Programme Director
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable Members of Parliament, Past and present
Former Chair Person of the CGE Ms Joyce Pilisi- Seroke
Chairperson for the IEC Ms Brigalia Bam
Ladies and gentlemen
I extend a warm greeting to you all this morning and thank you for inviting me to this auspicious event. I also thank you for this wonderful event marking a very critical achievement in the history of South Africa – celebrating the role of women in our political transition from apartheid to a democratic society.
On 27 April 1994, South Africans cast their vote for the first time, ushering in a new era of democracy and respect for human rights. On 9 May, our Parliament which included the women we are honouring today met to elect Nelson Mandela as the first President of South Africa. 17 years after the attainment of our democracy, South Africa remains the shining example internationally of the role of women in political transition.
We recently attended the United Nations 55th Session on the Status of Women and there was a lot of discussion about the role of women in the current political developments in the Arab world. South Africa was highlighted as a good example of how women should not stop only at the fall of tyranny but participate fully in political processes post-transition.
The uniqueness of our struggle is that as women, we participated fully in shaping the post-apartheid society and campaigned for the role of women in our political space. We were together as women and men fighting apartheid in the trenches and on the streets of our townships. The women’s prison here at the Constitution Hill remains a symbol of how women equally suffered incarceration and all forms of oppression perpetrated against our people.
At the dawn of democracy, women said we shall be together at Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) to negotiate the future of our country. They campaigned for representation in negotiations under the slogan: “No Woman, No Vote” and for representation in parliament to ensure participation in determining our destiny as a nation. Today, we are celebrating these women who took up their rightful position in the first democratic parliament of South Africa. They were there ensuring that the repealing of laws that institutionalised apartheid and the development of new legislation based on democratic values indeed catered for the interest of women as well.
Many of the laws protecting various rights of women staring with our Constitution were discussed by the group of Members of Parliament (1994-1999), we are honouring today. They deliberated on a range of new laws with effect on gender including:
- The Domestic Violence Act, the Maintenance Act
- The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act
- The Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act
- And the Recognition of Customary Marriage Act, to mention but a few.
They passed the law establishing the Commission for Gender Equality and played their role in the establishment of the National Gender Machinery.
They started at a lower base from where we are today. Representation of women in Parliament jumped tenfold from 2,7 percent during apartheid to 27 percent after the historic 1994 elections. This was a major breakthrough at the time taking into consideration the brutal years of Apartheid when PFP MP Helen Suzman was the only woman parliamentarian. She was later followed by a few women from the National Party like Rina Venter and Sheila Camerer.
The number of women MPs increased to 30 percent in 1999 and 32,8 percent after the 2004 elections. After the adoption of the 50/50 gender parity at the Polokwane Conference of the ANC, women made the greatest advances since 1994 in the area of political representation. Women representation increased to 44 percent, pushing South Africa to the third position in the lists of countries with highest representation of women in parliament.
We have to ensure that similar progress is made by women in business, in judiciary and within the diplomatic corps.
The possibility of achieving 50/50 gender parity as required by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development is not in distant future. It requires women in all political parties to stand up and champion this course. The ANC has led by example and it is adhering to this principle as the lists of candidates for local government elections are being submitted today. Let us ensure that all political parties play their role in contributing to this goal. After all, women constitute 54 percent of the total 23,6 million voters currently registered. They have a right to an equitable representation.
We also want 50 percent women mayors, speakers and city managers. We want women mayors in the 6 big Metro councils.
Programme director, I would like to thank the Women’s Development Foundation for its commitment to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the country and in Africa as a whole. We also give recognition and acknowledgement for the role this organisation played in the country’s journey towards a multi-party constitutional democracy we have today. It is by no means coincidental that it is this organization that has brought us together today to give recognition to the first group of women to serve in our parliament from 1994-1999, the class of 1994.
Women have forever contributed to the wellbeing of their families and societies in all human cultures. Women’s movements around the world have worked hard to achieve recognition and promotion of women’s rights.
In our own country, we remember the women’s protests in the Free State in 1913 organised by Charlotte Maxeke, resisting attempts by government to impose passes on women. We remember the beer hall boycotts and Natal women’s revolt under the leadership of Dorothy Nyembe.
As this year marks the centenary of International Women’s Day, we stand proud of the women of South Africa and women from across the globe who took up the fight for gender equality and freedom more than 100 years ago.They inspired various generations of women leaders including, Ida Mntwana, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Sophia de Bruyn, Rahima Moosa, Frances Baard, Gertrude Shope, Albertina Sisulu, Adelaide Tambo, Ray Alexandra, Dulcie September, Winnie Mandela and many others. They inspired women the MPs of 1994-1999 who took the struggle for gender equality and the empowerment of women to Parliament at the dawn of our democracy.
Programme director, the institutional mechanism for gender equality has greatly evolved over the past 17 years of our democracy. From the offices of the Status of Women located in the Presidency and Premiers’ offices, we now have the Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities.
The purpose of this ministry is to strengthen the current institutional mechanisms for advancing women’s empowerment and gender equality to enable the gender machinery to perform more effectively and efficiently. The aim is to accelerate the realisation of a non-sexist and non racial South Africa as envisaged in our Constitution that these women MPs of 1994-1999 shaped and adopted.
The ministry acts as a central coordinating point for national efforts on women’s empowerment and ensures the mainstreaming of gender considerations in all national policies, programmes and activities. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality and ensure that the institutional mechanisms at all levels and in all spheres of governance are strengthened.
The vision of the ministry is that of “A fully inclusive society free from unfair discrimination, inequality, abuse and exploitation”. I would like to urge all of you to support us as we build institutional capacity and mobilise for more resources to be allocated to achieve the objective of gender equality and empowerment of women. Although South Africa’s multi-agency national gender machinery is globally acknowledged as one of the most advanced machineries, lack of financial and human resources limited it from achieving its original objective of truly transforming women’s lives. That is the challenge we are trying to address.
As you took up your seats in Parliament for first time in May 1994, you had a vision of creating a non-sexist, non-racial and democratic society. We thank you for the role you have played in shaping our history and taking us to where we are today. The vision you stood for in 1994 remains our vision today.
We salute you women members of Parliament of 1994-1999.
I thank you.
Source: Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities
