Minister of Social Development, Ms Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe, MP on the occasion of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament, National Parliament, Cape Town
Programme Director;
House Chairperson: Committees, Oversight and
Public Participation (National Assembly
Hon CT Frolick, MP
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee Ms Bridget Masango
Director-General of Social Development, Mr Peter Netshipale;
Chief Executive Officer of Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund; Dr Linda Ncube-Nkomo;in absentia
Senior Managers from the Department of Social Development both National and Provinces
Representatives from the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and Save the Children South Africa
All the Children in this venue and online
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning, Molweni,
It is my singular honor and pleasure to stand in front of Africa’s greatest asset and future, its children. Thank you for kindly affording me this opportunity to speak and engage with you during this year’s Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament. I have to share my sincere gratitude to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the NCOP for affording us this August House and their precious time to be with us this morning.
The Government of the Republic of South Africa, through the Department of Social Development takes great pride in co-hosting this landmark gathering in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) Save the Children South Africa, UNICEF and the Office Bearers of our National Parliament.
Let me take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the leadership of the partner organisations, the board and management of the the partners for successfully ensuring our Children participate through their Provinces engage on regular basis with the key challenges children face in our society and allowing us as National to bring Children’s representatives from all provinces to Cape Town once a year.
In partnership with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund we hosted the African Children’s Summit and we honored Tata Madiba’s life and legacy through amplifying the collective voice of Africa’s children under the theme: “Seen, Heard and Engaged in Education”. The Declaration of the summit which included the importance for African Member States that ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The Outcome Statement was subsequently, a day or two after the Summit, presented before the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in Lesotho. The Committee resolved to encourage all Member States to initiate Child Participation programs. South Africa is continuously enhancing the voices of children on matters affecting them.
It is worth mentioning that the South African government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly known as the CRC), the first legally binding international convention to confirm the human rights of all children across the globe. The Convention on Rights of the Child is a human rights convention that sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. It was the first international convention that the newly-elected democratic government ratified on the 16th June 1996.
Five years later, on the 7th of January 2000, South Africa ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), a broad regional instrument that sets out rights for children in Africa, commonly known as the African Children’s Charter. Since ratifying both the Convention on Rights of the Child and the African Children’s Charter, and guided by our Constitution, especially Section 28 of the Bill of Rights, South Africa has focused on realizing children’s rights and fulfilling our obligations.
Central to both the Convention on Rights of the Child and the African Children’s Charter is the principle that governments must always act in the best interests of the child and that every child has basic fundamental right. It is worth noting that world leaders have not kept to the undertakings committed to when ratifying these international legal documents. If we did, your topics for this forum would have been different. Consistently we hear you crying load on the issues affecting you.
The main objectives of this Children’s parliament is to promote child-centered dialogue and advocacy, empower children as agents of change, ensure inclusive and equitable participation, provide evidence-based policy recommendations, strengthen collaboration across sectors and provinces in the Country, review and advance progress, and raise awareness and mobilize for national action.
Child participation is a fundamental right of children through which their other rights can be realized. The obligations on society through the state to protect, respect and promote the right of children to participate in decisions that affect them are promoted by both the Charter on the Right of the Child and the African Children’s Charter. The child-led parliament, which aims to amplify the voices of children in policymaking and decision-making processes across the country, is also aligned to the AU Agenda 2040, and the recent Bogotá 2024 Global Commitment to Ending Violence Against Children.
This parliament must create a platform to agitate for accelerated action needed to realize the full enjoyment of the human rights and freedoms of all children in South African. Because it is led by you children, it gives you a collective voice to share your views, and hold us as leaders and government to account on key issues affecting you. These include democracy, emerging technologies and climate change, promoting inclusive education for all children, role of artificial intelligence in education, addressing school violence, gender-based violence and violence against children, amongst others.
According to the UNICEF’s Children’s report of November 2024, high income countries in the world will count for a small share of Children by the year 2050 and Africa will be the one with a high number of Children. This then means that Africa will be able to gain on the demographic dividend, we have to ensure and encourage that these are led by you the Children wherein you amplify your voice as the future of this world and hold us in government, private sector and civil society all accountable. We must be held accountable by you to ensure that the policies and laws we enact are in line with what you will be adopting so as to guarantee the future you deserve.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we will not be able to achieve the above if the reality that children face in South Africa are still the following:
Children in sub-Saharan Africa are at heightened risk in a rapidly changing world affected by extreme climate change crises, shifting population dynamics, and widening technological gaps. The challenges facing children in South Africa are overwhelming.
Child Abuse/Neglect: The prevalence of child abuse/neglect in our country is widespread. Child abuse entails the physical, sexual and emotional mistreatment of a child that causes long-term or permanent damage. Neglect is an act of omission, or the absence of action, the consequences of which can be devastating to a child, as it leaves no visible marks and yet happens to be the most dangerous. Moreover, usually both involve infants and very young children who cannot speak or defend themselves.
Human Trafficking and Slavery: Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are forced into slavery and also a very booming industry. It affects every continent.
My Children, the importance of the Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Parliament and the topical issues to be discussed here cannot be overemphasized. From shocking revelations currently emerging in the Joslin Smith’s case to the mind-numbing brutal rapes that children experience.
This act of sparing no effort to speedily ensure that the perpetrators of rape are brought to book to face the full might of the law is encouraging. As a country we need to ensure that we support and protect our children in all gender-based violence matters and violence against children.
The sad reality we need to confront head-on, as shown year in and year out by the quarterly crime statistics all over the world, is that more and more children are likely to be abused at home and in the hands of someone they know—those who have a duty to care and protect them and that is why we welcomed the recent announcement by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development to publicize the list of convicted gender-based violence perpetrators and names of sexual offenders contained in the National Register for Sex Offenders.
It is for this reason that on our part as Social Development, we intend to scale up prevention and early intervention such as RISIHA, which seeks to support community-based efforts to develop, enhance and coordinate initiatives and activities to prevent child abuse, neglect and exploitation. The focus is on strengthening families and communities as the first line of response in care and prevention.
The key to these interventions is the need to promote child participation by listening, hearing and engaging the voices of our children, as per the recommendations of both the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child during the presentation of South Africa’s periodic report.
One way in which we do this is through the annual Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament, a collaborative effort between the Department of Social Development, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Save the Children SA, the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures.
As I conclude, I want to express my appreciation to the Organizing Committee for working around the clock to ensure that our government in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Foundation can and is hosting this important gathering.
We look forward to receiving the outcomes of this parliament from you, as we continue in our collective efforts to build a better South Africa and a better world fit for all children. I wish you my children the best in your deliberations.
I thank you all for your attention.
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