Chairperson,
Distinguished guests
The position and role of women in any nation is a pretty good barometer of where that country in terms of development and where it is going in future. The emancipation of women in its broadest sense is a key driver for social, cultural, economic and developmental progress.
Working towards the emancipation of women is not an act of charity, but an imperative for any nation if it has to develop to its full potential. Women must play a central role in sustainable development. Advancing and creating leadership opportunities for women is at all levels and within our various sectors of society is critical.
However, it is not only the responsibility of women alone.It is the collective responsibility of both women and men. An American activist, once said, “A nation can rise no higher than its women.”
Where shall we start in looking at advancing and creating leadership opportunities for women? Let us start with political parties. The role of women in our political movements and parties requires closer introspection. No political party can win an election without the substantial support of women. Therefore, political parties will ignore women at their own peril. Women should recognise and use their strengths, an important one being their numbers.
In South Africa, we have done relatively well in the elimination of racism or in the creation of a non racial society, even though we are not there yet.We are not doing so well in the creation of a non sexist society. It therefore, means, women cannot just be members in their parties like our male comrades. Women have to struggle both within the party and outside the party for equality, their rights and emancipation. Within the party, we have to push back the frontier of patriarchy. We cannot build a non sexist society with sexist political parties. There are very few political parties, if any in the world, who are truly non sexist.
In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) is most advanced but it is still evolving into a non sexist movement. Using our strength, one of which is numbers we have to ensure that party manifestos are sufficiently geared towards promoting the building blocks of a non sexist society. As women we have a responsibility and an obligation to secure the 50% quota of women in our party lists in line with the African Union (AU) policy of equality. This will not come easily because it will be resisted.
Sometimes women make a mistake of looking at their individual position and if it’s secured they do not fight for the principle and other women. In South Africa, because the ANC has a 50% quota for women it has forced the other parties to include a critical mass of women in their list. It is leading other parties as well as society in this regard.
Why is it important that women became Members of Parliament and the Executive. Law makers who are very influential in society? They legislate on all areas that impact on our lives. Parliament plays a very important role in the creation of a non racial and non sexist society. Women have to be there when those crucial decisions are taken. The executives elaborate on various policies that impact on the emancipation and future prosperity of women. It recommends the budget which parliament can accept or reject.
What are the policies we should be encouraging?
A critical component of advancing the leadership cause of women is education. It has to take pride of place in developing the different elements of leadership. Women are always the first to have a profound influence on any human being in this planet.
As we are aware, women nurture babies from conception and for at least the first decade of their lives. Can we imagine how advanced a nation would be if all its women had access to education. Another important aspect of leadership is the health status of women. It is obvious that healthy mothers tend to raise healthy children and families. Food security plays a key role in this regard.
Some people believe that you are what you eat. A balanced diet and properly nourished family is in a better position to combat and fight different diseases. A family with a happy and contented mother is more likely to be happier and to be able to deal with tension or stress that is brought about by our daily experiences at home, at school, at work and within our communities in general.
If women have better access to proper human settlements, this would surely result in fewer families being confronted with the scourge of homelessness. In the same vein, job security and access to a stable income would have a similar impact on confronting hunger and poverty. With regard to our land redistribution policy, the contradiction between the stated aims of gender equality and the continuing role of customary law has hampered the efforts to improve the status of women.
At the opening of parliament a few years ago the all male members of the judiciary received a less than friendly welcome. The following year they brought women along and they are transforming albeit slowly. They felt the pressure and I am certain that they will do their best to give leadership opportunities to women who are just as able. Women do not stand a fair chance when the policeman is a man, the investigator, the magistrate and the judge is a man.
For women to receive fair treatment, especially in cases of domestic violence, rape and child abuse, we need to have women leaders in the criminal justice system. They will both understand issues from a women’s perspective but also influence the male members to move away from their patriarchal attitudes.
Women Leaders in the academic sector are also very impartial not only as role model to students but to do research, write on the role and position of women in society and advance the struggle for the emancipation of women. In the battle of ideas, women should be there otherwise this domain will be dominated by male ideas which may not advance our non sexist ideal. In science and technology, innovation is not altogether neutral. Women innovators must look at aspects that will benefit women.
