The Executive Mayor of the Waterberg District Municipality, Councillor Eric
Gwangwa
The Mayor of Mogalakwena Municipality, Councillor Bob Mmola and other
Mayors present here today
Councillors from our various municipalities
MPLs present here
Magoshi, magoshigadi le mantona
Women movements from various community-based structures
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
On 10 July 2009, South Africa and the rest of the world observed and commemorated the World Population Day. This year our focal point is on the global economic meltdown which is affecting the poorest and most vulnerable, especially around the reproductive health, economic and rights issues.
I am taking advantage of this important celebration to remind all of us about issues that are of critical importance to the development of the communities with particular emphasis on challenges that impede efforts for the growth and sustainable human development, including among others, poverty, HIV and AIDS, education and health services.
The United Nations has put on the annual calendar the celebration of this day as a platform for all of us to reflect and commit governments to development strategies that will have a direct impact towards influencing positive change to the lives of the people, especially rural communities where poverty and vulnerability are still at the highest peak. Part of the world agreements on sustainable development and the clear objective of meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is to root out the society of all the impediments that make it difficult for out people to emerge our of poverty and other socioeconomic hardships.
As Limpopo, we have decided to take the celebrations to this month of August to enable us to marvel our achievements in intensifying and promoting the government’s commitment to women’s empowerment and development.
Programme director
In responding to the economic crisis, we are embarking on the investing in women campaign. As we commemorate this year’s event in Limpopo, we need to rally a response focused on the most effective economic agents of change women. We call on decision makers in the public and private sectors, non-profit making organisations, and the global financial and other leading economic institutions to protect women’s ability to earn decent incomes, keep their daughters in school, as well as obtaining reproductive health information and services, including family planning. We also need to rally around and support the poorest and the most vulnerable especially around the reproductive health and rights.
Programme director
We are making this clarion call on all of us to protect, defend and uphold the rights of the marginalized populations from the current global economic crisis. This is also by ensuring that we raise adequate awareness on the importance of population and socioeconomic development among women groups in general and the under-privileged women in particular. They, too, need to know, understand and appreciate their rights.
In line with our theme, “responding to the economic crisis: investing in women is a smart choice,” we are rolling our sleeves to cleanse our societies of the challenges of underdevelopment and the eradication of poverty.
The ANC led government has identified this poverty alleviation and eradication as one of the main pillars to ensure that our communities’ conditions are improved for the better. Ours is to strive towards ensuring that no child goes to bed hungry or suffers from the marginalisation as it has happened in the past. We are saying it is a smart choice to invest in a woman not only for the purposes of addressing the past socio-economic injustices but also towards emancipating the communities to be self-reliant and sustainable.
Programme director
Allow me to honour the women of Limpopo, in particular, and South Africa in general, for the sterling work they continue in addressing the plight of the women. We begin to see promising and exciting development projects driven by women in the province. We count on the likes of the Hlatlolanang Vegetable and Poultry Garden in Ga-Madiba village, which we visited this morning, as one of the shiny examples of women driven initiatives which are taking a very good shape. We pay tribute to the men and women who are leading campaigns to fight under-development in their communities in all other parts of our society.
Keep going ladies.
We have also seen in most of the villages the initiatives by women to drive and determine their own destiny so as break the cycle of disempowerment, particularly among the historically disadvantaged. We have successfully managed to redefine the roles and priorities in a drive to ensuring the orientation of social development programmes to the people of Limpopo. We have intervened in addressing issues of poverty alleviation through subsidies to non-profit organisations (NGOs) and other poverty-alleviation programmes in various communities.
Once more, our poverty-alleviation programmes are going to focus on the women and the vulnerable groups. This is aimed at ensuring self-reliance and total economic emancipation of the groups in the long term. The provincial support network for home based care groups of persons infected by HIV/AIDS has been substantially expanded. The department is currently rolling out a programme of establishing drop-in centres for orphans and vulnerable children in an attempt to address the negative impact of HIV and AIDS in the province.
Programme director
We are ever conscious of the enormous challenges still facing us. We are alive to the fact that new challenges keep emerging, most of which are exacerbated by increasing poverty conditions. As the department, we want to assure you that we would not fail you. We urge you to work with the department in working out a way forward for this province. This strategy will take us to greater heights and make us the talk of the country.
We are putting together efforts to involve key stakeholders, particularly the rural communities as well as the non-governmental organisations in the fight against poverty and under-development. We need active participation of women in these initiatives the vigour and strength that described the women of yester-years.
We urge you to continue to strive for excellence and guide the younger generations who are looking up to us as mothers and role models that there is no difficulty in executing whatever task. As President Jacob Zuma said, let us also pay tribute to the domestic women, who take most of the time with our kids at home. They, too, need to be remembered and honoured as we celebrate this month.
Halala basadi halala!
Wathinthiba bafazi!
I thank you and wish you well as we continue to celebrate the Women’s Month throughout the month.
Issued by: Department of Health and Social Development, Limpopo Provincial Government
19 August 2009
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government (http://www.limpopo.gov.za/)
