N Mapisa-Nqakula: Debate on State of the Nation Address

8 February 2006

Madame Speaker
President Thabo Mbeki
Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka
Cabinet colleagues
Honourable Members
Fellow South Africans and friends

Allow me comrade President to place my name alongside those who have
described your State of the Nation Address as being both incisive and
instructive. One of the matters you raised, which will form the thrust of my
own input today, was the question of women based on the 50th anniversary year
of the historic women’s march in Pretoria.

The anniversary of that march itself will be celebrated on 9 August and as
we do so we will make an assessment of advances made by the women since that
historic day in 1956. I will present this assessment based on the factual
interrogation of where we have come from as a country with regard to women
emancipation.

Firstly, from the onset, we decided that we need more involvement and
participation of women in decision making at all spheres of society. In 1994 we
brought a large contingent of women to this House to serve our people as their
public representatives. That number increased in the wake of the 1999 general
election, given that the African National Congress (ANC) insisted on at least a
third of our Members of Parliament being women. We have raised the bar to 50%
for women in the forthcoming local government election which is an indication
of how this House will look like after the 2009 election when the ANC will
bring a 50-50 spread of male and female comrades to Parliament.

There are 22 women Ministers and Deputy Ministers in President Mbeki’s
Cabinet, including a woman Deputy President, a step for which we shall always
commend you, cde President. Those women in Cabinet constitute 44% of the
50-member structure. That is only six percent short of what may be the target
for the post-2009 election Cabinet.

I am raising these matters to argue that the ANC is the only organisation in
South Africa, political or otherwise, that truly practices what it peaches
regarding the struggle for equality and a better life for all our people, under
conditions of freedom, democracy, peace, security and justice.

About 51 years ago, together with all our people, we had declared that in an
envisaged democratic South Africa, there would be houses, security and comfort.
For us, Honourable Members, it is important that any assessment of the progress
we have made as a nation, should also be based on our ability to realise these
aspirations expressed by our people in 1955.

The women of our country have always believed that South Africa had a real
potential to be a better country. They believed that we would honour the
pledges for freedom that we together made in 1955.

As part of our call for Housing, Security and Comfort, we also said that
practically this meant that all our people shall have the right to live where
they choose, be decently housed and to bring up their families in comfort and
security.

As you were outlining the intention of government to continue the expansion
and increase of our housing stock, many of these women would have felt
vindicated by this amount of hope they have in the willingness of this
government to deliver to them. Because for women, it has always been important
that we are able to provide a decent home where our children can live in
conditions of dignity. It is a great source of stress for us to watch your
children grow in an environment that does not provide the stability of a home.
I can personally relate to this.

I was born in Langa at the outskirts of Cape Town, not very far from where
we sit now. My earliest memories of my home have been a house referred to then
as a “carriage”. That carriage house, which was attached to the houses of other
families in a train-like formation, allowed us no privacy, gave us no sense of
pride and worse of all, we did not own it.

Having had this experience and for the many of our neighbours who shared it
with us, in Langa and all over the country, it is reassuring to witness the
amount of progress government has made in providing a home to millions of South
Africans. I watch with pride as the N2 Gateway Housing Project flourishes in
Langa.

Through these initiatives, ownership of houses has been transferred to women
headed households. Women now have ownership of these houses and have received
their deed of grants. We have come from a history where some of our people were
given houses, which they leased for a lifetime, without a possibility of ever
transferring these houses into their ownership.

It is for this reason, Mr President that even if certain people say to these
women that these houses are oveza, our people know that at least this is a
house they own. It is theirs, it is for keeps and it has saved our people from
the indignity of living in shacks and being homeless. The initiative to launch
a bank to provide finances for low-income earners, will also be of great
benefit for women as they represent the majority of these potential
beneficiaries.

For the fist time, government under the ANC has been worried about the
plight of migrant workers living in hostels. In the past, women and children
were simply not allowed to set their foot in these hostels. If they tried to
visit their husbands or fathers in these establishments they could be charged
with trespassing. This system of keeping our people in barracks was clearly
designed to keep families apart and to ensure that families of workers should
never be encouraged to come and live in the cities. The consequences for this
have been the breakdown in the family units and compromise of the moral and
social fibre of our nation. We continue to deal with this legacy to day in the
form of street children, overcrowded prisons and the rise in criminal
activities.

One of the most key interventions we have made therefore has been the
conversion of these hostels into family units. We shall be continuing to phase
out the remaining hostels and barracks, including those that are in the hands
of the private sector. Because as we said, in 1955, fenced locations and
ghettoes shall be abolished and laws which break up families shall be repealed.
We have made some progress towards achieving some of these ideals and more work
is being done.

Again if we can afford to be honest, then we can say that our people were
correct to trust us when we said: There shall be housing, security and comfort.
This comfort that we have talked about, has meant a lot for women who find
themselves in distress, either as a result of violence, trauma and other
socio-economic burdens that are suffered by women everyday.

The new policy and legislative regime of government is biased towards the
protection and empowerment of women. As Honourable members are aware, in 1998
we passed the Maintenance Act, to give legislative muscle to some of the issues
regarding the protection of our children. Although children had been uppermost
in our intentions, the spin offs for women through this legislation have been
greatly meaningful.

We are also encouraged by the fact, these efforts have not only ended up
with the promulgation of a piece of legislation, but that the Minister of
Justice is spearheading a programme to clamp down on defaulters, including
setting up checkpoints and roadblocks in this regard. Iphelile lento yo tata
bafa bethwele iminqwazi. Utata no tata wondla umtwana.

Beyond just ensuring that single unemployed women are not saddled with the
burden of fending for their children alone, government has also intervened
directly by giving all deserving mothers and their children access to the Child
Support Grant. This government has continued to live up to its image of being a
friend of women and children, a protector of the most vulnerable. Today, women
and children are more conscious of their rights.

Not only has the Domestic Violence Act given added impetus and urgency in
the protection of women, but it has also resulted in many initiatives including
the opening of trauma centres and care facilities for abused women and
children. We have also ensured that this issue has been placed by government
amongst national priorities, since the inception of democracy and has been
declared a serious crime in our crime prevention strategy.

We believe that the results if this intervention has been the growing levels
of awareness and consciousness amongst women on their rights and this has led
to an increase in the number of cases reported and dealt with through the law.
Women are finally breaking the silence and we are succeeding in bringing this
vile crime against women into the open, so that we can deal with it as a
society.

We should also, Mr President send our most sincere gratitude to the work
that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other community based
initiatives have contributed to the fight against the abuse of women and
children. Their work has at times made the difference between life and death
for some of these women. We should seek more ways in which we can offer added
support to these complementary initiatives by ordinary South Africans.

As government, we are succeeding in our efforts to restore the dignity of
South African women. Honourable members, we have always understood the need
that we need to move with speed to put in place mechanisms that are aimed at
strengthening our fight against the trafficking of women and children.

There will be many challenges that lie ahead and key amongst them is the
need to ensure that those of our people who are still not covered by some of
these gains that we have registered, are also brought into the fold so that
their plight can be addressed with speed.

We believe that much of the renewed focus in the plight of the majority of
our people, including the success of our Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiatives (ASGISA), will have greater impact on the lives of women and indeed
all of our people.

We have, indeed entered our Age of Hope. And I am sure no one can honestly
differ with you Mr President that for the millions of women in this country,
despite the many challenges, today is better than yesterday and that if today
is anything to go by, tomorrow will even be much better.

Thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
8 February 2006
Source: Department of Home Affairs (http://www.home-affairs.gov.za)