Programme director
The Executive Mayor of Thembisile Hani Local Municipality
All councillors present here today
Management of the Department and all sister departments
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community based organisations (CBOs) and faith based organisations (FBOs)
People of Thembisile Hani
Ladies and gentlemen
Let me first start with the apology from MEC Dikeledi Mahlangu, who could not be with us here today due to other pressing commitments else where. She has nonetheless requested me to pass her sincere apologies as she thinks this is one of the important days in the calendar of events, more so as the topic relates to women in our society.
For the purpose of the theme of the day, I will quote extensively from the work of the gallant of our struggle, the freedom fighter, Former President of the African National Congress (ANC), CDE OR Tambo, for his Solomonic words find resonance today more than ever before.
Speaking at the close of the women section of the ANC (as it was then known), in Luanda Angola in 1981, OR Tambo accurately captured the essence of the women’s struggle when he said, I quote; "On the other hand women in the ANC should stop behaving as if there was no place for them above the level of certain categories of involvement. They have a duty to liberate us men from the antique concepts and attitudes about the place and role of women in society and in the development and direction of our revolutionary struggle."
He went further and to me this is the essence of the need for continued struggle for emancipation of women in all spheres of society especially as it relates to economic emancipation.
"The oppressor has, at best, a lesser duty to liberate the oppressed than the oppressed herself. The struggle to conquer oppression in our country is the weaker for the traditionalist, conservative and primitive restraints attitudes of surrender and submission on the part of women."
These words find more meaning now than ever before. We live in the world that has drastically changed. The aspirations of women, as an oppressed section in our society due to skewed social power relations, look gloom than anticipated. The devastation that has and will in the near future be brought by the global economic down turn will be felt more by more than any other section of society.
As it stands now, women constitute majority in the population of our society, but are far away in the terms of the socio economic benefits. Women are still equivalent to poverty, disease, abuse, illiteracy, violence, fear and want.
The lesser paying menial work is equated with women. Child rearing is equated to women.
As OR alluded, women have more responsibility than any one else to take charge of their own struggle. Government has put the policy framework in place to achieve this.
The task is even more thicker for professional women who sometimes have the tendency to be worst oppressor themselves, rein fencing themselves in this luxurious new found job, so that they are they only ones counted when statistics are made.
The theme says "Responding to the economic crisis: Investing in women is a smart choice."
The legislative framework is alone not enough to make meaningful changes in the lives of women. Resources have been availed. Government has even made the quantum leap of creating a women ministry, so that there is added focus on the issues that affect women.
Historically we referred t the oppression that women faced as, "triple oppression". This is so because beyond the national oppression that apartheid minority rule had brought on the majority indigenous people of South Africa, women suffered more as; women (gender), class and race.
To this end, and we celebrate world population with this telling theme, we should ask ourselves on how far have we gone in bringing hope that freedom and democracy were indeed the necessity for better life.
The Department of Social Development is even better placed to respond in a co-ordinated manner to many pressing issues that confront women. Let us also hasten to indicate that women need no charity from us. They need real commitment. We need to double our efforts to dismantle the patriarchal social construct that perpetuates subordination of women.
Two incomes are often vital to pull a family out of poverty. Women therefore turn to home-based work precisely because it is flexible, it can be combined with childcare and/or agricultural work. For women with young children it is often the only option of income generation. However, international competition on producers also increases the pressure to cut costs and take advantage of such flexible workers. Women are typically denied basic working rights, such as including minimum wages, regular work.
To tackle such issues, the private sector, domestically and internationally, needs to further acknowledge the existence of flexible and home workers in terms of the contribution they make to production, including:
* Supporting home-based workers' organisations and ensuring they are consulted in the development of codes of practice
* Ensuring such codes incorporate the home workers' entitlement to basic employment rights
* Ensuring that women home workers, the poorest of all, do not lose out due to moves that aim to improve conditions in global production chains
* Supporting independent women's collectives who can market their own products, reducing consumer dependence on large wholesalers, traders and merchants
* Establishing appropriate facilities e.g. child care facilities
* Ensuring adequate education and training for women and men, to aid employment opportunities
* Increasing the number of qualified women in growing sectors, such as Information Technologies, by investing in accessible education and training for women.
* Increasing women employees' and associations' access to credit.
The theme commands us to take to new heights our efforts of investing in women emancipation. Doing so is indeed a smart thing, because it lays a firm foundation for real advance towards better life for all women in Mpumalanga.
I wish all women and the people of Mpumalanga a happy population day.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health and Social Development, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
11 July 2009
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government, (http://www.mpumalanga.gov.za.htm)
