Programme Director
Dr Zweli Mkhize, Premier of KwaZulu-Natal
Professor Ngubane and the leadership of the African Renaissance here
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
It is great honour for me to be with you in this warm city of Ethekwini today and to address this very important conference. I was very much interested in your theme which is: Take charge Africa – the Future is in your Hands
I think it should be sent to all the six African teams, including Bafana Bafana that will be competing in the FIFA World Cup next month. They need to know the whole of Africa is their home-ground and we need to take full advantage of that. If we can host it, we can win it as Africa. As you know, I have been given responsibility for issues of gender, children’s rights and disability in our country. So I will very much look at this theme from that perspective.
At the end of last year, the assembly of the African Union (AU) declared 2010 to 2020 as the Decade of an African Woman. This was a call to African member states and other bodies to participate and implement programmes for women.
The Ministry will be holding a gender summit in August to discuss our programme to make this an African decade. At this summit, we will also discuss the outcomes of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women which was held earlier this year to review the 15 years of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration. We need to use this conference to chart the way forward towards Beijing plus 20.
To return to the Decade of the African Woman, there are a number of achievements that one can mention in our continent with regard to empowerment of women. Africa now has its first female head of state, the President of Liberia. Women's representation in national parliaments has improved in a majority of African countries. Actually Rwanda is number one and South Africa is number three in the list of countries with the highest number of women in the legislature in the world. Sweden is in between us at number two.
It is a fact that there are many factors in many countries in the continent that still hinder women's political participation. Examples are political parties being slow to respond to women's interest, under investment in women candidates' campaigns and cultural barriers.
We are observing with interest for instance the issues that have been reported about Ms Zanele Magwaza-Msibi and her leadership role in the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). All political parties need to demonstrate willingness to provide women a fair opportunity to contest for any position. We need to ensure that women in leadership position are treated fairly and equally as their male counterparts.
African governments have established various mechanisms at different levels -including national machineries to mainstream gender, children’s rights and disability in the formulation of policies and to monitor and evaluate the implementation of international, regional and national commitments.
Particular attention has been given to the formulation of national gender, children’s rights and disability policies and implementation plans. In our case as South Africa, we have taken this even further and established the Ministry for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities.
The other area of progress for many countries is in access to education for girl children. This creates an opportunity for our continent to establish a skills-base on which we can build sustainable development. In SA, we have achieved our gender parity target and attained Millennium Goal 2 on Universal Access to Primary Education. However at tertiary education level, there is a need to focus on increasing enrolment of women in areas such as mathematics, science and technology.
I must here acknowledge the work being done by the Ministers of Technology in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to ensure that we increase the number of women in the field of technology. Under the leadership of my colleague,
Minister Naledi Pandor, these Ministers met here in Durban earlier this year to discuss measures that need to be taken to ensure that women are equally represented in this sector.
There is still a lot that needs to be done on women economic empowerment globally and in Africa. We need to take charge as Africa in calling for international trade relationship that is favourable to our continent. A fair global economic environment will ensure that women of Africa receive a fair compensation for their labour as they toil the agricultural fields of our continent.
Even within our countries, we have to ensure that economic transformation initiatives, such as Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) in the case of SA, begin to genuinely benefits women. At the Johannesburg Stocks Exchange for instance, there are still 73 companies that do not have event a single woman in their boards. Twenty-six of these companies have no women at executive management level.
The prediction from the study by Business Women of South Africa is that if we continue at this pace, we will only achieve 50/50 gender parity at the board level in 20 years from now. At executive management level, it will take 40 years to achieve 50/50 gender parity.
We need to address issues of ownership and control of the economy, employment equity, enterprise development and social relief. We have it in our hands to champion the cause for economic transformation. United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), for instance, reported that women of South Africa carry out 74% of unpaid care work in their homes. Of course, this limits opportunities for women to participate in the labour force, engage in economic and other social activities.
Since 1994, we have seen a massive expansion in access to basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and housing. But there is still a need to do more together. The efforts to hasten service delivery is not just in response to protests, but they should be viewed as determined efforts to free women and girls from the burden of unpaid care work and create development opportunities.
There are still challenges of violence against women, children and persons with disabilities that we need to respond to as a continent. It was with much shock that I learnt of a six year old girl that was tied up like a dog in her home in Umbumbulu allegedly by her parents for three years. I am glad that the police have arrested the couple as suspects. I hope the court will impose heaviest possible sentence if they are found guilty.
What was encouraging for me in this case is that the tip-off about this abuse came from the community of Umbumbulu. It is important to alert all our people particularly as we observe the Child Protection Week that we are legally bound under the Children’s Act to report any case of child abuse. If you fail to report an incident of abuse, you can be liable to prosecution yourself.
I believe we have it in our hands to stop cases of abuse because they happen within our communities. We need to take charge and build a future where women and children will be free to walk the streets and open fields of Africa with no fear of being attacked.
On health Programme Director, we have seen much improvement with more women attending antenatal care and there are facilities for family planning and for women to exercise the choice of termination of pregnancy in our country.
However, we have a major burden of HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa and our region is an epicentre of this epidemic. UNAIDS states that 67% of people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa are women. That certainly has a knock-on effect in areas such as maternal deaths and infant mortality. In the case of South Africa, we should certainly expect some improvements with more efforts currently being put on HIV prevention and treatment with a focus on women and children. I must say that other countries in the region have done much more progress in this area with less resource over the past decade or two.
Again, we can take charge as Africa and stop the devastating impact that AIDS is having on our society. It is the responsibility of each one of us to go for an HIV test. Put your future in your hands by knowing your HIV status. If you test negative, you will understand the importance of maintaining your status. If you test positive, health workers will advise you on all the necessary actions you need to take to lead a long and healthy life.
We had a dream of a stable Africa and we took steps to resolve many political conflicts that brought turmoil to many communities of Africa including here in KwaZulu-Natal. With the exception of some few countries, we report with pride on the progress that Africa has made on this front. We have a dream of economic growth and development; of a healthy and equal society that is free of violence and abuse. If we take charge as Africa we can achieve these ideals. Our future is in our hands.
In conclusion Programme Director, it is also my belief that Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Africa can take charge in the playing field and make this World Cup a memorable experience for Africa.
Take Charge Africa – the Future is in your Hands
Thank you.
Source: Department of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities
