Address by Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of Water and Sanitation at the launch of Women in Water Empowerment Programme, held at Destiny Conference Centre, Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni
The historical position of a woman has for many centuries been the one of subservient. Women have always been viewed as homemakers who must pander to the whims of men whenever required to do so – mainly, as hewers of wood and drawer of waters.
Their economic role has never been appreciated in the same manner as that of their counterpart. This situation is compounded by the fact that the economic levers of our society are by and large controlled by men. As a result, business opportunities are skewed in favour of men.
Historically, access to water in South Africa, like access to many rights and privileges were determined by the dictates of race and gender. Access to water was further complicated by the link between access to land and access to water. Since access to water is inextricably linked to access to land, the rights of Africans and women’s access to water was further limited by their limited access to land, 13% of which was reserved to African’s under apartheid policies and legislation. Thus the involvement of women in the anti-1930 Land Act led by Charlotte Maxeke was, indeed, a great feat.
An investment in Women is one of the most important investments we can make as a nation to address the triple challenge of Poverty, Inequality and Unemployment. And, in turn, such an investment would bring about the triple benefits of Growth, Prosperity and International Competitiveness.
Our mothers in 1956 said to Prime Minister Strydom – “when you strike a women, you strike a rock” talks not only to strength, but also steadfastness, resilience and a firm knowledge that these rocks – our mothers and sisters and daughters can and should be the building blocks to a new pathway to economic prosperity for all.
Amartya Sen, the Nobel Laureate economist and close friend of South Africa was very clear in his assertion that the development of women was not only an emancipation issues, but a core development issue.
In this regard, the stark reality is that only those societies that are able to organize for the inclusion and empowerment of Women and the Girl-child will, as a matter of course, be much more successful and prosperous than those who don’t.
In addition, we must be clear, in these tight economic times that we face two realities:
- The first is that the transformation project is under attack. That there are active forces against the further development of an inclusive economy. Ironically the lack of growth in our local economy, and indeed the global economy is often cited as the reason for holding the status quo to get through the hard times.
- The second reality is that we know that the precise pathway out of the bondages of recession onto the pathway to prosperity is exactly the opposite. It is the path of Inclusion. It is the path of expanding economic participation to realize our full demographic dividend. It is the development of women as the investment in the future prosperity and sustainability of the South African economy.
All of the above having been said, we however, recognize that over the years the water and sanitation sector has not transformed as it should have and our people, especially women, have not actively participated or benefited from the sector.
The process of beneficiation by the Department within the precepts of the BBBEE and the Preferential Procurement Regulation has demonstrated a poor showing.
For instance, during the Financial year 2014/2015 the total expenditure on procurement amounted to R13.3 billion. The amount spent on SMME’s for the period 2014/2015 was R 592.9 million. There is however not, even, breakdown of these figures in relation to spending trends on woman, youth and persons with disabilities.
The Department in the year 2015/16 spent a total amount of R13.5 billion on the procurement of which R2.2 billion was spent on SMMEs. This translates to 16% of the total procurement for the period.
These amounts are therefore broken down as R1.1 billion on black owned companies which translates to 50% of the total figure of R2.2 billion. The portion of the R1.1 billion includes R102 million spent on woman owned companies which translates to 4.6% and R738 000 spent on Youth which translates to 0.03%. No amount of expenditure on persons with disabilities was incurred.
The remaining R1.1 billion spent during this period was attributed to procurement of goods and services from white owned SMMEs. Based on the two year trend there was a total average improvement of 12% spent on SMME’s. And we all cannot be happy with this grim picture.
It is therefore, against the backdrop of this poor showing that we reiterate our commitment to transformation and have made it a point to focus on tangible procurement transformation by ensuring that women, youth and persons with disabilities are specifically targeted in the current procurement processes.
The launch of the Women in Water Empowerment Programme (W-WEP) today, is a demonstration of our seriousness in committing ourselves to fundamentally transforming the sector and ensuring that our people do not solely benefit as tap openers but play a meaningful role.
As outlines also in our 2016 Budget Vote, we have committed ourselves together with our Entities and Boards, that we will:
- Ensure that all projects across the water and sanitation value chain are used to ensure transformation by creating jobs and empowering women, youth and people with disabilities.
This we continue to do, amongst others, through the following:
- Enforcing targeted procurement that supports black entrepreneurs, women you and people with disabilities
- Investing in skilling especially young people so that they play a meaningful role in the building of dams, canals and other water infrastructure as well as the delivery of sanitation infrastructure.
- Creating an enabling environment for job opportunities for the historically excluded and vulnerable groups
- Targeting rural development initiatives that support small holder farmers
- Support to small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMME’s) in the sector
Programme Director,
It was on the 31st August, 2015 that I addressed the landmark Women in Water Consultative Conference in Tshwane where we made a commitment in regard to the launch of a 3-year national Women in Water Empowerment Programme. The scope of the programme covers all women-owned businesses that are competent and excellent in the provision of services to the Department.
