E Molewa: Information Communication Technologies Indaba

12 September 2007

Programme Director
Provincial Government Information Technology Office, Ms Makhekhe-Mokhuane
MEC for Social Development, Ms Nikiwe Mangcu and other members of the North
West Executive Council here present
Executive Mayor, Councillor Sejosengwe and other councillors here present
The Chief Executive Officer of Sentech, Doctor Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane
Distinguished guests
Women and girl children of the North West province and South Africa

What better way to cap the celebrations of August Women's Month 2007 and
commemoration of the 51st anniversary of that historic women's march to the
Union Buildings than with a women in Information Communication Technologies
(ICTs) Indaba, an activity that demonstrates just how forward-looking our
nascent democracy is.

Over many decades, including long before the August 1956 women's march,
South African women have made us proud in the manner that they have confronted
the many challenges presented by historical circumstances and by demanding what
was due to them by virtue of their birthright as equal citizens. I can see no
reason why they should not continue doing so, especially in the light of an
ever-changing world that, in our case, makes available to all opportunities for
exploration and exploitation. So, even as we conclude the month dedicated to
highlighting the issues that are specific to women and showcasing the
opportunities due to our democracy, it is important that we commit to making
the plight of especially the most vulnerable women in society our topmost
priority 365 days a year.

By highlighting the extent of involvement of women in ICTs, we are
effectively asserting that women have a major role to play beyond the confines
of geography and physical space. We want to see women play as prominent a role
in the ICT sector as the likes of Doctor Mokone-Matabane because they too are
rightful citizens of the global village. Globalisation, defined in part as the
infiltration of influence across national boundaries, has ICT as one of its
most prominent and defining features.

In its various guises and applications, ICT literally makes the world go
round. Through radio and television, we are able to receive breaking news from
across the globe, as and when it happens. We log onto the internet and within a
split second, get first-hand information on the happenings around the world on
any subject of interest; commercial, entertainment, research and development
and so forth.

The same media of internet and email enable us to lessen, if not remove
completely, the physical distance between ourselves and others in far-flung
places, whether for personal benefit or professional pursuits. In a word, ICTs
are an integral part of our everyday existence and it is this defining feature
that makes us so dependent on them. Our dependence on cellular phones for such
activities as banking and data transfer is a case in point. Exploited to a bare
minimum, ICTs have the potential to offer ample opportunities for the safety
and security of persons and property. Thanks to ICTs, we do not have to carry
loads of cash on our persons as transactions can happen online in the safety of
our homes or workplaces. Gone are the days when if we needed to give money to
our beloved ones we had to travel long distances so that we could do it in
person. As a result, therefore, appropriate use of ICTs has the effect of
effectively cutting down on the very costs of transacting, both in terms of
opportunity and money terms.

ICTs are part and parcel of our daily existence. In their most advanced form
they literally help us through global positioning and navigation systems in our
fancy vehicles gain access to places some of which we would be visiting for the
very first time in our lives. Such is the nature of new knowledge, it helps us
arrive at solutions we may not even be aware we are capable of realising.

Human advancement, civilisation and development owe some of the most
impressive achievements to ICT. The medical fraternity is a case in point. We
all marvelled in unison as the conjoined Lewton twins were successfully
separated in a marathon procedure over the weekend. To many of us, this aspect
of medical advancement bore a nostalgic tone to it as we recalled perhaps the
first such operation to have been performed in South Africa approximately two
decades ago, which culminated in the successful separation of the Mathibela
Siamese twins. At the same time as we marvelled at the strides made in medical
science in particular, it is due to ICT that we could share in the anxiety and
joy of the parents each step of the way as the medical practitioners were
undertaking this delicate task.

We look upon ICTs to help us resolve some of the most vexing questions of
our times. For South Africa as a developing nation, what makes ICTs even more
appealing is if it amounts to the form of innovation that does not stop short
of responding to some of the most pressing questions of our time, such as
powerful how best to increase productivity, generate economic growth, create
jobs, enhance employability and improve the qualify of life of all. This,
indeed, lies at the centre of our belief system and approach to ICTs

Our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) has taken this
approach into account, hence the chapter on integrating ICTs and Information
Society, lists the national development priorities to which we have sought to
align ourselves to as inclusive of growing the economy, job creation, health,
education, rural development and agriculture.

ICTs are a tool through which we are able to take an active interest and
part in matters that are very dear to us. It empowers us to form part of the
national and international discourse on cutting-edge developments. Because we
can follow events as they unfold, we pray together with the world for our
medical scientists to find a cure to the pandemic human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV), which causes the incurable Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). We
cheer each time we hear or read that some or other tests and trials have been
undertaken and the prognosis looks promising and urge our scientists onto even
greater achievements.

