L Xingwana: Rural women in Agriculture and Land Initiatives
Summit

26 August 2006

Honourable Ministers and Members of Parliament
Honourable Deputy Minister Advocate Dirk du Toit
Honourable members of the provincial legislature and local government
Directors-General - Mr Masiphula Mbongwa and Mr Glen Thomas
Ms Mandisa Monakali
Makhosikazi!
Ladies and gentlemen,

South Africa marks the 50th Anniversary of the Women�s March to the Union
Buildings, we say malibongwe to women of struggle - Lillian Ngoyi, Mama Ellen
Khuzwayo, Helen Josephs, Ruth First, Adelaide Tambo and many others.

Ladies and Gentlemen when President Thabo Mbeki announced that the �tide has
turned�, he meant that Government is exposed to the concerns of women with
regard to their economic prospects. Amongst others, women pointed to the need
for us to focus on issues of access to finance, development of co-operatives,
fast-tracking women empowerment, ownership of land by women and addressing the
rights of women labour tenants.

Amakhosikazi still feel the brunt of injustice - they do not have access to
land, basic infrastructure and access to agrarian benefits. No one has felt
oppression like women. First it was colonialism, then apartheid. Then, to top
it all of, the traditional oppression of customs. Women�s rights were violated
and still are. They continue to experience violent abuse, economic abuse,
sexual abuse, gender discrimination and inequality.

Today we are embracing the Age of Hope. Women have and will always be
involved in agriculture, whether as supporters, or as female farmers in their
own right or as household food producers. Women and land strike an intricate
balance. The two are inseparable and a number of interventions have been
developed to address the acute problem of poverty, which has resulted in
various social, political and cultural ramifications.

We gather here today, to action the reversal of past injustices. We will be
actioning the Bill of Rights and ensuring that from now on there shall be no
more systematic inequalities in government policies, programmes, laws of the
country and every measure put in place for the advancement of peoples lives.
Even more so for the advancement of rural women in particular, today and
tomorrow we will come up with strategies that will ensure that all obstacles
hindering the advancement of women are eliminated once and for all.

Take for example the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa (AsgiSA) framework, which focuses on a set of concrete economic
proposals that include a range of initiatives aimed at removing obstacles to
economic growth. We are talking about shared growth, yet by far the greatest
contributors to food security are excluded. How are we ever going to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) when a large section of our society is
omitted? Our rural women have, on their own, set the standards of surviving.
What does 12 years of democracy mean to rural women?

This summit�s main objectives are to engage in dialogue about the
opportunities and challenges facing rural women in agriculture and land. We are
gathered here to create an enabling environment for rural women to participate
and take, not only leadership, but also ownership of any initiative taken by my
Ministry in developing and improving their lives. So rural women, stand up and
be counted.

Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi!

We are creating a mandate for ourselves for which we have to develop
mechanisms and ways of sustaining what we set today. I remember growing up in
the rural areas, where much of my life centred on rural women empowerment. I
have worked with them and I have seen their personal suffering. Now, as a
Minister I want to use this opportunity to set out what I always wanted to
do.

This summit is underpinned by the Beijing Platform of Action on the
empowerment of women aiming to accelerate the Nairobi Forward Looking
Strategies. Nevertheless it is my understanding that all over the world rural
women�s issues are always treated as an afterthought. It was 14 years ago that
the world started to look at rural women�s issues rather favourably. At the
Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992 at least one chapter of the agenda was devoted
wholly to women�s issues. Coupled with that was the Geneva Declaration for
Rural Women, which sought economic advancement of rural women.

In 1995 was Beijing and I remember quite well some of the comments mostly
men made in an attempt to mock the Beijing process. Whenever a woman stood up
to speak her mind she will be called �Beijing�. In 1996 the World Food Summit
held in Rome recognised the role that rural women play in providing food
security and the challenges they faced in their day to day life. South Africa
hosted the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002; there is the
African Union and the New Partnership for Africa�s Development (NEPAD) where
the figures for women representation are a rare occurrence.

Basically this summit initiative is a consultative process for the mass
mobilisation of the downtrodden women in South Africa�s rural areas to gain
entrepreneurship, and establish partnerships for economic growth. We aim to add
a voice to the problem of poverty often facing rural women. Perhaps it will be
appropriate to give you a little anecdote:

�At the crack of dawn, with the sky still caught in that uneasy transition
between dark and light, the rural woman emerges from her house. At that time
the night�s stiffness begins to leave her body as she pours water from her
dwindling supply into an old can balanced by a ring of stones. Underneath the
can she has already laid a bundle of twigs. She will light the twigs, gently
blowing on them until the smoke abates and the twigs begin to glow. She will
prepare a meal for those who are still slumbering and immediately rush to work
on the land before the harsh sun results in unbearable temperatures.�

Women usually work the land that they do not own. Yet, the Constitution
states that all people have rights to land ownership. Despite structures such
as the Freedom Charter, the Gender Commission, Office on the Status of Women
and the Human Rights Commission the status of rural women still remains
unchanged. They become spectators in the land of their ancestors. Most live in
an unsustainable environment and the land on which they are living has little
or no agricultural value. They are forced to live there and try to make a
living. Those who cannot take the pressure any longer migrate to the cities,
where they end up facing the harsh realities of urban life: violent crime,
abuse, prostitution and living in shacks.

By and large this summit is a platform for reviewing strategies for critical
interventions towards sustainable development and empowerment of the poor and
mainstreaming them into the economy. Let me tell you, if we do not stand up
ourselves, landownership, will for instance, continue to be the domain of men.
Discrimination laws will remain in force further perpetuating poverty, and
skewed participation in agriculture leading to unprecedented inequalities.

Our interest in land will continuously be on a short-term lease basis. We
will only have access to land and agrarian reform through male relatives,
husbands, fathers and sons. The most unfortunate is that if such relations with
our male counterparts cease, so do the land ownership rights. Let me set the
record straight, we are not planning to launch an organisation for an
organisation�s sake. I want us to focus on its functioning towards the
establishment of tenure security for women as legal persons in their own right,
whereby agrarian reform will explicitly address the situation and needs of a
large number of households headed and maintained by women. It will focus on
uprooting marginalisation and creating a self-help arena for economic
advancement.

Fifty years ago, landownership was one of the reasons why women had to do
away with the pass laws. Women were not landowners and development was not part
of their lives. Even issues of pregnancy were determined by the husband�s
visit. Women had problems with child spacing because men would come once a year
as the law of the passes required. As a result, they were not in control of the
issues of food security and they could not decide on the selling or
slaughtering of animals, of which they were co-owners with their husbands.

Today, as we celebrate fifty years of the women�s march against pass laws,
we stand not in awe, but in celebration of what our young democracy has
achieved for women. In the twelve years that the new Government has been in
power, many initiatives have been put in place.

It has become urgent for women farmers to have access to the appropriate
means that would sustain them until they become business leaders. Even though
South Africa is receiving much acclaim about self help groups, we still can do
more via programmes such as the Micro-Agricultural Finance Schemes of South
Africa (Mafisa) to enable women to gain access to finance. Currently, out of
600 applicants for Mafisa loans, 44 percent are women, and they have received
30 percent of the total value of the loan.

We are talking about R16 million that has been advanced via the scheme to
ensure that the previously disadvantaged get the benefits. These benefits
include loans, savings mobilisation, which works best with self help groups and
the facilitation of capacity building. My Department of Agriculture is busy
profiling self-help groups with the aim of providing further assistance. We
want a federation of these groups, linking them to financial institutions that
will form part of the initiative we will be discussing in this summit.

The above is premised on the recognition of the central challenge the
Government is facing in the second decade of freedom, which will provide
avenues for financial support and substantially reduce production inadequacy as
a result of a lack of funds. Mafisa functions as collateral and its aim is to
facilitate long-term relations between the farmer and financial
institutions.

Also, as part of the critical instruments for the success of the
beneficiaries of the land reform programme, the Department of Agriculture has a
series of financial programmes and schemes such as Land Redistribution for
Agricultural Development (LRAD), the Comprehensive Agricultural Support
Programme (CASP), and the Agricultural Black Economic Empowerment (AgriBEE)
programme. As I have already mentioned, Government has set up these programmes
to open the doors for the commercial banking sector to also commit in terms of
the Financial Sector Charter.