The fresh example is the Anti HIV Tenofovir Gel that has been hailed as a breakthrough in the prevention of the HIV infection. Off course, men should not abandon the use of condoms. The team of researchers had women in it, including Dr Koleka Mlisana. Women in South Africa, Africa and the world over outnumber men. They are consumers and they spend billions on various goods. They form a critical market yet very few of them are captains of industry or in the management of companies. The majority remain workers under conditions determined by men.What we consume is determined by men.
If we are to reduce poverty, we need women leaders in decision making positions. The majority of the poor are women. The basic needs of women, especially in the rural areas, are affected by the lack of basic services including water, electricity, roads, access to land, food security, health and education. We are quite certain these lack of services are still not adequate.
There is a disproportionate distribution of wealth between men and women. As a consequence, women bear the brunt of inequality and poverty.
We need to utilise the opportunities provided by this conference to:
- Ensure that the commitments and resolutions we make, inform governments and parliament’s approaches and strategies towards addressing women’s economic challenges
- Address the imbalance concerning the participation of women in the economy
- Empower all women with knowledge and skills to effect meaningful change that builds a strong and an inclusive South African and African economy
- Ensure women get the skills, capital, licenses and technology especially in mining. Our continent has plenty of mineral resources but they need to be converted into wealth through mining and beneficiation. Women should also have leaders in this sector
- To reach women who have achieved some measure of success in the different sectors, so that they can further progress and contribute towards effective change in empowering all women and be role models and mentors to younger women.
Chairperson,
We are experiencing carnage on our roads, yet, if the majority of drivers on the roads were women there would be fewer accidents. The insurance companies can attest to this fact as they ask women drivers to pay lower premiums when they insure their cars.
If there were more women leaders there would be more peace on our continent.If women had access to more family resources they would put family first. More children would have shelter, more would have food and even more would get education. Women have to go after their dreams and their dreams are our nations and continents dreams. We have to put human interest at the centre of all endeavours not just fame, power and money.
This conference fits in well with the major initiative aimed at achieving gender equality in Africa. The African Women Decade 2010–2020 adopted by the African Union (AU) initiated by the Women and Gender Development Directorate (WGDD) of the AU. Though some progress has been achieved,the WGDD states about the objectives of the Decade of Women: “To date the women of Africa, like women elsewhere, have not been included as full, equal and effective stakeholders in processes that determine their lives.
For example, women continue to have less access to education than men; they continue to have less employment and advancement opportunities, their role and contribution to national and continental development processes are neither recognised nor rewarded, they continue to be absent from decision-making and although they bear the brunt of conflicts, women are generally not included in peace negotiations or other initiatives in this regard.”
We are few days away from August a month dedicated to women in our country and celebrating their indomitable spirit.It might be important to recall 9 August 1956, when thousands of women from all races and walks of life converged on the Union Buildings in protest against oppressive apartheid laws. The first demonstration of that magnitude at the very nerve centre of apartheid.
Rosa Luxemburg, the late Lithuanian philosopher, economist, activist and Marxist theorist once said, “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. ”Women of South Africa have always moved, felt their chains, and are struggling to break them.
Chairperson,
When he proclaimed 1984 the Year of the Women in the 8 January statement of that year, the late Oliver Tambo said:
"Our struggle will be less than powerful and our national and social emancipation can never be complete if we continue to treat the women of our country as dependent minors and objects of one form of exploitation or another. Certainly no longer should it be that a woman's place is in the kitchen. The woman's place is in the battlefront of struggle”
What he said then is still true today.
Africa cannot effectively challenge and overcome centuries of exploitation and oppression without the liberation of women being a central aspect of the struggle for genuine political freedom and economic independence.
The call for economic self-reliance, social justice, national cohesion, and greater continental integration is relevant now because sustainable economic development that impacts on us with special economic development is still out of reach. This reawakening, therefore, cannot happen without the active participation of African women in policy decisions.
The extent to which our continent will develop will be directly proportional to the extent to which women emancipation advances.
I thank you.
Malibongwe!
