N Hangana on 16 Days of Activism Campaign

6 March 2007

When we embarked on the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women
and Children, we called upon all sectors of our society to become partners and
friends of the campaign in its endeavour in fighting this scourge. Members of
the media, because of an informative role they play in our society were
undoubtedly one of the key partners we identified. I can only say that I was
humbled by the response to that call.

Our calling you here is once again a demonstration of an acknowledgement of
this partnership, which as a National co-ordinator holds so dear. With the help
of my department, stakeholders and other sister departments we were able to
draft our concept document, which we sent to all the provinces to make their
inputs. We agreed that the campaign should take a different turn and focus on
the following key objectives:

* that the campaign would focus on rural and informal settlement based women
and children, for they are the most vulnerable (grassroots based)
* that it should go beyond the borders of South Africa
* that it should get men and boys as partners
* focus more on behavioural change, whilst continuing to raise awareness
* to raise funds for shelters and organisations helping abused women and
children, just to mention a few.

I am honoured to report that even though time was against us, with the help
of those who got involved we were at least able to lay the foundation towards
the achievements of these goals.

Our activities started off with the Department of Provincial and Local
Government holding its Women and Local Government Conference in Port Elizabeth
in September 2006. It is at this conference that women vowed to take the lead
in fighting the scourge.

On 15 October 2006, this coincided with the International Rural Women's Day,
the campaign reached out to rural women by holding its very first Farm Workers
Awareness Programme in Ladysmith�KwaZulu-Natal. The people came in their
multitudes to this information sharing session.

It is on this very day that the Farmers Associations representatives
committed themselves to fighting the scourge for they had realised we are all
together in this. This event also echoed the notion of bringing government to
the people. The departments of Home Affairs, Health and Social Welfare were
there with their mobile offices to render services to the people. It was indeed
a huge success.

Members of the media would recall that prior to the traditional launch of
the 16 Days Campaign, which is on 25 November, we lit the Torch of Peace at the
Union Buildings � calling upon everyone to identify themselves with its
symbolic message, which is peace in our society. With the help of the media,
South African Post Office (SAPO), Leaf Wireless and other Cellular networks, we
successfully launched both fundraising elements of the campaign on 20 November
2006, in Winterveldt just outside Pretoria.

Our SMS and postcard initiatives were mainly aimed at raising funds to help
sustain those organisations helping abused women and children. For every 'Act
Against Abuse' sms sent to 31616 the campaign would get R5 and every signed and
returned postcard the campaign would generate R2.

A total of 1 million postcards were produced by SAPO and distributed about 6
hundred thousand; 400 000 were distributed by Government Communications
Information System (GCIS) to various departments. To date we have 158 490
signed and returned, which translates into R79 250. Regarding our SMS campaign,
we had a total of 6 076 SMSs sent through, which translated into R17 304,55. A
special word of thanks to the Department of Public Enterprises together with
the State Owned Enterprises for donating an amount of almost R1,6 million.

We would like to thank both Leaf Wireless and SAPO for the active role they
played. We would also like to thank the members of the media, especially the
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) for the supportive role they
played in encouraging people to participate. With time, I sincerely think there
is room for improvement.

On 24 November 2006 we indeed took the campaign beyond our borders when we
held our Summit in Limpopo with women leaders from all sectors of our society
and a few Southern African Development Community (SADC) region countries. We
then took it to the masses (where it belongs) and over 15 000 people filled in
the stadium to listen to Premier Sello Moloto, National Convenor and other
stakeholders talk about abuse on women and children.

Our closing ceremony was in Upington, Northern Cape on 10 December 2006,
under the theme of a 'Day of Ubuntu.' The campaign demonstrated this spirit of
'ubuntu' when it challenged approximately 10 000 people to make it their
business to challenge the perpetrators to change their evil ways. It is also
here that a total of nine shelters were provided with financial support from
funds raised by the campaign. The National Convenor of the campaign closed the
ceremony by handing over the Torch of Peace to Minister of Transport, Mr Jeff
Radebe for the start of the 'Arrive Alive Campaign.'

We are the government that listens and takes people's concerns seriously. We
listened and heard our people when they advised us on the need to have a
year-long programme of 16 Days of Activism. In this regard, I am pleased to
report that we have yielded to this call. We have now embarked on a process of
extending 16 Days Campaign into sustainable 365 Days of National Action Plan,
which myself and the Deputy President will be launching at the Union Buildings
on 8 March. This is a concerted effort by government departments and civil
society organisations. Critical to the success of this National Action Plan is
the involvement of every citizen - every sector of our society in the fight
against abuse.

I am aware that there were many activities by a various organisations that
took place during the 16 Days of Activism period; in this regard I would once
again like to thank all those who were involved in such activities, especially
now that 16 Days will no longer run for only 16 Days, but throughout the
year.

As the National Co-ordinator of this campaign I am generally pleased to have
made these observations. Without downplaying the challenges, to a very large
degree we have made our marks on the following areas, which I believe are a
step in the right direction and also indicative of the effectiveness of the
campaign.

The campaign has successfully placed the issue of women and children's
rights firmly on the national agenda:

* The awareness aspect of it has awaken women and gotten them to understand
that gender-based violence is not an issue to be put under the carpet and that
silence is our worse enemy in fighting the scourge.
* Getting men as partners of the campaign is one of the crucial steps we have
taken for they will be key players in our behavioural change initiatives.
* We have also made strides in getting our traditional leadership the
importance of their involvement in the campaign, especially in the rural areas.
They have indeed committed themselves to this fight.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Provincial and Local Government
6 March 2007