at the Queenstown Womenâ Summit
7 August 2006
Programme Director
All Womenâs Formations present
Members of the Executive Council
Members of Parliament
Executive Mayors
District Mayors
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Igama lamakhosikazi malibongwe!!!!!!
It gives me great pleasure to stand before you on this 50th anniversary of
the Women March to parliament. Chairperson, this summit is a sequel to the
Womenâs Summit held in Graff Reinet on 9 August 2005, in which women called
for:
* access to jobs
* access to better life
* development of women to enter into skilled labour
* ownership of land and economy
What we called for in the 2005 Conference resembles the aspirations of the
Womenâs Charter which was drafted by Women in 1955. In our present day
situation these aspirations resemble our own Provincial Growth and Development
Plan (PGDP) goals in which we aim to improve the lives of women. The PGDP
strongly echoes the Millennium Development goals adopted by the entire worldâs
government as a blueprint for building a better world in the 21st century.
It targets the issues of water, sanitation, shelter, eradication of extreme
hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and reduce
child mortality. What women were fighting for in 1956 is still the same as what
we are fighting for in 2006. The difference is that we have done something
about it in the last 12 years of our democracy, yet we still a long way go. We
now have allowed access to water and sanitation to thousands of our people. The
President has committed all of us that we need to do away with mud schools and
sanitation problems by 2008.
The economic growth of women is still at a very low level. Recent studies
show that women are still operating from lower to middle management and have
insignificant numbers in the top management of the economy. This economic
summit needs to give direction on how we can speed the economic growth of
women. However, we realise that this cannot be done by government alone. Hence
in this gathering today we have our social partners, the banks, business,
entrepreneurs and financial services.
In our midst we have:
* the recyclers from the Creek area
* informal vegetable vendor who have appealed for business skills and shelter
for their market
* young women farmers
* success stories from best practices
The people I have mentioned are responding to the call we made in August 9,
2005. We are mindful of certain obstacles that are barriers to women which are
class, gender and race. Our MECs will give their report as to what they intend
doing about the development of women in their respective administrations on the
31 August 2006. We need to totally overhaul our value system. As women we need
to attack the virus of racism. We must also change the power relations and
undergo a paradigm that says we cannot do anything because we are operating in
male dominate women because that attitude is deafest. We need to carry our
veterans history with us. We must find a home for all the women, particularly
our rural women. We must be united and connected in various powers and
positions we are holding. We need to use resources to transform women. We need
to mobilise and not demobilise ourselves.
To end my presentation, Chairperson, the resistance and resilience of women in
our country and all over the world is best captured in the poem by Maya Angelo
in her poem, âStill I riseâ Chairperson allow me to read just a paragraph of
this wonderful poem because it reflects just how strong we women are even in
the last 50 years:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise
Let us rise and fight against all evils that bedevils our society.
I thank you
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
7 August 2006
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecprov.gov.za)
