Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane: Women, Youth And Persons With Disabilities Dept Budget Vote 2019/20


Budget Vote Speech By Honourable Minister In The Presidency For Women, Youth And Persons With Disabilities, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Old Chamber, Parliament, Cape Town; 9 July 2019

Honourable House Chairperson
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Ms Nhlanhla Ncube
Honourable Ministers, Deputy Ministers
Members of Parliament
Portfolio Committee Members on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities
Select Committee members on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities
The various Portfolio Committees represented here
Commission on Gender Equality, Commissioners, Acting Chairperson and CEO
Board of the National Youth Development Agency, Chairperson and the CEO
NGO’S and Civil Society Organisations
Presidential Working group on Disabilities
Council on Gender based Violence and Femicide
The Leadership of the Private Sector
The United Nations Representatives
Ladies and gentlemen
Fellow South Africans
Honourable Chairperson, it gives me great pleasure to stand here today as the

Minister in the Presidency for the newly configured Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, and table the Budget Vote, for a department that is central to the inclusive development of our country.

This Department is uniquely poised at the centre of government to co-ordinate and provide oversight in ensuring that government implements inclusive programmes, which are geared towards closing gaps in the representation of women, youth and persons with disabilities. When all Departments commit to this “kannete retlare ke dipitsi ra bona ka mebala”.

Our focus is on intersectionality because women, youth and persons with disabilities are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of oppression – race, class, gender, sexual identity and other identity markers, and these markers intersect to create complicated layers of oppression.

When Mme Lillian Masediba Matabane-Ngoyi was banned, and effectively made an enemy in her land, in 1957, she said: I quote:

I must say I had a tough time, but my spirit has not been dampened. You can tell my friends all over the world that this old girl is still her old self. I am looking forward to the day when my children will share in the wealth of our lovely South Africa. “Close quote”

How we wish that she was still around to witness the progress that has been achieved by the ANC led government in the 25 years since we attained our democracy. “You strike a woman you strike a rock”.

I say this as we are preparing for another commemoration of the women’s march in August.

Our generation who are the beneficiaries of this democracy, are grateful to Mme Ngoyi, Mme Maxeke, Mme Madikizela-Mandela and all their peers for the democracy we are all enjoying today.

We have the most progressive Constitution in the world and have developed legislation and policy framework to advance human rights, equality and empowerment of women, youth and persons with disabilities.

We owe all this to the Mbhokodos who refused to be dampened by the brutal system of apartheid because as mothers, “ba swere thipa ka bogaleng” for the future of their children.

We pay tribute to her fighting spirit because today we are proudly standing in parliament representing the most marginalised members of our society, women, youth and persons with disabilities, whose issues have been elevated to the Presidency.

We also stand here today presenting a budget vote in the Parliament of the 6th Administration which for the first time since 1994, has 50% of women in Cabinet, a milestone that has placed this country among only but eleven (11) countries in the world.

As we enter this new dawn of economic emancipation, our dream is of women, youth, persons with disabilities and the LGBTQIA+ community to walk freely in the streets of this country at any time, participating in the development of the country and creating wealth without any fear of violence towards them.

Madam Chairperson, in his State of the Nation address, His Excellency President Ramaphosa outlined the seven priorities of the 6th Administration and five fundamental goals for the next decade.

The President spoke about social cohesion and safe communities and that for the next decade, violent crime will be halved if not eliminated.

However, I am presenting this budget vote in a very difficult time for women in this country. There is a war against women and the total shutdown march of 1st August 2018 has not stopped the carnage as women are in a state of constant fear of violence and abuse.

On Saturday, I was shocked when media reports indicated that six women were gunned down at a home in Philippi here in the Western Cape.

We are in total support of the community and call for action by our Criminal Justice System as this carnage must stop now. We appeal for long sentences for perpetrators of Gender Based Violence with no option of parole. My deepest condolences to all families who have lost their loved ones as a result of this brutality.

Honourable Chairperson, on the 1st and 2nd November last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa called a Presidential Summit on Gender Based Violence and Femicide where he declared GBVF a national crisis. We all agree with him that it is a crisis and what happened in Philippi confirms that.

Therefore, as a country, we cannot deal with GBVF like any other crime. We need urgent intervention strategies to address this carnage.

The Presidential Summit came out with a declaration that clearly outlined actions that needed to take place to finally eradicate GBVF in the country.

This have to be finalised now to boldly start implementing to save lives of women and children in this country.

An Interim Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Steering Committee that consist of Government Departments, Civil Society Organisations that represents networks or coalitions and Intergovernmental organisations has been formed as recommended by the Summit.

They are working under tight deadlines given by the Summit to develop the National Strategic Plan (NSP) which must be integrated within the 2019−2024 Medium Term Strategic Framework and appoint the Gender Based Violence Council by September 2019.

The committee has formed Task Teams to address the different pillars of the NSP and have held national consultations with experts in the different areas to produce draft reports that are base documents for consultations nationally.

