Programme director, Dr Dhlomo (MEC for Health)
MEC TW Mchunu – Transport Community safety and liaison
MEC ES Mchunu – Education
MEC Ina Cronje – Finance
MEC Weziwe Thusi – Social Development
MEC Ravi Pillay – Public Works and Human Settlement
MEC Sibhidla-Saphehta – Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation
Director-General Adv Ngidi, and all Heads of Departments
Mayor of eThekwini Councillor James Nxumalo and all councillors present
DR LPHM Mthsali
Ms Doris Skhosana
All members of the Legislature present
Religious leaders
NGOs and all our partners in the fight for community upliftment
Ladies and gentlemen
Good day.
Today is an important date in our national calendar. National Human Rights Day 2013 also marks the 53rd Anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, a day in which police in Sharpeville in the Vaal Triangle, shot into a crowd of unarmed civilians protesting racial discrimination under apartheid. Six years later, the United Nations proclaimed the Sharpeville anniversary to be the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
After the end of apartheid in 1994, the Democratic Government proclaimed the date South Africa's Human Rights Day and made it a national holiday.
Programme Director, Ladies and Gentlemen, commemoration of this day is indeed in line with the spirit, purport and objectives of South African Constitution, in particular the Bill of Rights. Today we celebrate the human rights gains in our country, and we are spell out our goals of promoting a culture of human rights and to protect vulnerable groups as can be seen by the presence of departments such as South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Department of Social Development (DSD), Home Affairs and Health – who are here today to provide on-site government services to you.
I urge you to take advantage and use the services available to you today. I also wish to extend – on behalf of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Provincial Government – our most sincere thanks to the departments present for providing their vital services today.
As government we are aware of the various problems you face. We realise that many people in our province and this area in particular, face a number of challenges. This year, in particular, we cannot remain silent in the face of a growing trend of the abuse and violation of the human rights of the most vulnerable members of our society, namely women, children, the disabled, and the elderly.
Nationally, the escalation of the rapes of young children (including infants), women and the elderly cannot be left unchallenged. As citizens of the Republic and the beautiful province of KZN we cannot stand by and watch this terrible scourge tear apart the fabric of our communities and society. On our part as government we have placed our law enforcement agencies on high alert to act decisively in dealing with the perpetrators of these dastardly deeds. We also encourage the judiciary to mete out the harshest punishment to the perpetrators.
We also invite members of the communities to break the culture of silence in the face of this scourge and open up and report the perpetrators in order to set the wheels of justice in motion and expose all these despicable elements so that we as society can get rid of this terrible pestilence once and for all. Rape and its inherent violence are indeed one of the basest and most despicable breaches of the human rights and dignity of their victims.
Programme Director, in our 2012 and 2013 State of the Province Addresses, the issues relating to the vulnerable groups received a fair share of his attention. These issues include, inter alia, abuse of senior citizens e.g. murder of senior citizens, gender based violence and poverty alleviation programmes such as One-Home-One-Garden, partnerships with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) etc. The issues are dealt with in War Rooms through Human Rights (Gender, Disability, Children and Senior Citizens) Focal Points.
What Are Human Rights?
The Bill of Rights lists all the human rights that you have. It is contained in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the highest law of the land. All the rights put together guarantee you as an individual dignity, equality and freedom. The Bill of Rights ensures that the state respects, protects, promotes and fulfills human rights, and that all other persons and institutions respect these rights.
This means that a person can expect Government to do those things necessary to allow one to enjoy his/her rights but also that they must in turn respect the rights of other persons. However one’s natural rights are themselves limited by other people’s rights. This means that while pursuing one’s own right, no one has the right to impinge or in any way interfere with the rights of another person.
The Bill of Rights also places the burden on government to strive to improve the quality of life of all our people by providing shelter, basic amenities, education and security
Gender based violence in KZN.
In a human rights sense, certain population groups often encounter discriminatory treatment or need special attention to avoid potential exploitation. These populations make up what can be referred to as vulnerable groups example women, children, persons with disabilities and senior citizens.
Women and child abuse is a major problem throughout the country which affects their quality of life. For instance the South African Police Service (SAPS) Statistics indicate that between September 2012 to March 2013 there has been 5 117 cases of sexual offences in their 25 Clusters spread throughout the Province. These entail rape, sexual assault and contact sexual Offences. The highest incidences took place at the Inanda Cluster (543) followed by the uMlazi Cluster (473), with the lowest taking place at the Howick Cluster (45).
These incidents are worrying because they indicate that there is something wrong in our society when a child or an old person are going to be raped and brutally murdered. One of the incidents that occurred was right here in this township, where an eight year old Nonjabulo Sabela was found raped and murdered. Her body was dumped on the sports field at of Mzwilili Primary School where she was a Grade 3 learner.
