the Conference on Women in Agriculture and Rural Development, East London
14 October 2006
Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms Lulu Xingwana
Visiting African Ministers of Agriculture and Land Affairs
Provincial Premiers
Members of Executive Committees (MECs)
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Igama lamakhosikazi! Malibongwe!
Wathinta abafazi! Wathinta imbokodo! â you will be crushed!
I derive great pleasure and feel honoured to be associated with this very
important occasion â commemorating the International Rural Women's Day and the
launching of the International Congress of Women in Agriculture and Rural
Development. Hopefully, our assembly and collective effort will provide a firm
platform from which rural women can network and share experiences.
It is not yet uhuru. It cannot be uhuru when our rural mothers and sisters
are still not economically empowered. It cannot be uhuru yet, when 40% of our
people are still locked in poverty, with women bearing the full brunt of
poverty over and above their burdensome experience as victims of domestic
violence and rape as part of their daily lives. The struggle must continue to
free women from the clutches of poverty and underdevelopment that subjugate
womenfolk to third class citizens of the world.
Our liberation as a country has to be defined by the quality of freedom
enjoyed by women in our beloved motherland. Our State President eloquently
explained during the national Women's Day Celebrations in Tshwane on Wednesday,
9 August 2006 that, "Together as a nation, we must uphold the perspective that
none of us is free unless the women are free â from poverty and loss of dignity
and free from fear and violence."
Programme Director, I will confine myself to the economic empowerment of
rural women from the perspective of my Ministry. As a caring and responsive
Government, we have an obligation to create a conducive environment for
economic empowerment and consequently, total emancipation of women. Women have
the responsibility to close ranks and organise each other to empower
themselves, no one will actually do that for them. The heroic march by the
gallant class of 1956 women has taught us that the freedom of women lies in
their very own hands.
The Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) as an arm of government with the
mandate to create conducive environment for the growth and transformation of
the minerals and energy sectors in our country, has a number of initiatives
directed at the economic empowerment of historically disadvantaged South
Africans, especially women and the youth. Of course, we are guided by the
Freedom Charter injunction that "The people shall share in the wealth in the
wealth of the country".
* Mining continues to be our country's largest industry sector and is
critical for the growth of our economy. Mining and the beneficiation of our
minerals has been male dominated for centuries. In promoting gender equity and
deracialisation of our economy, DME was instrumental in establishing the South
African Women in Mining Association (SAWIMA). SAWIMA is growing in leaps and
bounds and has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the DME to
deepen and broaden its growth and development.
* Women constitute the majority of our people trapped in poverty in the
rural areas where the mining companies source their labour. The department
through the Mining Charter directs mining companies to address the
socio-economic conditions of labour sending communities. It is imperative for
women to play a leading role in influencing the local and provincial
development plans of their localities and provinces, respectively, to be
aligned to the Labour and Social Plans of mining companies to improve their
lot.
* The Department has facilitated the establishment of the Women in Oil and
Energy South Africa (WOESA) website: http://www.woesa.com, WOESA is a voluntary
organisation of women whose aim is to facilitate and promote business
opportunities for and enhance the participation of South African women in the
oil and energy sector.
* Similarly, Women in Nuclear South Africa (WINSA) are an organisation
focussed in the nuclear sector. As you might be aware, nuclear features in our
plans to meet our future energy, especially given that our fossil fuels are
finite and will be depleted in time.
* The Department together with the Oil industry created the South African
Supplier Development Agency (SASDA) website: http://www.sasda.co.za. The main objective of
SASDA is to promote the empowerment of historically-disadvantaged South
Africans (HDSA) in the petroleum industry through increased access to industry
procurement opportunities. The empowerment of the previously disadvantaged,
including women, has to cascade throughout the entire value chain of the
industry as stipulated by the Liquid Fuels and Petroleum Industry Charter. From
2007, SASDA will set up a gender and youth desk to facilitate the participation
of women and youth in the oil and gas industry.
