Chairperson,
Honourable Members
It is indeed an honour for me to present the Budget Vote of the Department for Women, Children and People with Disabilities to the National Council of Provinces.
As we mark the centenary of the African National Congress, the oldest liberation movement on the continent, we reaffirm our commitment to work tirelessly for a South Africa that promotes and monitors the realisation of the rights of women, children and people with disabilities. At the core of our struggle for liberation was a determination to ensure that all our people are liberated from a life of indignity, discrimination and oppression.
We are celebrating a century of heroic struggles by the women of our country, such as Charlotte Maxeke, Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophie de Bruyn, Albertina Sisulu, Ruth Mompati, Dorothy Nyembe, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Motlalepule Chabaku who are an embodiment of hundred years of a relentless forward march to total emancipation, equality, justice and democracy.
Unarmed and defenceless, they challenged the might and brutality of successive oppressive regimes in order to ensure that future generations live in a South Africa that truly belongs to all. We are grateful for their sacrifices and inspired by their courage, as we carry the baton towards equality, employment and poverty eradication.
As we start another journey into the second centenary, united in our diversity, our collective focus will be on making further advances and jealously defending the gains of freedom and democracy.
Mandate
Let me quote the words of the President when he articulated the mandate of this department during Women’s Month in 2010: “The department was instituted to ensure the mainstreaming of gender, children’s rights and disability considerations into all programmes of government and other sectors. This will help government to respond to issues of these targeted groups in an integrated and coherent manner”.
Thus the responsibility to translate into reality the realisation of the rights of women children and people with disabilities was placed firmly in this department. However, it has to be understood that ours is not an implementing department. In discharging our mandate, we work with other government departments, provinces, municipalities, civil society and the private sector to ensure that mainstreaming actually happens.
We believe that correct understanding of our mandate is a critical prerequisite if our public representatives and stakeholders are to make meaningful inputs into our programmes and effectively hold us to account.
We have been able to determine the future agenda for the equality and empowerment of children, women and people with disabilities through broad consultations with these sectors across all provinces and the spectrum of South African society. These platforms have also assisted to clarify the mandate of the department and to ensure a common understanding among critical stakeholders.
In addition, this is where we discuss effective ways of co-ordinating, monitoring and evaluating the programmes that are aimed at empowering and upholding the rights of women, children and people with disabilities.
Furthermore, the platform created has enabled the women, children and disability sectors to articulate their concerns, needs and challenges, while several key commitments have been made by government to redress these challenges. In addition, it will further allow participants to reflect on innovative solutions to the economic and social challenges faced by the vulnerable sectors of our society.
Building internal capacity
We are doing our best to strengthen our capacity to serve all our provinces. As you are aware, we do not have regional offices. This has a major implication on our resources and capacity to do our outreach work. This department continues to experience funding challenges particularly as we need to continuously consult the three sectors on our Constitutional and international obligations. In this regard, we are currently engaging National Treasury to address our resource constraints to enable us to serve our provincial stakeholders more effectively.
However, I am pleased to inform the House that, as a department, we have responded practically to the employment policy imperatives and our own commitment to empowerment of people with disabilities and women. We have achieved a 5.5% representivity of employees with disabilities and 57.5% representivity of women in senior management positions. Both these achievements exceed the targets set by Cabinet, and in particular the 2% employment equity for persons with disabilities reconfirmed by President Zuma in the State of the Nation Address.
Women empowerment and gender equality
Chairperson, we have held consultations with women on a wide range of issues that affect their lives. We hosted a successful National Summit for Rural Women in Tzaneen, Limpopo. I am also pleased to announce that we held provincial consultations with rural women in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. These summits and engagements seek to ensure that women have the platform to influence government policy on matters that relate to women empowerment and gender equality.
We hosted a four-day National Women’s Conference in Gauteng which was attended by over 1 000 women and addressed by 16 Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers.
Chairperson, I am pleased to inform the House that we are in the process of finalising consultations on the women empowerment and gender equality policy towards the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill. The Bill will provide us with legislative authority to hasten the empowerment of women and the attainment of the 50/50 gender parity.
Once signed into law, it will give effect to our collective commitment to women empowerment and gender equality. Consistent with the directive of the President in his State of the Nation Address, we intend to table the Policy and the Draft Bill before Cabinet this year. This will help enforce compliance in both government and the private sector.
With regard to 50\50 parity, I would like to commend various provincial and local legislatures and governments for striving towards the attainment of this objective. We hope that the Western Cape executive will follow the progressive examples of other provinces.
