L Msengana-Ndlela: Women in Local Government Summit

6 September 2007

Programme Director, Sophie Molokoane Machika,
Deputy Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Nomatyala Hangana,
MEC for Local Government and Housing in Limpopo, Nkoana-Mashabane,
The representatives of Organised Local Government,
Our host Mayor Mushwana and Speaker Lucy Ncha,
Mayors, Speakers and Councillors from all over South Africa,
Presenters who will be sharing their insights throughout this Summit,
Our partners in this project, the Eskom Foundation and the German Technical
Co-operation Agency (gtz),
My colleagues who serve in national, provincial and local government,
Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Department of Provincial and Local Government, I would like
to thank you for travelling all the way to the north of our country, the
Limpopo Province. Please join me in thanking those who have been involved in
the organisation of this Summit and the public event yesterday. We hope that as
participants you will continue to interact with the people of Tzaneen,
appreciate the beauty of your surroundings, see the potential of one of South
Africa's bread baskets and hopefully learn from one another.

I stand before you today in the name of many sung and unsung heroines who
fought tirelessly in the past for the emancipation of women in our country. It
is these South African women on whose shoulders that we stand today. In order
for us to face our future, it is important that we remember the past, where we
come from and the realities of our present situation.

Today, we recognise and celebrate the gallant strides that were made by
these pathfinders in pursuit of a new South Africa. A new democracy free of
racial, class and gender discrimination that our people have endured, not over
decades, but over centuries of colonial and apartheid rule. It is on the
shoulders of these women that we stand today: Lillian Matabane Ngoyi, Amina
Cachalia, Dora Tamana, Charlotte Manye Maxeke, Ida Ntwana, Ruth First, Helen
Joseph, Bertha Gxowa, Dorothy Nyembe, Ray Alexander Simons, Florence 'Mam Flo'
Mkhize and many others.

As the song says: Bayephi na abafazi abafana noomam'u maNgoyi babevuka
ngesifingo ukusinga ePitoli niyasikhumbula na isifungo esafungwa ngoomam'u
MaNgoyi asisoze siphath'amapasi kwilizwe lookhoko bethu.

I sometimes wonder whether most South Africans appreciate the extent to
which many women before us fought for the restoration of human dignity.
Fortunately, those who are attending this summit are conscious of this past and
the historic responsibilities that we all carry. So, what then do I say to
women leaders who operate in the present and who carry the hopes of our people
for a better future? You are the ones who hopefully know about the silent
struggles of many women from the past to this day and age. You know of Sarah
Baartman's struggle for dignity, a proud Khoi-San and African woman. It was
only in 2002, that we were able to bury her in South African soil since she
died at the hands of colonisers and oppressors about 191 years ago. It is on
her shoulders that we stand here today.

You also know of women who have paid the ultimate price, at the hands of the
brutal apartheid regime. The gruesome murder of women by that regime is a
reminder of a system that should never return. These are women such as Nomkhosi
Mini, Ruth First and Victoria Mxenge. So what is the responsibility of local
leaders in this democratic era of our development?

Programme Director

I would like to suggest that the responsibility of all participants in this
Summit and South Africans in general, is to defend our democracy for this and
many generations to come, a democracy characterised by freedom from racial
oppression, class exploitation and patriarchy, a democracy characterised by the
reconstruction and development of our country.

How should we undertake this responsibility in local government?

All strategic documents of the government point to the need for us to
understand the nature of the enemy that we face today in order for us to be
able to assume our responsibilities. Clearly, the enemy that we face post -
1994 is different from what our people have overcome - a visible and
institutionalised system of apartheid. Today’s enemy has a different character.
It is poverty, unemployment, social exclusion, economic exclusion,
environmental decay and the abuse of women and children. We need to mobilise
the forces in government to work with the rest of society in order to address
this common enemy and the symptoms of systematic underdevelopment throughout
the 365 days in each year.

We need you, leaders, public representatives, community activists, veterans,
administrators, academics and development practitioners to follow in the path
of the gallant fighters before you and mobilise our people to triumph over this
enemy, in the defence of our democracy.

After 13 years of democracy, we have reason to celebrate the successes
recorded in service delivery whilst we intend to raise the bar of development
even higher. Indeed, many of our people continue to benefit from the programmes
of this government. For example

* Access to water: The percentage of households with access to water has
increased from 59% in 1994 to 86% in 2007
* Access to sanitation: The percentage of households with access to sanitation
has increased from 48% in 1999 to 73% in 2007
* Access to electricity: In 1994, 30% of households in South Africa had access
to electricity and in 2006 this percentage increased to 73%
* Housing: From 1994 to 2007 there are 2,35 million houses that have been
completed
* Social grants: Beneficiaries have increased from 2,6 million in 1999 to 12,0
million in 2006.

The five year Local Government Strategic Agenda (2006 to 2011) is very clear
on the individual and collective roles of the three spheres of government. The
need to ensure that the poor and targeted groups such as women benefit cannot
be over-emphasised. With regard to the representation of women in local
government, there are significant improvements, particularly from the recent
period of 2004 to 2006:

* Local councillors: from 29 to 40 percent
* Mayors: from 19 to 40 percent
* Speakers: from 31 to 37 percent.

However, there are still challenges in the representation of women in other
local and provincial positions. For example, women municipal managers have only
increased from 6,3 to 7 percent in the same period. Furthermore, out of the
total nine provinces, there are three women Premiers, three Members of
Executive Councils (MECs), two provincial Directors-General, two Heads of
Department for Local Government. Clearly, this situation requires the attention
of leaders in provincial and local government, who in the majority of cases
have a say in the appointment of senior managers.

On our part, as the dplg, there are at least four areas which we, in
consultation with South African Local Government Association (Salga), have
identified as important elements of our gender and equity programme in the next
five years:

* policy and strategic support,
* capacity building and knowledge sharing,
* funding to municipalities,
* monitoring, reporting and evaluation.

With regard to the first element, we will be launching the Local Government
Gender Policy Framework today. The contents of the framework incorporate:
* aims, objectives and intended outcomes,
* gender and integrated development planning,
* key focus areas,
* the institutional framework – gender focal points,
* gender performance indicators and monitoring mechanisms, and
* the implementation plan.

The second element deals with on-going capacity building and knowledge
sharing programmes. As these programmes evolve, we hope we can work together in
focussing on leadership capabilities such as:

* communication and organisational mobilisation,
* advocacy and representation,
* strategy development and critical analysis,
* systems and functional responsibilities,
* decision making,
* public service principles and values,
* emotional and political intelligence,
* personal effectiveness.

Programme Director

As you will note, this capacity element has also been incorporated in the
programme of this summit. With regard to the third element, government through
our department has been increasing the funding to local government. As you will
be aware, the budget of the dplg has increased from R4,7 billion in 2001/2 to
R28,8 billion in the 2007/8 financial year. More than 90 percent of these funds
are allocated to local government. However, it will be important that local
leaders ensure that these national transfers, together with own revenue, are
specifically targeted to serve their purpose, particularly the emancipation of
poor women.

Lastly, I hope that you will agree with us on the need to improve our
monitoring, reporting and evaluation systems. This we need to do not as a
process in itself, but as a means to achieving our development outcomes. A
separate presentation will be made in this regard. In conclusion, we wish that
this summit will be an opportunity for us to take stock of progress and
re-dedicate ourselves to the emancipation of women and the restoration of human
dignity.

ilocal government iyasetyenzelwa.

Re a leboga,
ndi a livhuwa,
I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Provincial and Local Government
6 September 2007
Source: Department of Provincial and Local Government (http://www.dplg.gov.za)