* Our Department organises an annual Minerals and Energy Chapter on
Technology for Women in Business (TWIB) as part of capacitating and empowering
women in the energy sector. This year, last month to be precise, the TWIB award
was won by a rural and specifically, Giyani based jewellery-making project that
scooped a new Nissan bakkie to boost their business.
Sadly, these initiatives or platforms have not, as yet, extended to rural
women and youth. We have a challenge to bring rural women and youth to the
fold. We are also working on ensuring that these structures do not become
elitist but serve all women, especially those in rural areas. I urge women,
especially rural women, to actively participate in the training and awareness
raising events arranged by the aforesaid organisations.
It remains useless to talk of opportunities while neglecting training and
education, which are very important for the energy sector as it is a
specialised sector, requiring a skilled labour force. It can never be too late
for one to learn. I do not only speak of formal learning opportunities but
informal education as well, which will be partly achieved through participation
in the aforesaid structures.
The current high and volatile prices of crude oil have renewed considerable
interest in biofuels in the whole world. In the main, biofuels are produced
from a variety of crops and plants, which are then processed either to produce
bio-ethanol which may be used as petrol or to produce biodiesel. Our department
is currently co-ordinating the drafting of a biofuels strategy to be tabled to
Cabinet by the Inter-departmental biofuels task team which is comprised of
various departments that also include the Department of Agriculture.
The development and production of biofuels cut across many sectors, with the
agricultural sector being the main sector with regard to the production of the
primary feedstock. This presents great opportunity, especially to the rural
women, to participate in the cultivation of the crops or plants to be used as
primary feedstock into biofuels production. In line with the objective of a six
percent growth rate in the economy by 2010 of the Accelerated Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), it is envisaged that biofuels production
will contribute towards job creation, mainly in the agricultural sector.
Moreover, it is very likely that some of the plants (refineries) that will
process the crops or plants to produce the biofuels will be built in rural
communities nearby the source of the primary feedstocks. This would provide
many socio-economic benefits to rural communities, including infrastructure
development.
In positioning ourselves for such opportunities, we need to co-operate and
mobilise ourselves as rural women to increase our economies of scale, thereby
ensuring our participation as emerging farmers. We would have to see ourselves
more as commercial farmers (as co-operatives) and not merely involved in
subsistence farming. We have to think big!
It is vital for local government and rural women to proactively participate
in the consultations regarding developments of the biofuels sector, including
the biofuels strategy. Rural women should not only wait for opportunities to be
created for them but have to help government by participating in the creation
of such opportunities to ensure that they are tailored for their benefit too. I
challenge the MECs and local government leaders to mobilise our communities and
to acquaint themselves about these initiatives and to engage the Department for
purposes of taking benefit of opportunities that would arise.
I also take this opportunity to urge women and our rural communities to
intensify the struggle against poverty and underdevelopment in partnership with
all our spheres of government and civil society. We all need to keep rural
development high on the national agenda so as to consolidate on the political
gains of our hard won democracy.
It is my fervent hope that today's historic launch of the International
Congress of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development during our Age of Hope
as proclaimed by our President in his State of the Nation Address will serve to
accelerate the economic stability of agriculture and farming to maintain a
healthy, safe and abundant food supply and thereby push back the frontiers of
poverty and unemployment in our rural areas.
Not a single entity or government department or tier of government can
achieve all of this on its own. We all need to work together to create an
enabling environment for rural women to participate in economic empowerment
programmes and opportunities in the public sector. Moreover, it is high time
that women should lobby government for the allocation of funding with
appropriate institutional arrangement dedicated to women empowerment. Already,
there is precedent in our country with respect to youth empowerment as
evidenced by Umsobomvu.
It is equally incumbent upon women and rural women in particular, to
organise themselves and actively participate in economic empowerment
programmes. In so doing, we would also be paying tribute to our recently
departed stalwarts of our struggle, Comrades Thozamile Gqwetha and James Kati
who sacrificed so much for our democratic dispensation.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Minerals and Energy
14 October 2006
Source: Department of Agriculture (http://www.nda.agric.za)