We will also be finalising the engendering of the New Growth Path Framework and the Green Fund so that these initiatives are gender and disability responsive and that women and people with disabilities benefit from these initiatives, including the Job Fund. We will endeavour to ensure that the benefits of all these initiatives are shared across provinces.
Working with the Departments of Water and Environmental Affairs and Energy, we are facilitating opportunities for women in rural, peri-urban and informal settlements to participate in green economy projects such as solar energy, water purification, agriculture, construction, waste management and tourism. We are also facilitating financial support and training for women farmers and women’s co-operatives with our national and international partners, particularly UN Development Programme (UNDP), UNWomen and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
I am pleased to announce that Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has responded positively to our partnership call. Through its Transformation and Entrepreneur Scheme, the IDC has committed over R200 million towards the Women Empowerment Fund and R50 million for People with Disabilities.
In addition, we are also empowering women in construction in collaboration with the Departments of Human Settlements and Public Works. We are facilitating opportunities for rural women to enter the alternative construction technology field. Gombani in Limpopo and Caguba in the Eastern Cape will provide an example of what rural women can achieve if given opportunities. In these two rural communities, women are building houses and women’s development centres using alternative technology. With the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development, we are facilitating women’s access to land.
In collaboration with the UNFPA, the department is currently conducting gender audits in four provinces, namely the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo. The audits will also be undertaken in the remaining provinces.
Traditional Courts Bill
As a department we are currently involved in the co-ordination of women’s consultations on the proposed Traditional Courts Bill. We shoulder a responsibility to ensure that women can freely interact and exercise their right to be heard in all democratic processes. In this regard, I will work with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development to ensure that the concerns of rural women are taken into consideration regarding this Bill.
However, I would like to reiterate my concern at the way the public hearings have been conducted so far. In some hearings, women were rudely interjected and silenced. In some provinces, women were told they were not invited and should not be there. In this way, women’s right to self-representation have been denied. This behaviour cannot be allowed to persist in a democratic South Africa.
Women have already raised serious misgivings about the Bill and questioned its constitutionality. Women hold the view that the Bill will not pass the constitutional test. Women are concerned that this Bill will strip them of their democratic rights to choose Magistrates Courts if they so wish. There is a concern that women, including widows, have already suffered abuse such as evictions from their homes and land by the largely all-male traditional courts. “Uyangenwa noma uyahamba?”
Furthermore, the Bill does not prohibit harmful traditional practices, such as ukungenwa, ukuthwalwa, etc. South Africa has made commitments through the Constitution, various pieces of legislation and international conventions to respect, promote, protect and advance the rights of women. We have a duty and obligation to honour these commitments. I call upon all South Africans to defend government’s progressive positions on the rights of women, children and people with disabilities.
As a department, our interest is to ensure that this Bill does not reverse the gains that women have made towards empowerment and gender equality in the past twenty years. I would like to commend the progressive men who have spoken out during this process in defence of women’s rights.
We are also concerned about current attempts to reverse the Constitutional gains we have made as a country relating to the rights of gays and lesbians. These homophobic tendencies, which in some instances have led to the killing of gay men and rape and murder of lesbian women, must be condemned by all South Africans. These rights are entrenched in our Constitution and all attempts to reverse these gains must be rejected.
Techo-Girl Programme
The techno-girl programme has been rolled out to all nine provinces. We are implementing it in partnership with the Department of Basic Education, Uganda Women's Effort to Save Orphans (Uweso) and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). This project encourages girl children to pursue studies in Science, Maths, Engineering and Technology fields through job shadowing and career guidance.
About 15 departments are participating in this programme. 1829 girls will be part of the June school holidays intake from employers in both the public and private sector. To date, 4 184 girls from across all provinces are participating in phase 1 of the programme.
Violence against women and children
No province or corner of our land has been immune from the scourge of violence against women and children. Gender-based violence condemns women and girls to a life of fear and prevents them from being productive members of society. Women and children have a Constitutional right to walk the streets of our country without fear of being raped, assaulted or killed.
The Minister of Police’s efforts to strengthen and resource the re-established Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units at police stations are welcomed. This will expedite responses to these crimes. The National Plan of Action (NPA) has increased Thuthuzela Centres around the country to over forty to provide integrated response, care and support programme to the victims of violent sexual crimes.
We also commend the Minister of Health for recruiting and training forensic technicians to staff a fourth forensic laboratory. This will go a long way in processing vital evidence.
Additional sexual offences and children’s courts in all provinces can assist to speed up and reduce the backlog of sexual offences and all cases relating to children. We are engaging with the Department of Justice and advocating for our justice system to impose the heaviest possible sentences and no bail for perpetrators of violent crimes against women and children, including those with disabilities. This would send a clear message that our society will not tolerate people who commit these atrocities.