Thus, it gives me great pleasure that I am today launching the Women in Water Empowerment Programme (W-WEP) precisely for that purpose as well as mitigate the challenges that confront Women entrepreneurs.
The Women in Water Empowerment Programme (W-WEP) is built on two legs. Two legs, because we don’t want to stand steadily in three legs, but we want to walk and then run on two.
We want to run in a way that encourages other Mothers and Sisters and Daughters to run with us. We want to run in a way that creates opportunities for our Fathers and Brothers and Sons to join us in this race to prosperity and sustainability.
The two legs are the W-WEP Mentorship Programme and the W-WEP Entrepreneurship Incubator.
This, in the water sector, is aimed as the primary TRANSFORMATION CATALYST; one that we hope will catch fire in other sectors in our country, other countries in Africa, and indeed other continents around the world.
The purpose of the Programme is to provide support to women-owned and led enterprises to be effective and efficient in delivering proper water and sanitation related services to the public. And this is a Programme that is intended to run for 3 years.
The Programme’s Objectives is to:
- Identify and address the key gaps between the current scenario and expected future scenario for the participation of women owned businesses in the water sector
- Accelerate the growth and success of women entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services. Might include but not limited to the following:
- capital, coaching
- common services
- networking connections
- Develop business talent to enhance performance of women professionals and women owned businesses and create readiness for transition to the next level of operation
- Develop a succession and retention plan for professionals and women owned businesses to sustain organizational excellence in terms of service delivery
- Measure business impact and effectiveness of the programme during and after implementation.
The beneficiaries will comprise of three (3) Cohorts:
- Beginners (women owned enterprises in business however with no sustainable growth)
- Intermediates (women enterprises in business however not as established as big enterprises)
- Established (women-owned enterprises at intermediate stages that function as fully-fledged businesses but that require additional support to take their businesses to the next level of operation and compete nationally and globally).
And these will be drawn from the various sector, e.g.:
- Women in Research and Development (including technological innovation)
- Women in Engineering
- Women in Construction
- Women in Local Community Initiatives
- Women in Construction Supply
The Program is made up of three projects:
- Mentorship Project
- Women in Water Entrepreneurship Incubator (WEI) Project
- Women Forum
Mentorship Project
The purpose of the mentorship programme is to match women entrepreneurs active in the water sector with a mentor who will provide ongoing, individual support to the business owner.
This support typically focuses on the more tacit and experience-based insight that new or emerging entrepreneurs may lack. Mentorship is always based on agreement between mentor and mentee that is grounded in the experience the mentor can share and the needs that the mentee has.
Broadly, there will be a focus on four areas:
- Building a network of partners (product development, refinement and distributions, clients, business services support)
- Support on how to manage partners, networks and clients
- Refining the product/service offering
- Critically reflecting on the business model the mentee adopts
There will be a range of spaces for mentor and mentee to interact:
- Introductory workshops (establishing the mentorship relationship and plan)
- Interactive follow up sessions
- Reflection sessions to explore how the mentorship process is assisting
- Where needed, there will be specific training provided based on identified gaps or needs
Women in Water Entrepreneurship Incubator
This project is aimed at creating a developmental platform for women-owned companies that are at various stages of establishment (Emerging, Intermediary and Established) and requiring varying degrees of support.
The project will cover:
- undertaking business and entrepreneurship readiness analysis;
- skills and development assessments and support;
- mentorship based on support gaps identified; and
- links to and embedding in relevant and appropriate funded national, regional and local projects that will align with incubate business aspirations and business development goals.
Project Requirements for Entrepreneurship Incubator Programme
- Water infrastructure projects of sufficient size and complexity ranges to accommodate the incubatee companies in all three categories viz. Beginners, Intermediates and Advanced cohorts.
- Work package demarcation between dry and wet works.
- Clear achievable short term (3-6 months) and longer term (1 year) milestones for Beginners and Intermediates.
- A clear mechanism(s) for preferential procurement.
- Current proposal is Panel Inclusion for CE 7-9 (Advanced cohort) for direct preferential procurement.
- Using the technical specification mechanism for the Beginners and Intermediary cohort inclusion through public tender.
The Project options being considered are:
- Full scale dam projects (small and large) and upgrades.
- Sanitation projects.
- River rehabilitation projects.
- The Rehabilitation of Canals programme.
In conclusion, let me hasten to say that the operational and technical details of the whole Programme in terms of the allocation of work-packages and contracting will be finalized by the technical team according to the Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes.
Let me also thank everyone of you who have managed to spend time with us today to engage in this important matter of the empowerment of women. It is highly appreciated.
We also like to wish good luck to the candidates who are part of the Mentorship Programme and will now be part of the Entrepreneurship Incubator Programme. We say to you that the journey of thousand miles starts with the first step.
Those that have gone through similar Programmes in the past in other sectors had to show diligence, tenacity and resilience. We are convinced that you will emulate them or even do better than they.
Dankie
Ngiyabonga
