Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the 2007 Women's Parliament, Parliament, Cape
Town
28 August 2007
Mme wa ngwana o tshwara thipa ka bohaleng!
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Mahlangu-Nkabinde,
Ministers,
Deputy Ministers,
Members of Parliament,
Representatives of non-governmental organizations and community based
organisations,
Officials from the three spheres of government,
Friends,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Introduction
I am pleased to be participating in this fourth Women's Parliament which has
been an annual outreach programme of Parliament since 2004.
This Women's Parliament is held during August when we commemorate and
remember the sacrifices made by women in the struggle against apartheid. We
remember the significant role women have played in creating our democratic
society, and we also acknowledge the crucial role women must continue to play
in ensuring the reconstruction and development of our country because 'Mme wa
ngwana o tshwara thipa ka bohaleng!'
The Constitution
Deputy Speaker, I would like to begin by referring to the founding
Provisions of our Constitution which our Parliament adopted in 1996, and I
quote some of the values:
"The Republic of South Africa is one, sovereign, democratic state founded on
the following values:
a. Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human
rights and freedoms.
b. Non-racialism and non-sexism."
What is a non sexist and non-racial South Africa? How do we build it and who
must build it?
We must build a South Africa, for which women fought and deserve, the South
Africa our founding mothers dreamt of.
In that regard and notwithstanding the progress we have made. It is still
not good enough for some women who are still victims of sexism. We are failing
them. For women who continue to hold the knife at the sharpest end, the pain
from the sharp end, of the knife is just that; pain!
Passing of important legislation
What is the use of passing good legislation if we do not pay attention to
the impact and access to benefits of good legislation; therefore I appeal that
we shift our focus to that space of implementation and impact and ensure we get
the desired results through ensuring access and implementation of good
legislation.
Some of the Pieces of Legislation, examples are:
Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, (Act No 92 of 1996); the Employment
Equity Act, (Act No 55 of 1998); the Maintenance Act, (Act No 99 of 1998) and
the Domestic Violence Act, (Act No 116 of 1998).
Let us agree on a plan to make at least these four work better; laws are not
sufficient on their own. We need to make sure that these laws work. We must
take practical steps at all our levels, as women leaders, we must remind
ourselves and practise that we too have to handle the knife at the sharpest
end, or 'tshwara thipa ka bohaleng!' Without that, our talk is cheap. We need
to know the 'How, Who and Where' of implementation. We need a game plan, not
just events, certainly less celebrations, and more problem solving and pushing
of frontiers.
Poverty eradication needs women
The important role women need to play in current issues and SAWID
Women need poverty to be eradicated. We can learn from the practical steps
by the South African Women in Dialogue (SAWID). Action, action and more
action!
We must remove poverty so that families become free of poverty recreating
conditions. We, therefore, will have the possibility of reducing the number of
poor people, which means reducing the number of families and people who are
poor, which is more than reducing the level of poverty with households through,
for example, food security. Government, indeed, is doing an extraordinary job
in taking people out of absolute poverty. Government needs more partners to
eradicate poverty.
The link between eradicating poverty and education
Empowering and educating women and girl children is crucial, and should
underpin all our efforts to create a better life for all our people. It is the
most reliable intervention to remove poverty and its recurrence in a family,
especially because, if you educate a woman, you educate a nation! With
education, there are more chances of economic self- reliance. The lack of women
education is at the heart of women's poverty.
Eradicating crimes against the vulnerable
Notwithstanding government's efforts at creating safer communities, women,
children, the aged and those living with disabilities continue to bear the
brunt of crime. It is clear that social transformation and forming partnerships
with civil society, is the only way government can protect the most vulnerable
in our society.
Poverty, lack of education and economic deprivation contribute significantly
to the unpleasant conditions of women.
We must help government and ourselves to bridge the gap between reducing
levels of poverty and reducing the numbers of poor people! It is in eradicating
poverty and reducing the number of the poor that we will win the fight against
poverty.
