Programme director
Premier of Limpopo
Representatives of organisations working on development of rural women
Officials from various departments and the three spheres of government gathered here
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for responding positively to our call for this summit which is convened to discuss issues of rural development from the perspective of women. This is an opportunity to engage with the aim of speeding development opportunities for women in rural areas as one of the most disadvantage sections of our population.
In the election manifesto of the ANC, we reiterated the commitment made in the Freedom Charter that “Land shall be shared amongst all who work it!”
We acknowledged that despite the progress made in the first three terms of the democratic government, a large number of people in rural areas still face harsh conditions of poverty, lack of access to land and various basic services. We committed to developing a comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform, improvement of conditions of farm workers and farm-dwellers as well as building potential for rural sustainable livelihoods.
We said we need to speed up the process of putting more land in the hands of rural poor and provide our people with technical skills and financial resources to productively use the land. Most importantly, we committed to focus on the systematic promotion of agricultural cooperatives throughout the value chain, including agro-processing in the agricultural areas. This should include development of support measures to increase access to markets and finance by small farmers, including basic necessities like fencing and irrigation systems.
All of these commitments were made with a clear understanding that women constitute the majority of people living in rural areas and they should therefore be the largest number of beneficiaries in the country’s rural development programme.
Earlier today, I visited a number of development projects run by women and some by people with disabilities with this District of Mopane. Some of these projects demonstrate the extent of progress made in facilitating rural development.
Women’s groups who benefited from the land reform programme have been able - with the assistance from government and other institutions – to establish farms that are productive and profitable. They are increasing the scale of production and opening new market avenues for sale of their products. From the profit, they are able to service or have paid-off the loans secured to start up their businesses.
Other projects remain at very low scale mainly due to lack of technical support, access to finance and larger or stable markets. Sometimes the gap between acquisition of land and access to capital and other operational amenities for farming has landed some of these projects into difficulties. These are issues that I believe you will be able to better articulate at this summit and input into government programmes to ensure sustainable livelihood in rural areas.
Rural areas include all traditional communal areas, farmland, certain peri-urban areas and informal settlements in small rural towns where people have a number of possibilities to live from the land. Rural development is about enabling people in these areas to take control of their destiny through the optimal use and management of natural resources. Rural development should result in fundamental change in the country-side; including changes in attitude, ownership patterns and systems and participation on the part of rural communities themselves.
As we engage over the next day, we need to be able to categorise the challenges facing us so that we can come out with a clear way forward on how we address them for the benefit of all rural women.
These challenges include:
- poor or lack of access to socio-economic and cultural infrastructure and services, public amenities and government services
- decay of the social fabric leading to challenges of crime
- lack of access to water for both household use and agricultural development
- low literacy, skills levels and inappropriate labour practices
- underutilisation or unsustainable use of natural resources
- And unexploited opportunities in agriculture, tourism and mining
To achieve development of rural women, we have to strengthen efforts that promote collaboration between communities, civil society, the three spheres of government and the private sector. We have invited a number of government departments to participate at this summit because we believe rural women should be able to access resources from all sectors of government to enhance delivery. Departments and spheres of government need to move together to ensure delivery of infrastructure such as housing, water, sanitation, multi-purpose centres, police stations, Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, schools and clinics. All of these services are essential to improve the lives of women in rural areas and empower them to participate in all socio-economic activities.
We also need to be conscious of development of young women in rural areas. There are programmes like the National Rural Youth Service Corps where emphasis has been made to attain 50/50 gender parity and disability consideration amongst the recruits. There is commitment that of the 12 000 youths to be skilled and employed through this programme, 50% should be women and almost 3 000 should be youth with disabilities.
Programme director, rural development and the role of women in the eradication of poverty and hunger was one of the issues discussed at the 55th Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women that took place in New York about two months ago and it is going to be the priority theme for the 56th session. As a ministry responsible for ensuring that South Africa complies with international protocols on gender, disability and child rights, we want to ensure that our country makes a significant progress in addressing challenges facing women in rural areas.
We have finalised the report on our participation at the last United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). The report is a synthesis of our engagements and discussions at the UNCSW covering the following themes:
a) Access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including the promotion of women’s access to decent work
b) Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child
c) Gender and sustainable development
d) Empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication
e) Prevention of maternal mortality and morbidity and empowerment of women.
The report also contains recommendations and implications for South Africa’s national agenda to empower women and attain gender equality.
Based on the priority theme of science and technology, we presented SA’s innovative project – Techno Girls - aimed at encouraging girls to study and pursue careers in the fields of science and technology.The Techno Girl programme is a partnership between government, UNICEF and private sector and is currently being implemented by UWESO consulting in four provinces: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and North West. Following our engagements at the UNCSW, we have decided that the project be expanded to all provinces.
SA delegation also used the opportunity of the UNCSW to hold a special ceremony to present SA’s concept of Thuthuzela Care Centres to the world. These are one stop centres where rape victims can lodge a case and receive counselling and medical care including prevention of HIV infection and unwanted pregnancy. Thuthuzela approach has been commended by the UN Secretary General and adopted by a number of countries in Africa and in other regions, like Chile in South America. We will continue to profile it as a global best practice in dealing with gender based violence.
The UNCSW also highlighted the global challenge of maternal deaths and the impact of HIV and AIDS on women including rural women. One of the recommendations contained in the UN Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health is a call for integration of Prevention-of-Mother-To-Child-Transmission of HIV into maternal and child health services. We should therefore ensure that this happens at health facilities in rural areas.
Before I conclude programme director, it is important note that we are meeting here a few days before the Local Government elections taking place on 18 May. As women, we have been very clear that we want 50/50 gender parity in all political decision making positions and this is one of the targets of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development by 2015.
As part of our mandate to monitor and advocate for gender equality in the country, the Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities has looked at the gender profile of the candidates that want our votes as women for these elections and the results are as follows:
The ruling party, the ANC, has continued to lead by fielding the highest number of women candidates for these elections. 47% of the 9 409 candidates representing the ANC are women.
The DA has come out at a disappointing position in terms of women representation. Only 33% of the 7 120 DA candidates are women. This means that the party’s election poster portraying faces of three multi-racial women is nothing but a window-dressing or smokescreen aimed at disguising the reality of a patriarchal political party. All they want are our votes as women from rural and other disadvantaged areas while they do not consider us as good enough to be councillors and leaders at various levels.
COPE has 38% of its 5 908 candidates being women. Inkatha Freedom Party was worse than DA with 32% of its 2 757 candidates being women. Its breakaway party, the National Freedom Party is not any much better with 34% of its 2 606 candidates being women.
Of the 754 independent candidates registered, only 15% were women.
All opposition parties have failed to respond to a call by women of our country to use the next week’s elections as a step forward towards the attainment of gender equality at this sphere of government by 2015. Exception was the Minority Front and UCDP which have 47% women, but these two parties have a very small number of candidates at 355 and 607 candidates respectively.
Looking at these figures, it is clear that the ANC remains the main political party driving the national agenda for empowerment of women. The success of the ANC in these local government elections will certainly increase the number of women represented in political decision making positions at local government level. This is has been demonstrated at national level and in all provinces other than Western Cape.
Let us use the opportunity of this summit to advance the agenda for development of rural women. Let us work together to address challenges and enhance progress towards gender equality and empowerment of women particularly in rural areas.
Thank you.
