L Xingwana: Launch of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development
Association

13 October 2006

Programme Director,
Minister in the Presidency, honourable Essop Pahad,
Minister in the Presidency of Guinea Bissau, honourable Sisocco Emballo,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, honourable Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma,
Senegalese Minister of Foreign Affairs, honourable Ayasatou Ndiaye,
Minister of Public Works, honourable Thoko Didiza,
Minister of Home Affairs, honourable Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula,
Minster of Minerals and Energy, honourable Buyelwa Sonjica,
Vive President of the National Assembly, Guinea Bissau, honourable Satou
Camara,
Directors-General of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Mr Masiphula Mbongwa and Mr
Glen Thomas,
Land Claims Commissioner, Mr Tozi Gwanya,
Ladies and gentlemen,

As I stand here today before you I feel buoyed by the knowledge that finally
we have arrived at the point where we wanted to be when we held our
"sod-turning" National Rural Women Summit in August in Durban. At that time,
this event was still more of a mirage than today's reality.

Over the centuries as women we have been systematically excluded from owning
property. This ranged from land, a home, a business and even our own children!
This travesty of justice even extended to matters of inheritance as only male
children were eligible to inherit the family jewels. In short, we were treated
as if we were non-existent. Just like the delinquent cousin who exists in every
family but of whom no one really wants to talk about.

For centuries women have been the tillers of the land. They have always been
at the forefront of ensuring food security and to a greater extent, social
stability. Yet all the land ownership systems deprived them the right to own
land in their own right. With the advent of democracy, there has been
recognition by government and society of the role of women as catalysts for
rural development.

To give impetus to rural development, our government has introduced a number
of policies that seek to entrench the role of women as drivers of rural
development namely Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD),
Micro-Agricultural Finance Scheme of South Africa (Mafisa), Comprehensive
Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) and so on.

Although there are concerted efforts on the part of government to promote
representivity in leadership, the workplace and in business, some signs of
prioritising men for leadership positions persist. The fact that although we
make up 52 percent of the adult population in South Africa and only 41 percent
of the working population, we constitute only 16,8 percent of all executive
managers and only 11,5 percent of all directors in the country, and only 6,4
percent of chief executive officers and chairs of boards.

We are here today to free ourselves from the shackles of patriarchy and
empower ourselves especially in the area of agriculture and land reform within
the context of rural development. We want this association to be mass-based and
ensure socio-economic development of our people.

We want this movement to practically focus on sustainable projects and
programmes that improve the quality of life of our rural communities. This must
lead to job creation and poverty alleviation. We have no choice but to stem the
tide of urban migration for the simple reason that there are not enough jobs to
go around in these urban centres. This is evidenced by the growing number of
squatter camps in our towns where our people remain unemployed and live in
abject poverty. Instead of turning to vagrancy they should come back to the
rural areas.

Although we have come a long way since the days of the Black Administration
Act, which kept us as perpetual minors, we continue to be excluded from the
mainstream of the economy. However, it is not all gloom and we should therefore
neither despair nor give up. The establishment of Women in Agriculture and
Rural Development Association (WARDA) is but just one way for us as women to
claw out of obscurity and be counted!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that with the determination and
resilience that is inherent in us, government assistance and public private
partnerships (PPP), Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa's
(AsgiSA's) goal of halving unemployment and poverty by 2014 is achievable. As I
have already said government is committed to paying particular attention to the
concerns of women and youth.

With regard to women the focus is on expanding and accelerating access to
economic opportunities including skills development and finance.

As far as expanding women's access to economic opportunities, government,
through AsgiSA is committed to:

* human resource training
* ensuring they have access to finance (micro to mega bucks)
* fast-tracking them out of the second economy
* ensuring their significant participation in agriculture and creative
industries etc.

Furthermore, Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) will be
leveraged to support shared growth. There are several other interventions
designed to support small businesses.

A key challenge in this regard is to address the gap in loans between R10
000 and R250 000.

Plans are afoot to accelerate the rollout of Mafisa programmes of loans
under R10 000. The Land Bank also needs to change to a developmental financial
institution.

Another set of second economy interventions is centred on the challenge of
realising the value of dead assets such as land, livestock, skills, indigenous
knowledge and other assets that have intrinsic value not currently
realised.

In this regard there needs to be:

* more rapid movement towards the formalisation of land tenure
* livestock improvement programme [he Agriculture Research Council (ARC) should
have this in place]
* more meaningful support for the development of co-operatives.

What we are striving for is for women to take a lead in agriculture,
production, value adding processing, marketing and business development. You
should be organised to work in groups or co-operatives so that you can enjoy
associated benefits such as bulk buying discounts, co-ordinated marketing and
so on.

As we engage in our discourse, let us not lose sight of the fact that we are
not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We are simply following in the footsteps
of women in other parts of the world who have already travelled this path.
These are some of the women that we will meet today and at the International
Congress to be held in this country next year during the month of April.

As we say: South Africa is alive with possibilities. It is how we exploit
those possibilities to our advantage that will make us better people.

In yesterday's Business Day newspaper the Heritage Foundation, a United
States (US) free market think-tank had this to say about this country, "South
Africa's economy is classified as mostly free and ranks at number 50 along with
Kuwait among 161 countries rated." We are up from 56 last year when 155
countries were rated. This report is published in the Wall Street Journal and
was released locally yesterday by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry South
Africa.

For us in this room this means instead of possibilities, there are
opportunities out there ripe for the picking.

I thank you, ndiyabulela, ke a leboga, ni khensile, ngiyabonga!

Issued by: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs
13 October 2006