It is my sincere hope that this summit will set the pace towards the
achievement of equitable and unbiased distribution of land. For these two days
you will debate in detail how best to design all-inclusive processes, with
priority given to women. I think it is appropriate that this summit takes place
during women�s month. To all women, I implore you to apply your minds and be
vigilant and focused.

The provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) are quite clear on most of the issues that
will be points of discussion. Where women have been unjustly deprived of land
and other resources, measures must be put in place to correct the situation. As
a country we need to measure our progress in this regard in relation to some of
the international protocols on the rights of women. These include:

* Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women
* Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women
* Convention on the Political Rights of Women
* Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed
Conflict
* Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discriminination
against Women.

Even though we have come this far in our democracy, I further implore you to
look more closely at the agrarian reforms and have women�s interests at heart.
I am also aware that in our country we have women who are economic actors in
their own right. Focus should be given to methods of getting the rural poor out
of their current situation and creating a better one. If by all chance this
summit will pre-empt policy change, let it be the one that builds a
differentiated analysis of women, building support for rural women from
small-scale farming rights up to commercial farming.

Our country should move towards an era where government policy making and
planning shift focus and pay greater attention to all forms of agriculture. We
should move away from the past, when commercial agriculture directed policy
making while peasant agriculture was seen as making an insubstantial
contribution to the economy and therefore, not deserving of policy. I would
like to emphasise that rural women have an extremely important role to play in
the alleviation of poverty.

Customary law is still used in some parts of the country to disinherit women
of land. Just recently, I handed over land in Dalmanutha and to my astonishment
most of the beneficiaries there were women. This is a case in point, where we
have to make sure that those women beneficiaries are not suddenly evicted from
their land because of customary laws. In the next two days you will be touching
on land and agriculture issues in relation to women.

Tonight, I will be celebrating with the women achievers as I award prizes to
the best Female Farmers for the year 2006. Since the start of the awards in
1999, these women were not only adding a voice to the economic contributions
that agriculture has been making, but also adding a voice to ways to reform
customary and communal forms of tenure in order to secure women�s rights to
land ownership. If the �tide has not turned�, this August presents us with the
opportunity to do so.

Remember, discrimination in land rights leads to poverty, displacement, food
insecurity, environmental degradation and the depopulation of the rural areas.
Let us therefore start the consultations and let rural women take ownership of
this process. Let them participate in discussions on the way forward. As much
as I am aware that there are structures representing rural women, I want rural
women to �do it for themselves�. Come and tell us what is delaying development
in all areas of your lives, but mainly concerning the issues of landownership
and agricultural development.

I would also like to announce that this summit will lead to the launch of a
women�s organisation in October this year that will incorporate all the other
umbrella associations, the national strategy on women, education and training,
research and other organisations such as our own National Women in AgriBusiness
Co-operative (NAWACO). What happened to that structure? Does it still exist?
What happened to the financial resources allocated to it? We need to open up
business opportunities, marketing and markets.

We will then have a World Congress on Rural Women early next year for
further dialogue, and to find innovative ways of bringing on board our
resourceful rural women; women who from nothing bring something to the table
everyday. Some of them conceptualised and clinched business deals without
support from Government such as MaDlamini in Qunu in the Eastern Cape. In Xhosa
we say �Eyethupha ngeyabafazi� �August is Women�s Month�. It is imperative that
women from diverse segments of society become part of the conference next year.
We cannot pretend that issues that affect women are similar for rural and urban
women. There will be a declaration at the end of the summit, which will
sanctioned by you. I am sure the declaration will provide an alternative
initiative that will add more voice, stamina and wisdom to women�s issues in
South Africa.

Largely, in the market arena, we should feminise them so that women can have
a strong visual presence. This will effectively concretise strategic
partnerships with government, business and other national and international
role players. I hope that will guarantee socio-economic advancement of
businesspersons in South Africa and the world. In this regard, we worked very
well with the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) when I was still with
Minerals and Energy. I trust that that relationship will continue to be
strengthened in Agriculture and Land Affairs.

A gendered way forward that will take us a step further in ensuring that we
continue to win markets over. Just recently, we clinched a deal for citrus
exports to China, which represents a wide scope of business opportunities for
women. South Africa exports about 3 million 15kg cartons to China and after we
sealed the deal I am expecting that this figure could rise to about 5 million
and in the next five years to 10 million. This is a huge opportunity for women
entrepreneurs in agriculture, since 1 orange in China has a street value of
R15, four oranges cost R60. �Makhosikazi Sithi Amasi Abekwe Elangeni�

Last week I was in Lesotho attending the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), Head of States Summit. We are looking at establishing a free
trade area, a customs union and a mutual market as indicated in the Regional
Indicative Strategic Development Plan, the roadmap for integration. The
spin-offs that will be coming from these trade negotiations will bear positive
results for organisations such as the South African Women Entrepreneurs Network
(SAWEN).

Through WARD (Women and Rural Development Summit), we will be looking at
ways of giving recognition to rural women, in relation to landownership,
agribusinesses and challenging the stigma around the tradition that women
cannot own land or property. The saying that a woman cannot enter a kraal is an
excuse for customary discrimination against women. Women now own kraals and
provide employment opportunities to both men and women. It is my sincere hope
that SAWEN will welcome WARD and look forward to the introduction of a new type
of membership from it.

We hope that SAWEN will act as a mentor, trainer and a skills development
centre for not only WARD, but for women in other sectors such as in mining,
tourism, construction, information and communication technology and various
business sectors as our umbrella body. We have also South African Women in
Mining Association (SAWIMA), Women in Oil and Energy South Africa (WOESA),
South African Women in Construction (SAWIC) and new emerging women
organisations such WARD. SAWEN will have to play an active leadership role in
uniting all these other women sectors and provide a centre where experiences
can be shared and programs can be exchanged. This would indeed be our
contribution to a strong women�s movement in South Africa, a progressive
women�s movement.

�Unity in Action�

At the Women Speak-Out Conference, which was held in Bloemfontein on 6
August 2006, the Deputy President, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka stated that severe
skills inadequacy and women�s economic disempowerment trap women in poverty.
Early childbearing often spells the end to a young woman's education, and
having a large family also severely limits her job choices, work productivity
and mobility.

Furthermore, improving the health and education of women at grassroots,
produces long-term benefits for society by improving the health and
productivity of their children. Better educated and healthier women, could also
play a role in arresting the large-scale feminisation of poverty. Access to
health and education makes a big impact if the masses have access to quality
healthcare and education. �If you educate a woman you educate a nation, a
healthy woman, means a healthy nation.�

The United Nations argues that by not equipping women to reap the benefits
of economic opportunities, poorly developed women's human capital will hurt the
economy and gender inequalities in the economic arena will be retained. It
stands to reason that in this way we sacrifice economic development. I told
them at the SADC Summit in Lesotho last week �if we do not achieve 50/50
representation, SADC is thinking with half brain�. In our context, it means the
growth we aspire to will not be shared. Women are the most reliable indicators
to use in gauging positive economic trends. I believe that the Deputy President
of the country Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is correct in saying �Women must be
the creator of wealth, the creators of jobs, and not job seekers�.

The tide continues to turn. Only a year ago the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
(JSE) companies� staff composition changed from 1 102 female executive managers
in 2005, to 1 323 female executive managers in 2006. This poses a direct
challenge to a culture prioritising men for leadership positions. While women
make up 52 percent of the adult population in South Africa (only 41 percent of
the working South African population) they constitute only 16,8 percent of all
executive managers and only 11,5 percent of all directors in the country. Only
6,4 percent of Chief Executive Officers and Chairpersons of boards are women.
This is not acceptable.

In conclusion women in general inspire civilisations, are the custodians of
our culture and now we have entered political governance. So now is the time
for women to lead in business and create new business, come up with norms and
standards based on �UBUNTU�. Therefore it is not the hard selfish world of
material benefit at the expense of others. As we rise, let us pull others up
that should be our guiding light. Let us salute the women who declared war on
colonialism, apartheid, discrimination and injustice.

The women that marched on 9 August 1956, 50 years ago, left a legacy for us.
Our challenge is to take up the spear where they left off by addressing the
challenges that face us today, so that 50 years from today, our daughters can
say our mothers left a legacy for us. The challenge for us today is to launch a
war on poverty, unemployment and hunger. If we can achieve the MDGs of halving
the people who suffer from hunger, who are poor and unemployed by 2014, we will
have left a legacy for our children and the nation.

Malibongwe!!!

Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs
26 August 2006