The GBV Council that will be chaired by the President, will implement the NSP on GBVF in all spheres of government including at community level and the private sector.

The Rapid Response Teams will also be replicated at Institutional Levels including Parliament, Legislatures and all workplaces, schools and Institutions of Higher Learning including TVET Colleges.

The Council will work together with the Justice Cluster to track GBVF cases throughout the Criminal Justice System and monitor the sentencing of GBVF cases in our courts to ensure that they comply with minimum sentences and issue life sentences to all GBVF. Further, we will work with Correctional Services and Parole Boards to ensure that those sentenced for GBVF serve their full term.

In intensifying the programmes to eradicate GBVF, we will also be launching the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security together with the three coordinating Departments which are International Relations and Cooperation and Department of Defence and Military Veterans.

Madam Chairperson, no matter how much we do, gender based violence will not stop if we do not invest our time as a nation in prevention programmes.

This must start at home. How we raise our boys as children has an impact in the type of men they will become.

We must socialise them and instil in them values that should lead them to mutual respect and treat all people as equal who deserve equal rights and opportunities

Therefore, for us to win this battle, we have to ensure that GBVF programmes are well resourced and funded. Through the GBV Council, we are going to ensure that all budgets that are sitting in different departments including the private sector to address GBVF, are put in the Council to attack this with all that we have in a coordinated manner.

Honourable Chairperson, we welcome and applaud the decision by the President to allocate funding in this financial year 2019-2020 to combat gender based violence and support decisions taken at the summit.

We are looking forward to the Budget Allocation from Treasury so that we can continue with the battle to eradicate gender-based violence and femicide.

It is only in the environment where women are safe and feel safe as espoused in the National Development Plan that they will participate freely in programmes and economic opportunities made available through democracy without always looking over their shoulders.

Let us eradicate Gender Based Violence and Femicide in our lifetime!!

Honourable Chairperson, as a country, we need radical change in how we address issues affecting women, youth and persons with disabilities and it cannot be business as usual.

We cannot talk of economic transformation and job creation without enforcing policies in place to ensure that these sectors meaningfully benefit.

In this regard, we are going to enforce the Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting Framework approved by Cabinet on the 27th of March 2019.

I wish to encourage all Ministers and Deputy Ministers to familiarize themselves with the Gender Responsive Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation framework, and to expand this framework to youth and persons with disabilities to ensure that programmes of government do not exclude these groups.

To implement the Gender Responsive Budgeting Framework, we are going to enforce the 30% of procurement to be dedicated to these sectors.

In discussion with the Auditor General, we will request that these are part of the audit outcomes, so that when the AG audits all spheres of government, they are audited on gender equality and economic empowerment of women, youth and persons with disabilities.

We will annually report on the performance of government and the private sector on economic transformation and gender equality which is a Constitutional mandate.

We are going to reintroduce the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill that was lauded as a trailblazer in dealing with patriarchy and redressing the imbalances of the past by the CEDAW committee. The WEGE Bill lapsed in the 5th Administration.

Honourable Chairperson, for us as a nation to restore human dignity and have social cohesion, we must create, jobs and provide conducive environments for women, youth and persons with disabilities to start businesses and create employment for all.

One of the low hanging fruits is that they must actively participate and benefit from the manufacturing component of the Sanitary Dignity Framework.

The production of sanitary products is a multi-million-rand industry but does not benefit women who are the users of these products. This is not justifiable. In fact, we advocate that women-owned and women0-led Cooperatives should be the manufacturers of sanitary products.

The National Treasury allocated R157m for the 2019/2020 financial year to augment provincial allocations for the national roll out of the sanitary dignity project under the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.

The Department will engage the Provinces to ensure that this allocation kickstarts the manufacturing process led by women. While in the process of establishing these, we urge them to support women owned businesses and not continue buying sanitary pads from existing channels.

Honourable Chairperson in his State of the Nation Address, the President announced that no person in South Africa will go hungry. According to StatsSA, poverty has a face, and that face is female. In addition to this, in South Africa, the face of poverty is of a black woman as reported by the Institute of Race Relations in 2017.

This indicates that women suffer the triple and persistent challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment more than men as reported by StatsSA.

To ensure that we eradicate hunger in the country, we are going to start a process of developing a national strategy on poverty eradication in partnership with all Government Departments and civil society organisations that are working at household level to ensure that no South African will go hungry.

Honourable Chairperson, we cannot talk about women’s economic empowerment and not talk about women access to land. This must be addressed urgently as women want to continue with food production in a large scale and to become property developers. This will eradicate hunger as they will feed their families and their neighbourhood.

Honourable Chairperson, we have a crisis. On 16 June this year President Ramaphosa stressed that as a country we are facing a national crisis regarding youth unemployment as 57% of the unemployed in the country are young people.