Government departments have come together to deal with these issues from their different fields of responsibility. The Department of Education has committed to building a proper multi- discipline sports ground, where children from this community can come to play and participate in different sporting codes in safety. The sports ground will be named in the memory of little Nonjabulo.
The school will also receive a major upgrade firstly with an expansion from Grade 4 to Grade 7. The school yard will also be paved, to improve the quality of the school’s premises.
Other interventions by Government include:
- Department of Education (DOE) has set up a task team to look at the issues to mitigate against social ills in schools
- DSD provided counselling and relief to the family.
- Social Relief of distress was issued to the family by DSD
- The school has been visited also for a debriefing dialogue and counselling to learners: (DOE & DSD)
- The family was also assisted with burial: Provided Groceries and Transport
- 20 March 2013 a Community Dialogue was held at Mega City
These incidents render women unable to enjoy the same human rights as men as they always have to think of their safety. GBV keeps all women psychologically and psycho-socially traumatised; in fear of rape or being at risk of rape, and this fear tends to influence women’s daily activities and movements, resulting in what has been described as “gendered loss of mobility and freedom”.
Certain sectors of our communities still continue to experience subtle, if not overt, discrimination in the form of inadequate educational facilities, lower incomes than others etc. Senior citizens frequently find themselves victims of scams and other schemes that cost them dearly financially and otherwise and persons with disabilities often have no recourse to decent employment or adequate treatment.
In this vein, circumstances in which a particular group encounters obstacles or impediments to the enjoyment of their human rights could continue indefinitely. The idea that all things are equal within the application or distribution of human rights remains idealistic.
The Crisis Line of Childline KZN (0800 555 55) has indicated that rape is also increasing at an alarming rate on children and teenagers especially, and on orphaned children whereby uncles and grandfathers take advantage of children because they have no one to report to and are at risk of being ignored or chased out of the house if they report the abuse.
Action
Programme Director, Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to take this opportunity to announce that there is a Draft 365 Days of Action Plan which commits the government to prevent and respond to gender-based violence by:
- addressing the root causes of violence,
- improving violence prevention and victim protection services,
- responding to the health and economic needs of those affected by gender-based violence, and,
- supporting legislation (and its enforcement) against gender-based violence.
The Plan has been translated in four District Municipalities Plans. The District Municipalities have been trained and assisted to set up Gender Based Violence (GBV) Committees to create a 365 plan in fighting Gender Based Violence. The Provincial Gender Machinery has since created a Provincial GBV Committee where all stakeholders meet at least for times a year and create viable solutions in the fight of this scourge. This includes the Provincial Men’s Forum.
The involvement of men through the Provincial Men’s Forum and District Men’s Forums has been prioritised. There are currently 17 District and Local Men’s Forums in the Province. The coordination will start at War Room level. Government and communities should be encouraged to work with men, especially youth, and communities at large, to change attitudes and behaviours. Both men and boys must be engaged in effective ways to reduce gender inequalities and prevent violence, through questioning traditional norms associated with femininity and masculinity and reinforcing positive masculine behaviour – rather than that
which harms women.
The Plan is an indication that in KwaZulu-Natal there is a strong commitment to build and sustain strong multi-sectoral strategies – coordinated both provincially and locally – to work towards ending violence against women and children. Through the 365 Days Provincial Action Plan we not only want to demonstrate our political commitment, but also a commitment to systematic and sustained action, backed by strong, dedicated and permanent institutional mechanisms, and to highlight the work done by non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
We want to scale up and institutionalise our current initiatives and share good practice across the Province. Additionally, the KZN Provincial Legislature is positioned to play an important role within the SA Government’s efforts to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.
As a province, we are committed to preventing and responding to gender-based violence by:
- addressing the root causes of violence,
- improving violence prevention and victim protection services,
- responding to the health and economic needs of those affected by gender-based violence, and,
- supporting legislation – and its enforcement – against gender-based violence.
Programme Director, on their part local government structures in KZN should address gender- based violence as a key service delivery issue in a number of ways towards prevention, support, response and coordination – which also includes the transversal issues of monitoring and evaluation and budgeting.
Victim Friendly Facilities
Substantial resources have been committed towards increasing the delivery capacity in respect of domestic violence at all stations and the province’s 28 cluster stations. The Department of Health has established crisis centres for rape victims as rape is one of the trauma cases that the hospitals have to frequently deal with.
Collaboration between the departments and the South African Police Service as a concept of crisis centres has been developed. The Department of Health has established the crisis centres in all district municipalities. These have proven to be very helpful to the victims of trauma and rape cases.
Through these and many other measures being formulated and adopted at community level we are confident that we will be able to put a dent on this scourge, put a stop to it through active community participation and awareness which will eventually usher in a societal value system which inculcates the respect of the human rights of the most vulnerable members of our society.
This, we must emphasise, is not a war that can be effectively fought and conquered by government alone, but only with the active participation of civil society and organs of State.
Together we can do more.
I thank you.
