Programme Director,
Mr Sid Wahi, the Executive Director of Forbes Africa,
Your Excellency, Mrs. Graca Machel, our former First Lady,
Mrs. Humile Mashatile, Spouse of our Deputy President,
Ms Roberta Naicker, the Managing Director of the ABN Group,
Mr Rakesh Wahi, the Chairman of CMA Investment Holdings,
Mr Daniel Padiachy, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at McDonald's South Africa,
Dr. Gwen Ramokgopa, Treasurer-General of the African National Congress,
Distinguished Guests and Captains of industries,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Evening!
I am honoured to be in the midst of women in their diversities who are game-changers in their own right. As I look across the room, I am in awe of the collective power of women shown in your subtle roars behind your beautiful smiles. I stand in a room where women break barriers, create new economies, lead spaces, and refuse to keep quiet.
Tonight, we join women across the world in celebrating International Women’s Day under the theme; “Invest in women: Accelerate progress”. This year marks 47 years since the United Nations officially recognized the day as one to commemorate and celebrate the significant strides achieved by women and the broader women’s movement.
This year is no exception as we amplify our global call for gender equality.
We must be bold in our articulation that the empowerment of women requires the necessary financial, political, social, and institutional commitments from all sectors of society.
This includes development financing, creating an enabling legislative environment that supports gender equality, the conscious decision to address patriarchal norms and values, and the establishment of institutions to monitor and evaluate the extent to which gender equality is being mainstreamed across sectors.
Programme Director,
Our continent carries a rich history of women’s contributions to liberation and development. Today we stand confidently on the shoulders of women like; Charlotte Mannya Maxeke from South Africa, the Mother of African Freedom and the Bantu Women’s League, Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from Liberia, Africa’s first democratically-elected woman president, Wangari Maathai from Kenya, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Graça Machel from Mozambique, a philanthropist and stateswoman, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria, the first African and women Director-General of the World Trade Organization, and many others.
In 2024, the women of Africa enjoy hard-earned gains however, more still needs to be done to accelerate the progress in advancing and protecting the fundamental human rights.
We dare not lower our voices.
Distinguished Guests,
This year marks 30 years of South Africa’s democratic dispensation.
From the dawn of our democracy, South Africa has placed gender equality as a cornerstone of strengthening our democracy. Our Women’s Charter of 1954 and 1994 has informed the foundation of South Africa’s Constitution on non-sexism and the Equality Clause. This Clause has led to a range of social, economic, legal, and affirmative action programs aimed at advancing women’s emancipation and empowerment.
We have also signed and ratified several treaties and instruments aimed at advancing women’s rights in several multilateral fora including the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa of 2003, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
Although the agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment in South Africa is advanced in comparison with many other countries, we remain committed to ensuring that the rest of Africa increases efforts to achieve gender equality.
We must give a practical realization to the African Union’s Agenda 2063 that “envisages a non-sexist Africa, an Africa where girls and boys can reach their full potential, where men and women contribute equally to the development of their societies.”
Tonight, we celebrate the women who have been brave in their pursuit for equality by occupying strategic positions across the continent and diaspora. In the words of 2019 Miss Universe, Zozibini Tunzi;
“Nothing is as important as taking up space in society and cementing yourself”.
We therefore salute great heroines who continue to take up space including;
- Susan Chombalike from Kenya, the director at the World Resources Institute (WRI).
- Advocate Mojankunyane Gumbi from South Africa, the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary General For Addressing Racism in the Workplace.
- Chido Mpemba from Zimbabwe, the African Union’s Youth Envoy, and many more.
African women have a voice, and we must use it.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have the collective responsibility of safe-guarding our wins on gender equality by establishing women’s institutions across all state functions, and in inserting gender equality principles into legislation of our respective countries as articulated in the African Union's African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Many of us in this room have benefited from these legislations directly and indirectly.
Today, we celebrate women, who through an enabling legislative environment, are making key strides in traditionally male dominated sectors including energy, trade, transport and logistics, and mining, and in emerging economies such as the digital economy and artificial intelligence.
Likewise, we must leverage on the increasing connectedness across the continent through our art to build solidarity platforms to advance the needs of women.
Equally, the vibrant and diverse arts and cultural landscape of Africa, has led to the rise in global recognition of several women including;
- Tyla from South Africa, the Grammy-award winner singer and performer.
- Elsa Majimbo from Kenya, a comedian, content creator and influencer.
- Bonang Matheba from South Africa, an award-winning media personality and business woman.
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from Nigeria, an award-winning writer.
These women and their contributions to Africa’s cultural revolution are creating a clear pathway for the world to appreciate what Africa has always had to offer
Distinguished Guests,
Freedom and security remain significant aspects of gender equality. In the past 30 years, the government and civil society have led the call for an end to Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF). This is supported by the strengthening of the criminal justice system, the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, and the recent public pledge launched by His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa during the 2024 State of the Nation Address.
We call on all the governments of our Continent to take up the fight against GBVF, and ensure the protection of women, children and other vulnerable groups.
Beyond the change-makers in this room, our call for gender equality is more pressing for working class and poor women.
It is for this reason that the South African government and many across the African Continent continue to increase access to basic services such as water, electricity, housing, and free health care to the poor are some of the critical advances that have been made in achieving gender transformation.
We must use our influence in this room to ensure we advance other socio-economic provisions including more affordable, usable, and responsive finances for women, development programs to prepare women for positions on the boards of public and private entities, mobilization strategies for women farmers in agricultural cooperatives, and increased access by girls and women to primary, secondary and tertiary education.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Women’s economic empowerment underpins women’s emancipation and the achievement of the constitutional vision of a non–sexist society and gender equality.
The South African government continues to provide targeted support and interventions to women enterprises to accelerate the sustainable participation of women in the mainstream economy.
The ultimate goal is for women to develop sustainable enterprises that contribute to the country’s gross domestic product, employment, equity and economic transformation to enable women to have equal access to and control over economic resources.
President Ramaphosa pronounced on preferential procurement in 2020 to accelerate the empowerment of women, youth and person with disabilities in business. This a strategy mapped out by government to allocate 40% all procurement spend in the public sector towards businesses owned by women.
South Africa has set the precedence, now we need the rest of the continent to follow and lead in the capacitating of women-owned SMEs.
Programme Director,
The African Union declared the theme for 2024; “The Year of Education - Educate an African fit for the 21st Century”
The girls and young women in South Africa and the continent are accounting for a majority in the enrolments and performance in Mathematics and Physical Science, and a higher education admission and graduation across institutions of higher learning. Young women are leading the continent on education and that is a massive achievement in the fight for gender equality.
In conclusion,
As the African continent joins in celebrating South Africa’s 30 years of democracy and freedom, may we never trivialize the hard-earned gains of women under this dispensation.
We must be intensifying efforts to ensuring gender equality remains a key feature of sustained development and democracy.
The task ahead may be intimidating, but I am confident in the change agents in this room and across the continent, that together we can promote gender equality and build the Africa we want, where women are contributors to the development of our continent.
Let me close with the quote from Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first democratically-elected woman president;
“The future belongs to us, because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the resourcefulness, and we have the strength of our people to share the dream across Africa.”
Malibongwe!
