Programme Director
Member of the Executive Council
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
Over the last couple of days the women of our beautiful continent gathered in our province of the Eastern Cape to look at ways of addressing many challenges that women face in various parts of our continent. While we gathered here to look at the progress being made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 6, an inhumane act of cowardice, brutality, and absolute evil struck in a small town of Bredasdorp in the Southern Cape a mere 1000 kilometres from here. A teenage girl, Anene Booysen lost her life in the most brutal way that no human being deserves to experience. A bunch of criminals raped and brutally took the life of this innocent soul who had her whole life to live.
May her soul indeed rest in peace and I appeal to all of us to keep her family especially, her mother in our prayers during this difficult. Only we, women know the pain that she is going through now and with our prayers her pain will in time heal. My fellow sisters I mention Anene Booysens because what she has suffered is what is experienced by thousands of other women in the African continent every day. I know that you might have discussed the issue of rape and what should be done to perpetrators vigorously over the past couple of days.
The fact that it happened while we were busy with this conference means we still have a long way to stop the rape and brutal killing of women. I hope in your resolutions you have recommended the harshest punishment for the perpetrators of rape for our entire continent to implement. In fact the resolution should proclaim that the rape and abuse of women in Africa is treason and is punishable as such.
If we fail to take such drastic resolutions as women and pursue their implementation we might as well fold our arms and give up the fight. No one but us women are affected by rape and abuse, so it is our hands to make our voices heard and this time not with words but action. That action should be across political affiliation, race and faith. It should be driven by sisterhood. I could not sleep on the night that I heard about the rape and brutal killing of Anene. My heart was made even sore by the utter silence of the male voice in the whole episode. I might be mistaken but the only voice I heard condemning the rape and brutal killing of Anene was that of President Jacob Zuma. If there was any other male voice, it was just not clear enough.
What I have learnt in life is that many people don’t take things like rape seriously until they affect their immediate families. If our male counterparts can be as passionate about protecting us against rapists and killers as they are about things like football, we might win the many challenges that we face as women.
For now I’m afraid we are on our own and this fifth Annual Conference for Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians might just be the tonic we need to eradicate the many challenges that women face in our continent.
We all know that many of our countries have promulgated good pieces of legislation to reverse the laws and patriarchal practices of the past that are discriminatory to women, but the implementation of such legislations have been stalled by mainly men in the upper echelons of governments. We need therefore to intensify changes being effected in many of our governments at the highest administrative levels and in doing so ensure better affirmation of women in higher positions. I mean we are the majority in terms of sex ratio to men in our respective countries and that ratio should start reflecting in women representation in positions of power too.
Buoyed by countries like Rwanda, South Africa, Mozambique and Angola to name a few, we must from this conference forge ahead and persuade our respective governments to intensify the representation of women in leadership positions. That will be a gigantic step towards the realisation of the reforms we were discussing in this conference.
I know that at times we can be our own worst enemies by pulling each other down and become the laughing stock of our male counterparts in the process.
Time is running out and that attitude is not serving us at all, instead it is reversing the gains we have made. As I said before this struggle is not going to be easy; it will need resilience and strong-willed women who will not bow even under extreme pressures in the contested terrain of global politics. I have no doubt in my mind that the deliberations we had here will make their way to the highest decision making structures of our governments and be implemented any delays.
Let me once again pay a word of gratitude to the leadership of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association under the stewardship of its Secretary –General Dr William Shija for choosing South Africa and in particular the Eastern Cape as the hosts of this important conference. As your wrap up the business of conference and depart to various destinations in the mother land, go and share fond memories with your families about the beauty and splendour of this wonder province. It was great having you, please come back again to experience other parts of province.
I thank you.