The President has categorically pointed out that our apex priority as a country must be to address the issue of high youth unemployment, employability, lack of appropriate job related skills; and provision of job opportunities to grow the economy.

We have set our sights to ensure the expansion of the National Youth Service to take on 50,000 young people a year; Working with all youth programmes in various departments.

On Saturday the 28 June 2019, we had a consultation on the Beijing+25 Report and women and young people cried about them not being employed.

These are graduates in the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics areas which challenges the myth that those that are unemployed do not possess the requisite skills.

They have pleaded for government’s intervention to ensure compliance to recruitment of foreign nationals on only scarce skills as prescribed.

To mitigate all these, we will develop a database of unemployed graduates as requested by the Honourable President at the Youth SONA and in partnership with the Department of Labour and Employment, the NYDA, Private Sector and the SETAS, to ensure that we place these professionals in real jobs. We will galvanize the Private Sector to create opportunities for the youth and persons with disabilities.

Honourable Chairperson, we have re-launched the National Gender Machinery

 (NGM) together with the Civil Society, as espoused in the National Gender Policy Framework on Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality approved in the year 2000. The National Gender Machinery is critical to achieving our gender equality goals.

Every government department, the Offices of Premiers in Provinces, and Mayor’s Offices in Municipalities must have a Gender Focal Point, located at a strategic decision-making level to drive the gender agenda.

The Department is working on ensuring that the NGM will provide a platform for the participatory development of an updated Policy Framework.

Furthermore, the Department is also in the process of finalising the Youth Mainstreaming Guidelines.

In the words of Former President Nelson Mandela on the occasion of August month,

I quote:

“As a whole this National Machinery will help ensure that government does not merely pay lip service to its policies concerning women, but actively implements them.” Let’s Khawuleza - the time to make a difference is NOW!!

Honourable Chairperson, in concluding, I want to commit this department to the mainstreaming of women’s, youth and persons with disabilities’ programmes to bring these groups from the periphery to the centre of society’s efforts to end inequality and injustice.

To ensure that the Presidency has the pulse of the nation on issues relating to women, youth and persons with disabilities, we will establish and revive Presidential Working Groups on Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities.

As a new department, we are now busy with the reconfiguring and restructuring of the Department to reflect the new mandate in line with the proclamation dated the 26th June 2019.

Presently the appropriation of the department of women which excludes youth and persons with disabilities is Two hundred and forty four million. However eighty five point two million (85.2 million) of the budget is transferred to the Commission for Gender Equality.

This transfer represent 34.9% of the total budget of the department. This then leaves the department with an inadequate funding to deliver on its mandate.

We have in all earnest started with the National Macro Organisation of Government (NMOG) process and receiving youth, and persons with disabilities officials from the Departments of Social Development and of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. Furthermore, we are also going to conduct the skills audit as requested by the Portfolio Committee to ensure that we have individuals with high-end skills in areas of women, youth and persons with disabilities.

This amalgamation has created a crisis of office space and we will engage the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to provide us with government building that will accommodate everyone as soon as possible.

All this requires substantial budget. Chairperson, as an advocate for the rights of women, youth and persons with disabilities, we have to engage with communities at local level for 365 days a year and to communicate with the nation. This requires resources, both financial and human resources.

Unfortunately, programmes for women, youth and persons with disabilities have always been underfunded or unfunded. We hope this will change as more than 52% of this nation who voted for the ruling party are women and are counting on us to make a difference in their lives.

Honourable Chairperson, on the implementation of our International commitments, we will mark the 25th Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action which was held in 1995.

We will hold community dialogues, to consult on the 12 Critical Areas of Concern and to consult on the draft National Strategic Plan on Gender Based Violence and Femicide. These consultations will also ensure that we establish the multi-disciplinary structures that consist of government, civil society organisations including the private sector.

South Africa is held in high esteem by the international community for its commitment as signatory to various treaties and conventions that uphold the rights of women, youth and persons with disabilities.

We will continue to participate effectively in the conventions such as Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) etc. and comply in submitting country reports as requested.

Chairperson, as a country we have also signed the Sustainable Development Goals and as part of the global community we have committed to planet 50-50 by 2030 – this will not happen without commitment by the Private Sector who are also a signatory. Let us work together to achieve this goal.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate Vakhegula, Vakhegula for their sterling performance in France and to wish our athletes with disabilities who will be representing the country in the World Championships in Switzerland the very best.

I would also want to wish, a young woman from Limpopo, Kgothatso Montjane who will once again participate in the Wimbledon Wheelchair Tennis Singles, representing our country and carrying the aspirations of the Continent as she is the first black female to participate in the tournament from the Continent of Africa.

Fly the flag high African child!!

Finally, congratulations once again to the young musician Sho Majozi, from my home Province Limpopo, for winning a BET Award. South Africa is full of talent – let’s open opportunities for the youth to excel.

Malibongwe!!

Nothing about Us without Us!!

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