The role of mothers in caring for our girl children
Deputy Speaker, government, Parliament, business and civil society all have
their role to play in ensuring gender equality. However, I want to stress the
crucial role individual women have played and continue to play in their
families. Nurturing children is the responsibility of both parents. Yet women
should not abdicate the responsibility of caring for their children,
particularly their girl children. Mothers cannot abdicate this responsibility
to the school and to government. These institutions do not have the
capacity.
No amount of entitlement of women to their own hard won freedom makes it,
less important for women to 'tshwara thipa ka bohaleng!' or handle the knife at
the sharpest end.
But even better, we have to aim to remove the need for women to have to
handle the knife at the sharpest end!
Girl children need to be free
We want girl children to be free to become engineers, educators, medical
personnel, Members of Parliament, mothers and loving wives. We do not want our
girl children to be burdened by early sexual encounters, which leave them
pregnant and HIV positive. Mothers are role models to their daughters; let us
take care of our girl children. Let us engage with girls from an early age
about the importance of education and economic independence. Let us, at the
appropriate, time engage our girl children about their bodies, motherhood, and
the importance of remaining HIV negative.
We want all children to grow up in a caring society.
Important role played by women
Deputy Speaker, women also have an important role to play in educating men
about gender equality. Mothers need to educate their sons about respecting
girls and women. Sons need to understand the consequences of unprotected sex
and the responsibilities, which fatherhood brings. In a nutshell we need to
break the cycle of poverty through engaging with our young people on vital
issues such as education and health.
I am alarmed by the number of young male chauvinists one hears in the mass
media. There is something we are doing wrong on that score to still have so
many speaking publicly and questioning women's equality.
Educating Women
* We must promote mentoring of young women. e.g.
* We are making strides in the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition
(Jipsa) by placing young women - eleven thousand (11 000) in just over one year
� in engineering, tourism, finance and Information Communication Technology
(ICT)
* Bursaries and Further Education and Training (FET) and universities by the
Department of Education (DOE).
* Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) is in the pipeline.
* Presidential women's working group making progress.
Economic independence of women
Deputy Speaker, our government continues to prioritise the economic
independence of women. Women need to take their rightful place in our
mainstream economy.
The Women's empowerment initiatives led by the Deputy Minister Thabethe are
aimed at positioning women in the economic mainstream:
1. A Women Entrepreneurs' Fund to be launched in November 2007.
There has been important progress towards a fund to support small businesses
owned and run by women � the Women Entrepreneurs' Fund. The recent presentation
by the Presidential Working Group of a women's retirement fund proposal
programme designed for women and poorer workers is an outstanding
initiative.
Their proposals highlight the need for inclusion of domestic workers, a
sector that is always overlooked, but plays a critical role in our economy.
This initiative will also force retirement funds to look at representation of
women in the sector, and can therefore, speed up the process of
diversification. Women will be able to increase their savings as well as invest
in their future through this retirement initiative.
Women representation on retirement fund decision making
As members, women contribute 50 percent to the 1 Trillion rand retirement
fund yet their representation as decision makers on the fund is only 7
percent.
In the public sector retirement fund, of the 146 trustees only 22 are women.
While in the private sector retirement fund, of the 172 only four are
women.
2. Jobs for Growth (J4G) Fund in partnership with Old Mutual South Africa
(OMSA) and other initiatives are
3. Co-ops for women
4. One municipality, One Product.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Deputy Speaker I want to wish the participants well in their
deliberations during this Women's Parliament. We encourage women to
continuously talk to law makers and specifically to the Member of Parliament in
their constituency, about to the experiences and the challenges they face in
implementing laws and policies.
We, as women, need to ensure that the Constitution of our country, which we
fought for as a collective, becomes a living document. I understand that a
number of topics will be discussed including Education, Environment and Tourism
and Agriculture and Land. We hope that the outcome of this Parliamentary
sitting will have clear programmes to empower women.
We have much, much more to do still. We still need to 'Tshwara thipa ka
bohaleng'- to hold the knife at the sharpest end, because we have not yet
arrived!
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
28 August 2007
