Programme director
My Colleague, Minister of Labour
Premier of KwaZulu-Natal
General Secretary of Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the leadership of Cosatu in the province
Honourable Speaker and members of KwaZulu-Natal Legislature
Members of the families that lost their loved ones
Community of Umzinto
We meet here today to remember the 13 women who fell victim to the horrendous crimes committed by Thozamile Taki in this area.
It is particularly important that this ceremony is held at this time we are commemorating Workers Day. We are aware of the serious challenge of unemployment facing us, hence 2011 has been declared the year of job creation in South Africa.
We need to be very clear that when we talk about the New Growth Path and the creation of millions of jobs, these should primarily be targeted at women, youth and people with disabilities. A percentage of the R9 billion job fund should be targeted at projects that seek to employ women and young people.
These young women we are remembering today clearly indicate how poverty and unemployment make women even more vulnerable to crime. These women were lured to death by someone who promised those jobs. They were desperate to get employment, to support their children and families.
Thozamile Taki exploited these women’s desperate situation. He even got some of these women to pay his own taxi fare as he was travelling with the victims to the sites of murder. How evil can you be? Ungathi umuntu akakugibelise itekisi ngemali yakhe ukuze uye komgebenga uze umbulale?
I am glad that the court has already honoured these women by giving Taki life imprisonment for each of the 13 murders he committed and an additional 16 years for each of the 13 counts of robbery. That is a total of 208 years imprisonment plus 13 life sentences. With that sentence, the community of Umzinto and other areas where Taki solicited his victims can rest assured that he will never come back to terrorise them again.
We thank the Judge for the firm sentence and commend the investigating team and prosecutors for the sterling work done to ensure arrest and successful conviction of Taki. Please continue with this great work and help us reduce cases of violence against women and children in our society. This includes cases of violence against lesbian women, which our government strongly condemns. Rape is rape – this is abuse of women’s bodies and their rights.
We are confident that the establishment of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units in all 176 policing areas will further strengthen the capacity of the police to deal with cases of abuse of women and children. Police officers in these units have been trained to deal with these cases with the sensitivity they deserve and they include forensic social workers to assist child victims in particular.
We are strengthening efforts to deal with the challenge of violence against women and children. The 16 Days of Activism Campaign on No Violence against Women and Children will be observed for the 12th year this year. This campaign has increased awareness amongst all South Africans of the detrimental effects of gender based violence. It addresses the culture of silence and impunity by mobilising communities not to look away, but to act against abuse.
Without the information from you as the community, without some of you standing in court as witnesses, the exemplary sentence given to Taki would not have been achieved. Let us continue to work with the police and assist them in removing murderers and rapists from our community. Like we did with the prolonged case against Taki, let us continue with mobilisation and demonstrations to express our disgust as the community at the crimes being committed against women and children.
In his State of the Nation Address this year, President Jacob Zuma emphasised that crimes against women and children are a priority. We have reached a point where we need to upscale the response to gender-based violence. We need a multi-sectoral approach that will mobilise all sectors of our society to play a role in addressing gender based violence, in a similar manner as we have responded to HIV and AIDS through South African National AIDS Council (SANAC).
To build an effective multi-sectoral response to these crimes, a high level Advisory Council comprising of key government departments, civil society organisations and other relevant partners is to be established to strengthen the implementation of the 365 days national plan of action to end violence against women and children. It will provide a stronger political leadership and participation of all sectors of society in the coordination and monitoring of the national response to violence against women and girls.
Programme director, the ANC government has always led the way on issues gender equality and empowerment of women. With the local government elections coming on May 18, some political parties have put up posters with faces of black dolls, suggesting some degree of gender equity in their leadership. They think women of South Africa will forget their utter disregard for women’s rights. Only two years ago, they established an all-men provincial cabinet in Western Cape. They still have only one woman out of 10 men Cabinet in the Western Cape.
Phansi ngobandlululo lomama phansi. Those on posters are dolls, onopopi, who have no say, no voice, no power. Bazakugwinywa nalavoti one percent vote yabo o-ID.
As part of our task as the Ministry to monitor gender equality in the country, we are looking at the candidate lists of all political parties to establish the extent to which these parties have nominated women as candidates. Women should be aware as to which parties included them as candidates and which ones are just using them to get votes.
Together, we can do more. We campaigned together throughout the prosecution of Thozamile Taki and we achieved a firm sentence for these murders. Let us continue to work together to achieve gender equality and empowerment of women.
Thank you.
Source: Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities
