko
Members of the Provincial Standing Committee for Agriculture, Conservation and
Environment and Members of the Provincial Legislature present,
Executive Mayors, members of mayoral committees and councillors present
The Head of Department, Dr. Steven Cornelius
Government officials from all spheres of government present
Our principal guests, female farmers and women of Gauteng
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen
In welcoming you I wish to assume that no one is uncertain of the essence of
our gathering for this gala evening. Had the reason of tonight�s festivity been
by any chance obscure, I would have reminded us of what Ms Thenjiwe Mthintso,
our country�s ambassador to Cuba said at the Special Women's Hearings of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Spelling out the plight of women in
our country, Ms Mthintso observed that �As women speak, they speak for us who
are too owned by pain to speak. Because always, always in anger and
frustration, men use women's bodies as a terrain of struggle, as a
battleground�. I believe that Mthintso requested to further elaborate on this
pain and frustration because she would have traced it to the patriarchal system
that still brutalises many a woman in our country.
Contrary to this reality of the evolvement of our social, political and
economic reality, we are gathered here today to collectively reclaim our
humanity, our wholeness, conscious of the fact that the consolidation of
democracy in our country requires the eradication of social and economic
inequalities, especially those that are systematic in nature, which were
generated in our history by colonialism, apartheid and patriarchy and which
brought pain and suffering to the great majority of our people, to borrow from
the wording in the Promotion of Equity and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination
Act No 4 of 2000.
This occasion, the 2006 Gauteng Female Farmer of the Year Awards ceremony,
provides us with this opportunity to celebrate the success of the women folk of
our province, female farmers in particular. In opening opportunities for women
to be economically empowered, to further stimulate our provincial economic
development and to help sustain our country�s food self-sufficiency status, the
Female Farmer of the Year Project is indeed further contributing to the
banishment of patriarchy and the oppression of women.
The Female Farmer of the Year project is not the only tool at our disposal.
Properly implemented, as it should and as it will, the Gauteng Agricultural
Development Strategy (GADS) will not only further contribute to the
de-racialisation of the agricultural sector. It also should and will be
utilised to further banish the abounding patriarchal tendencies in the sector.
Of course, we shall and do encourage women to find their niche within this
strategy. Hydroponics, an agricultural system that seeks to by-pass negative
climatic and soil conditions, is another option available to us all within the
GADS. Only two days ago, on 22 August 2006, we launched a Hydroponics Incubator
Project, a project that is aimed at enhancing our skills in this agricultural
system. Biasness towards women is also entrenched in the intake of
learners.
Having confirmed our reason for coming together in this form and having
briefly spoken of the content of today�s festivity, I wish to welcome you all
to this gala evening. I wish to acknowledge and welcome in particular our
Premier, Mr. Mbhazima Shilowa. The Premier will later address us in his keynote
address. I also wish to welcome and acknowledge the presence of the Chairperson
of the Gauteng Standing Committee for Agriculture, Conservation and
Environment, Ms. Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko and her team.
I wish to also welcome all Mayors, members of Mayoral Committees and
councillors present. I am aware that many of them could not make it to this
event due to other commitments, including the gala event for local government.
Officials from all spheres of government, including those from the Department
of Agriculture, you are welcome. Representatives of Total SA, ABSA, Land Bank
and Onderstepoort Biological Products, sponsors of the Female Farmer of the
Year programme I thank you for your patronage. Members of the media, all
invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, you are all most welcome.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture Conversation and Environment, Gauteng
Provincial Government
24 August 2006
