The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande on the occasion of the DHET Women Month celebration held at Setsong Museum
Director General, Dr Nkosinathi Sishi; Deputy Director General’s present; All women of the DHET;
Men present today;
Good morning!!! Sanibonani!!1 Dumelang!!! Avuxheni!!! Ndaa!!!
It gives me great pleasure this morning to be addressing the Women of the Department of Higher Education and Training as you celebrate women’s month.
I am happy that we have gathered as we have done, so as to pay tribute to the countless heroines who have made it possible for us to enjoy our freedom.
I refer here to heroines of our struggle such as Charlotte Maxeke, Ray Alexander, Ida Ntwana, Helen Joseph, Lilian Ngoyi, Lily Diedericks, Francis Baard, Rahima Moosa, Florence Matomela, Victoria Mxenge, Sophie De Bruyn and many others who throughout the long years of struggle for freedom demonstrated fortitude in confronting white minority rule.
These women and many others believed in the possibility of a South Africa based on non-racial, non-sexist, just and democratic ideals, freedom and equality; represent the very essence of being human.
I want to pay homage to the struggles of women over the generations, that today as women you have the right to vote, the right to work, the right to have control over your bodies, the right to property and the right to equality.
In every part of our country, I see you as women taking charge of your destinies, inspiring others and driving change.
You are excelling in areas once closed to you, such as engineers, scientists, managers, pilots, farmers, judges, magistrates, athletes, marine pilots and soldiers.
In our recent history, we have seen women of our country excelling in sport. Banyana Banyanna and the Protea Netball Team did our country proud. Banyana Banyana won the African Women’s Cup and reached the top 16 in the Women’s FIFA World Cup and our Netball Team played very well and are now ranked 6th in the world.
Today, I want to pay my tribute to these imbokodo for flying South Africa’s flag high.
We certainly need to pay them well and their pay must be equal to that of men or even pay them more.
I also want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to you as women of the Department of Higher Education and Training who are the cornerstone of our Department.
I want you to know that from the office that you work in and the floor of our department that you always keep clean, in all areas of your work - today from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you very much. Keep on the good work. You are indeed the future of this sector and our Department.
Without you, this Department would not be what it is. You are the movers and shakers of our PSET. YOU ROCK!!!!
Ladies and gentlemen
This year we commemorate this Women’s month under the theme "Women’s Socio- Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Improved Resilience”.
Our focus for 2023 Women’s Month is amongst others the acceleration of socio- economic programmes and activities that are undertaken across different economic sectors to fast track gender mainstreaming across these.
It is therefore important that we trace our progress from the advent of our democracy in 1994.
It is a fact that our 1994 democratic breakthrough (as some of us call it) marked huge progress in the struggle against racism and gender inequalities in South African society.
It is no mean achievement that since then we have virtually done away with all racist legislation in our statute books, and we no longer have public facilities that are meant for blacks and whites separately (whether it is schools, hospitals, public transport, etc).
Since 1994, not only have we done away with racist and patriarchal legislation and law, but we have also passed numerous laws and adopted policies that have gone a long way in promoting a non-racial and non- sexist society, despite the many challenges that we still face.
However, as I address this gathering this morning, it is also important to remind ourselves that the struggle against apartheid sought to address THREE deeply interrelated contradictions: race, class and gender. That is racial oppression and domination; class, rooted in socio-economic inequalities; and the oppression and superexploitation of especially black women.
It was for this reason that in the past we spoke about the TRIPLE oppression of women - as blacks, as workers and the poor, and as women.
Despite the many advances we have made since 1994 there is still stubborn persistence of these contradictions, and today some of them manifesting themselves even more violently, especially the scourge of gender based violence.
DHET progress in advancing women emancipation and empowerment
As a Department of Higher Education and Training, we should therefore use this day to reflect on the challenges facing all the women of our country and our Department in particular to evaluate the progress we are making in ensuring that South Africa becomes a truly non-sexist society.
We should look back since the beginning of this department as to how far we have changed the employment demographics of this Department.
We should also evaluate our programmes that we have developed to capacitate women to take up leadership and managerial roles in our Department and that of the Post School Education and Training (PSET) sector in general.