For us as women, as is the case with all of humanity, ICTs can continue to
justify their intrusion on our everyday existence based on their usefulness to
us. As such, ICTs are about life, an integral aspect of which is women's
emancipation and human development. On these bases, a gender perspective to ICT
is nothing else but a gender perspective to life. A society that does not
attach value to the role and contribution of its womenfolk stands less of a
chance to give them opportunities where ICTs are concerned.

Fortunately for us, South Africa boasts some of the world's best and most
extensive gender and women empowerment machinery. We have placed our policy and
legislative frameworks in the public domain for the scrutiny of the
international community. We are proud that we get cited in all corners of the
globe as a model country for the emancipation of women and intend to keep it
that way. Our institutions for promotion and sustenance of democracy and
inclusivity have been constitutionally enshrined and are continuously put
through scrutiny in order that they justify their continued existence. The
question we should be constantly seized with is how we can progressively
translate these into practical application at levels that matter most.

Good practice here and elsewhere seems to suggest that it is not enough to
tackle the situation of ICT involvement of women only in the classroom and
workplace, but that many of the factors associated with women adopting
non-traditional careers, such as going into the ICT sector and professions, are
taught in society in the family and in early childhood situations.

This fact places a major challenge on us as grandmothers, mothers, aunts and
sisters, to ensure that we engender in our girl children the inquisitive mind
that allows them to want to become what they want to become. Not that the
traditional professions such as teaching and nursing do not have a role to play
in ICT. On the contrary, some of the ICT pioneers started their careers in
these traditional careers. The trick ultimately is in how we stimulate the
thinking of our very young to think, as the saying goes, outside the box.

How we achieve that includes through us demystifying some of the myths
associated with a gendered approach to ICTs. We need to teach our girl children
from a very early age that there is nothing daunting about mathematics,
science, engineering and technology as careers for pursuit. Gone are those days
when girls were made to believe that their biological make up, whatever that
was precluded their pursuing careers in ICTs and the sciences in general. We
need to point out to the many female role models here with us today as some
people upon whom our children's careers could be modelled, if they choose so to
do.

My biggest challenge is to the girl children taking part in this Indaba.
That you are the privileged few to be here today is not in question. Many of
your peers who would have loved to be here today were not able to, because we
could only accommodate a limited few. Use this opportunity to learn and imbibe
as much as you are able to. Let this be a learning curve for you, and let it
open the doors to new and exciting opportunities, which your mothers and
grandmothers were denied due to the system of apartheid discrimination that
existed prior to 27 April 1994.

To advocate the involvement of women in ICTs is not to deny them their
inherent nurturing and caring characteristics. If anything, we need women to
take up positions of influence in large numbers so that they help transform the
ICT sector into one that is both caring and nurturing both to practitioners and
end-users. We need to make the World Wide Web more gender-sensitive and
paedophile-proof, to mention but two of many negative factors that bedevil the
good that has come as a result of ICT advancement. As the people who have
experienced first-hand the negative effects of these ills, women are best
placed to champion the cause for their combating.

The percentage of women who hold influential positions in the ICT sector is
at a worryingly low level. I wish hereby to challenge this Indaba to come up
with ways and means to harness the combined efforts of families, the private
and public sectors and institutions of learning to stem the tide to a point
where the sector can compare favourably with others in society. Government has
set up the framework. It is for us to make it a reality. I wish you successful
deliberations and look forward to the outcomes of this Indaba. I commit the
government of the North West province to the principles upon which this Indaba
is expected to agree, as well as to the rollout, to the best of our abilities,
of the proposals and recommendations you arrive at.

When the founding mothers of the nation took it upon themselves to tell
successive apartheid regimes that they disapproved of their discriminatory
policies, it was because they had the conviction of their beliefs that all
their offspring, black and white, male and female, had the inalienable right to
enjoy the benefits that the land of their birth, which is alive with
opportunities, had to offer. We cannot dare fail this dream and resolve.

In concluding, please allow me to acknowledge some of the people without
whom this event would not have become the success that it has turned out to be.
These are our partners in development. They are the proof that public-private
partnership is not a pipedream, but reality, and they include:

* All speakers
* Telkom Business
* Microsoft South Africa
* IBM South Africa
* State Information Technology Agency (Sita)
* Mobile Telephone Network (MTN)
* AE Software Solutions
* Pinnacle Micro
* Business Connexion
* South African National non-government organisation Coalition (Sangoco) North
West
* Telemedicine at the national Department of Health

I thank you all.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
12 September 2007