We have a responsibility to take collective action as government and communities to protect the most vulnerable in our society. In this regard, Cabinet recently approved the establishment of the National Council Against Gender-based Violence to be led by the Deputy President.
This council is a multi-sectoral national response and we commend the interim council for its ground work thus far. The Council’s first priority, among other things, will be to review, facilitate and monitor the implementation of the 365 Days National Action Plan on No Violence against Women and Children.
Children’s rights
The Children’s Rights and Responsibility agenda is informed by our Constitution and by the international and regional treaties that we have signed namely, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
This year we will engage children, consult parents, communities and civil society on challenges, gaps and opportunities to scale up integrated response to our commitments. As signatories to the UNCRC, we are required to develop a National Plan of Action for children (NPAC). In this regard, we are reviewing and consulting on the 1997 NPAC. Consultations are underway with national departments, provinces, municipalities and various sectors.
Chairperson, we are intensifying our work with all relevant partners on child protection. Last year, we started the Child-Friendly Cities/Communities initiative. We have concluded agreements with the City of Tshwane, Ugu District and Port St John Municipalities on the piloting of the Child Friendly Cities / Communities model. The Child Friendly cities/communities model seeks to create safe and disability friendly spaces for our children.
We will also have programmes for children with disabilities in Gauteng on the 1st of June and in Taung, North West province on the 2nd of June. We will engage communities to create safe spaces for children. The official closing of Child Protection Week will take place in the Free State on the 3rd of June.
Chairperson, a review of violence against children has been conducted with UNICEF. We will release a report which will include the roles and commitments of all government departments and provincial governments in response to this scourge. This report will be presented at the launch of the National Council on Gender Based Violence in August this year. In addition, we will intensify our advocacy work during Child Protection week, which will be launched by the President on 27 May in the Northern Cape.
Chairperson, the department is of the view that children’s active participation in matters that affect them is a right. Last year, the department facilitated the successful participation of children during COP 17, in partnership with UNICEF. Their participation culminated into the National Children’s day at the Union Buildings where children from all provinces demonstrated their understanding of climate change.
Addressing nutritional needs during the first 1 000 days of a child’s life, including the 270 days of a woman’s pregnancy and 365 days in the first two years of an infant’s life is imperative if we are to reap the benefits of good health and development for our children. Nutritional support programmes, in addition to ARV interventions, remain vital. This approach has contributed to the successful reduction of mother to child transmission of HIV by 50%.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament has created an annual platform for children’s voices to be heard and for legislature to support them. This year’s Children’s Parliament will be held in the Eastern Cape.
Chairperson, we are continuing to create opportunities for children’s voices to be directly incorporated into the budget vote process. Last year, we engaged children at a skills school in Mitchell’s Plain and last week we were at Khayelitsha Special School among others, participated.
Rights of people with disabilities
Chairperson, the concerns of people with disabilities are a priority on governments’ agenda. Recently, the President, the Minister of Social Development and I, met with Disabled People South Africa (DPSA). The meeting discussed mainstreaming of the rights of people with disabilities into government programmes, providing job opportunities for people with disabilities and funding. Prior to this, I met a delegation from South African Disability Alliance (SADA) to address their concerns. We will ensure that the issues raised in these meetings will find concrete expression in departmental programmes.
International commitments
International commitments require the department to coordinate extensive consultations and monitor their domestication, at the department’s cost with, among others, women, children and people with disabilities sectors, and attend the annual sessions of the three sectors at the United Nations (UN), African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) to report on progress in domesticating and advancing the goals of the instruments to which we are signatory.
This year I led the South African delegation to the 56th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and the theme was “The Empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges”. In line with this theme and our national priority the department will focus on a multi-sectoral approach towards the empowerment of rural women including women with disabilities. In September the Deputy Minister will lead the South African delegation to New York to attend the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) conference of state parties.
Conclusion
I wish to thanks my staff, the Select Committee for providing support and diligent oversight to ensure that the rights of women, children and people with disabilities are advanced.
I would also like to express appreciation to international agencies such as UNDP, UNWomen, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and our partners such as the IDC, Xstrata, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), BIDAIR, Uweso and the Films and Publications Board.
My sincere gratitude goes to government departments, our provincial governments, municipalities and civil society for the collective response to the needs of women, children and people with disabilities.
Let’s take heed of the founding President of the ANC Women’s League, Charlotte Maxeke who said: “This work is not for yourselves — kill that spirit of self, and do not live above your people, but live with them. If you can rise, bring someone with you’’.
I thank you.