We should ask ourselves as to what more should we do to ensure that the empowerment and emancipation of women becomes a daily reality.
Based on our answer to this question, we should then resolve to accelerate our progress towards gender equality both in this Department and in all our institutions and agencies.
We should use this day to ask ourselves as to what more should be done to end all forms of women abuse and violence against women and children, including the terrible crime of rape.
Furthermore, as a Department we should work diligently to implement programmes that ensure that we push back the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment that characterise the lives of millions of women in this country and those within our Department.
What does we do:
1. We should further increase the representation of women in all structures of our Department to ensure that there is nothing about women without them. We should improve women representation in decision-making structures of our Department and our sector as a whole, be it at DG, DDG’s, Chief Directors, Directors, CEOs, in the Boards of our entities and in all our institutions of learning.
I must say I am proud to indicate that in Cabinet, half of Ministers are women.
2. We should be steadfast in implementing government policies which directs us to have biasness towards advancing the lives of women. This include, amongst other, our human resource policies and supply chain policies. You know that our government has committed to allocate at least 40 per cent of public procurement to women-owned businesses.
3. We should further implement policies that prevents gender based violence and harassment.
4. We should further commit to the implementation of policies to ensure gender equality and diversity.
5. We should further implement policies that encourages women advancement including achievements in education and further study.
6. We should initiate ongoing campaigns on gender equality and gender-based violence.
All of these must be continuously monitored and improved.
DHET is a major instrument of empowering women; through community colleges for women who never finished or went to school at all; in TVET colleges to produce women artisans and other mid-level skills (eg HR, public relations, etc); in university education.
We have done a lot on this score and much more still needs to be done. If you do not do your work diligently you are compromising the future of millions of women? A woman in the DHET must be passionate and very active about these things. Do not just be satisfied about being a woman in the DHET, but about what you do to advance the cause of women and gender equality!
In conclusion
As I conclude, let me indicate that despite our progress and achievements, we still have a lot of contradictions and challenges that we must confront.
South Africa has one of the highest female illiteracy rates in our country. Despite this, we still have more female learners sitting for matric than males. Female learners also achieve more bachelor passes in matric.
Our young women make up the majority of students enrolled in our higher education institutions. We however still have a problem of girls dropping out of school, often due to domestic responsibilities.
Women’s health outcomes continue to improve as a result of progressive policies around reproductive health, antenatal care, HIV/Aids and other communicable diseases.
Even though women’s health outcomes have improved by a number of indicators, women still carry the largest share of the burden of HIV and are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases. Despite our laws, women and girls in many parts of our country still struggle to access reproductive health services.
The participation of women in our economy must still be improved because our economy remains dominated by men, with more women unemployed than men.
Women are more likely to work part-time, unskilled and semi-skilled jobs and for lower pay. We also know that women are disproportionately responsible for unpaid care work.
As a result of all these factors, women are more vulnerable to poverty, food insecurity and hunger. Nearly three decades after the dawn of our democracy, the face of poverty in our country is a black women. Therefore, the emancipation of women cannot be achieved without economic empowerment.
In many households, women are also breadwinners. They must have equal job opportunities and equal pay. They must be able to start, own and manage their own businesses. This will ensure that women have financial security and independence to have control over their lives.
As we may know, our government is determined to make the most of its available resources to make a difference in the lives of young women with disabilities, rural women and LGBTQI+ women.
With all these contradictions and achievements, it is certain that we still need to do more to change the lives of women and girls in our country. And DHET has a huge role to play here!
I also want to urge all of you as women, to continue to organise yourselves to make this change a reality and to move much more-faster.
Men must also join the struggle for women emancipation and gender mainstreaming, especially against the background of my official launch of the Transforming Mentalities campaign day before yesterday, which is in line with the UNESCO Gender Emancipation and Women Empowerment (GEWE) program. Organising to defeat the scourge of gender based violence (GBV) is one of the most important struggles to be fought together by both women and men!
Through this programme we will find ways to build our next generation of young men and boys who can assist towards changing our existing social and cultural norms.
Lastly, let me take this opportunity to salute you our imbokodo, amaqhawekazi, our brave pioneers.
Thank you
