Programme directors
Minister for Basic Education and the President of the ANC Women’s League
Premier of Northern Cape
All MECs present
Members of Parliament, Mayors and Councillors
Representatives of Political Parties and civil society organisations
Women and the community of Galeshewe and Kimberly as a whole
Guests from various regions of the Northern Cape and other provinces of our country
We as women of South Africa join the women of the world today in commemorating International Women’s Day. On this day, exactly 100 years ago, women campaigned across the world for the right to vote and to be voted into public office. They demanded equality and decent working conditions.
This was at the turn of the 20th century when large numbers of women in Europe and America were taking up employment as workers in various factories. Our own pioneer, Charlotte Maxeke was in United States of America studying for a Bachelor of Science degree at this time of the rise of women’s struggles.
It was this influence that got her involved in a number of development initiatives aimed at empowering women upon her return to South Africa. Charlotte Maxeke was instrumental in organising South African women participation in the International Women’s Day campaigns. As you know, she organised and led the Bantu Women’s League which was the forerunner of the ANC Women’s League. In 1913, she led women’s protests in the Free State, resisting government attempts to impose passes on women. These women burnt passes in front of the municipal offices.
The women who took up the fight for gender equality and freedom more than 100 years ago remain an inspiration to all of us. We remember them today as we mark the Centenary of International Women’s Day. They inspired subsequent generations of women leaders including, Lilian Ngoyi, Dorothy Nyembe, Albertina Sisulu, Mmadimoge, Winnie Mandela and many others. They were the women who opened the doors for many of us. Today, we salute them for their sacrifice and dedication to the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.
I am sure Charlotte Maxeke and her generation would have been very excited to see all of us gathered here to mark International Women’s Day under the theme: Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.
We know that women are most affected by unemployment, casualisation of labour and various challenges posed by the economic downturn. Our government has responded to these economic challenges by declaring 2011 as the year of job creation. We therefore need to make sure that the jobs being created through the New Growth Path, rural development initiatives or Expanded Public Works Programmes are benefiting women.
For women to take up these positions, we need to build on the progress we have made by increasing access to education for girls. Young women have to be beneficiaries of various learnership and training programmes that are being initiated. Yes, women can be artisan, boilermakers or any other skill that our economy requires.
We need to make concerted efforts to increase the number of women in the field of Science and Technology. This was the focus area for the 55th Session of the UN (United Nations) Commission on the Status of Women which ended last week in New York. While women constitute the majority of students in our schools and universities, they remain mainly within the fields of human sciences. In the allocation of scholarships and research funding, government is making an effort to increase the number of women in engineering, science and technology.
We were commended at the UN for the work South Africa has done in education, health and social development, particularly programmes for girls in education, Techno Girls, Girls and Boys Education Movements, HIV and AIDS programme and social security for single women and children.
Education, science and technology are one of the focus areas for the African Women’s Decade. The Heads of States of the African Union declared 2010-2020 the Decade of African Women. The goal of the decade is to cascade, in concrete terms, the execution of various commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment to grassroots level.
The plan is that each of the 53 Member States of the African Union is expected to establish national committees that include representatives of all segments of the society. These national committees will propose one national project for each of the 10 thematic areas of the African Women’s Decade every year.
The ten thematic areas are as follows:
- Fighting poverty and promoting economic empowerment of women and entrepreneurship
- Agriculture and Food Security
- Health, Maternal Mortality and HIV and AIDS
- Education, Science and Technology
- Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development
- Peace and Security and Violence against Women and Girls
- Governance and Legal Protection
- Finance and Gender Budgeting
- Women and Decision-making
- Mentoring Youth (men and women) to be champions of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
These projects proposed under the African Women’s Decade will be considered for support by the African Union Fund for Women. The focus for this year is on the theme: Health, Maternal Mortality and HIV and AIDS. The process towards the implementation of the decade will be discussed in detail at the National Women’s Conference later this year.
Programme director, violence against women and children remain one of the major challenges facing our society. To address this challenge, government has re-introduced the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units in all 176 policing areas countrywide.
These units conduct specialised investigations in the detection of all types of sexual offences, domestic violence and child abuse and protection cases. These units ensure effective access to justice for women and girls. In addition, Forensic Social Workers are provided in all the units in order to assist women and girls in presenting admissible evidence in a court of law. By introducing these specialised units within the police service, government has ensured that conviction rates are increased and sentences are firm.
South Africa is also proud of the global best practice, the Thuthuzela Care Centres, which is recognised by the United Nations as an excellent model to provide comprehensive one-stop services for survivors of Gender-Based Violence. A number of countries including Chile and Ethiopia have adopted these models at their national levels.
Programme director, we are observing this International Women’s Day celebration at the time when our country is preparing for the local government elections on 18 May. These elections are an opportunity for the women of South Africa to demand equal representation and to ensure that our interests as women are fully represented at this sphere of government. This is an opportunity to achieve gender parity.
South Africa currently has 44% of women representation in Parliament, 43% in Cabinet and 40% of councillors in the sphere of Local Government. All of these advances have mainly been due to the ruling party, the ANC, committing to the principle of 50/50 gender representation.
It is unfortunate that political parties represented in the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature declined the invitation to address you as women of South Africa today. This platform would have required each political party to outline its gender perspective and what each party intends to do to empower the women of South Africa.
Women need to vote for parties that are committed to gender equality and that have a clear track record of gender equality and empowerment of women. After all, this was the original demand of women at the International Women’s Day one hundred years ago – the right to vote and to be elected into public office.
It remains the fundamental right and demand of the women of South Africa today.
Thank you and enjoy International Women’s Day.
Malibongwe!
