Programme Director;
Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane;
Minister of the Department of Women, Children, and People with Disability, Lulu Xingwana;
Speaker of the City of Tshwane, Cllr. Morakane Mosupyoe;
Honourable members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished guests from across the Southern African Development Community, SADC;
Members of the media here present;
Ladies and gentlemen:
A warm welcome once again to all of you to the City of Tshwane, our seat of power and home to many outstanding heroes and heroines of our struggle for a free, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. It is in this very city, the erstwhile citadel of power of the Apartheid regime, that many heroes and heroines of our struggle met their tragic death through the hangman’s noose in the gallows.
In the same breath, let me take this opportunity to thank the organisers of this event for their fitting choice of this city to host this important gathering. Many of you gathered here tonight will recall that it was in this very city in 1956, 56 years ago, that around 20-thousand women marched to the Union Buildings to demand an end to the dompas system. Led by visionaries such as Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Sophie de Bruyn, these gallant mothers of our liberation struggle smashed to smithereens the myth that women’s place was in the kitchen – or at home raising babies. They showed that women had the discipline, the organisational prowess, the determination and skill to engage in political activities at the highest level. Indeed, at that time the Women’s March was one of the biggest shows of defiance against the apartheid system by South Africans.
I am delighted to announce that plans are afoot to commemorate this year’s Women’s day – the day on which the great Women’s March took place – by having a sod-turning ceremony to launch the Women’s Living Monument.
Programme Director
It is the selflessness of those stalwarts that paved the way for us as the following generations to stand up and demand to be counted as equals. It is the efforts of people such as the late Ma Albertina Sisulu, and many others who laid the foundation for us to believe that anything that the other gender can do, we, as women, could also do – and even do better!
Their words and their actions inspired us to carry the cudgels when their bodies did not allow them to be active any longer. In fact, today’s theme: connecting girls, inspiring futures; speaks exactly to the kind of influence these our forebears had on us. Their selflessness inspired us to become more than what the patriarchal society wanted us to be.
Their commitment to the ideals of freedom and equality inspired us to be the examples to young girls never to accept anything less of themselves. We must encourage young girls to prioritise education in order to extricate themselves and their families out of poverty and hopeless that many have come to accept. We must do all we can to show young girls the dangers of entering into a sexual life while still too young. We must arm our young girls with adequate information and skills to better survive the ever-changing world we live in.
As we celebrate the hundred years of the existence of the African National Congress; it is apt that we remember the role women played in ensuring that this movement reaches this age. This centenarian old lady has the depth of knowledge that many of us can suckle from and learn, for our own sake, for the sake of our communities, South Africa, Africa and the world at large.
Furthermore, as we commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day; let us also take a moment to remember the role that women across Africa, but more especially, our sisters in the SADC region, played in supporting our struggle and ensuring that the liberation movement survived even some of its toughest times.
To the many SADC women seated here whose families played host to many of our brothers and sisters during the long struggle against apartheid – from Angola to Zimbabwe; from Botswana to Mozambique, we say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Some may not have been able to offer our combatants their homes during those times; but we nevertheless extend our gratitude for being with us spiritually as we stood against the monstrous racial tyranny of the apartheid regime.
Programme Director
That our struggles were and remain similar as women across the SADC region is immortalised in legendary trumpeter, Hugh Masekela’s song, Stimela, which goes thus:
There is a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi
there is a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe,
There is a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique,
From Lesotho, from Botswana, from Swaziland,
From all the hinterland of Southern and Central Africa.
This train carries young and old, African men
Who are conscripted to come and work on contract
In the gold and mineral mines of Johannesburg
And its surrounding metropoli, sixteen hours or more a day
For almost no pay.
Programme Director
This train - this Stimela- that Bra Hugh sings about; we, as the women of SADC, know only too well. It may have taken on board mainly men; but the misery it left behind was left for the women. It broke down families and the family structure, affecting millions of Africans. Today we face many societal ills because of that breakdown. It is my belief that it is only through the sharing of ideas across generations of SADC women that can help us face the past and better prepare for the future.
As women, we are aware that while the experience of the Zambian woman is not the same as her Kenyan sister – they are similar. Even now in 2012, after many of our countries have attained independence and colonialism, in its previous guise, has been defeated; African women remain significantly marginalised. We remain the majority in the unemployment lines; we continue to bear the brunt of the worst of poverty; and our education standards are still not reflective of our majority status in many of our countries.
However, while there is still a lot of work to be done to empower women in the SADC region; the evidence that the struggles waged by our mothers have borne fruit is irrefutable. Women now have the right to vote across SADC. Many of our countries are now encouraging the education of the girl-child; something which did not come without a struggle. We have even managed to produce a Nobel Peace laureate, the late Kenyan, Wangari Maathai, to indicate that we have actually made progress in the fight for women’s rights.
However, conflict across some SADC countries continues to eat away at the achievements we have made in the past 50-or-so years. It must be remembered that wars affect women and children the most. In fact, as wars bring about with them chaos and lawlessness, the safety of women comes under threat – with some countries using rape and other sexual violence as weapons of war. Also, the fact that wars mean diverting critical funds to military spending than education and other social upliftment programmes; women again become the primary losers.
Among us here today we are fortunate to have women who know the ugliness of war and can share their experiences with us. We have women from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, women who know the brutality that conflict brings to communities – especially women.
Programme Director
I am glad that this gathering has thought it prudent to have World Cafes breakaways which focus on exchanging ideas and providing mentorship to women of all ages. Importantly, the topics that will be discussed some have already been debated in these break-aways are relevant and touch all of us in one way or another. Issues such as science and technology and how those can be harnessed to boost women’s development across SADC are of interest to all of us. Others include issues of economic development for young women, HIV and Aids, rural development and food security and the role of the media in advancing transformation of our societies.
To deal with the myriad of these social transformation challenges, we need to explore means and ways of building robust and resilient economies. In this regard, we have positioned Gauteng as a key gateway to Africa, wherein we continue to explore vigorously investment and trade opportunities in the SADC region and other parts of Africa.
It was in pursuit of this ideal that in the 2012 Gauteng State of the Province Address I made an announcement that we will be partnering with other stakeholders to develop a Smart City at Nasrec in Johannesburg. This is a multi-disciplinary ICT development that aims to create sustainable economic activities through the use of ICT to improve the quality of life of our people. This is another building block towards turning Gauteng into a smart province.
On the other hand, our Innovation Hub located here in Tshwane affords our industrialists and scientists the opportunity to conduct technological research and develop intellectual properties to enhance economic development. The rest of the SADC region and Africa, at large, are encouraged to join in and be part of this development.
In conclusion, It is my wish that at the end of the discussions, we will come out with a clear mandate that will guide how we take our struggles forward. We must do all in our power to avoid this being another talkshop. With so many brilliant minds with such varied backgrounds, I am convinced that we will succeed.
Dankie.
Ngiyabonga.
Province
