Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon members and invited guests, I greet you all. Women's Day is a day for applauding women's achievements and for focusing attention on tasks which lie ahead. It is a day for reflecting on how far our society has come and how far we still have to go.
The struggle for equality continues unabated. The woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be amongst the first to celebrate victory. In our advocacy campaign, let us not forget to take along the girl-child. There is a saying in isiSwati which says: Ligotjwa lisemanti. [Discipline is instilled at the early age.]
We must, as this generation of women, take the girl-child by the hand and move with her to total women emancipation. In the girl-child lies the future heroine who must take the baton in advocating women's total liberation.
Prescribed gender roles lead to the women's role as mothers and nurturers in the domestic sphere being seen as of lesser importance and value than men's tasks. Women are said to be nurturers and domestic labourers while men are perceived to be the natural leaders and decision-makers. These roles are enforced at home, at school and throughout the media, thus restricting women's self-perceptions, disempowering their social and economic potential and limiting the possibilities for their future.
The curriculum taught in our schools still seeks to have one gender portrayed as superior to the other. The girl-child is still seen as the weaker gender when compared to the boy-child. Our education and advocacy need to start from the foundation phase of the education system and educate equality for all genders, as well as the role that can be played by both boy- and girl-children to build a society that is tolerant and respectful of all humankind regardless of gender.
Instilling this from an early stage of development will enable young women to resist all manifestations and consequences of patriarchy, from the feminisation of poverty, physical and psychological abuse to the subjugation of self-confidence. Women must resist open and hidden forms of exclusion from all positions of authority and power.
Social and biological features have been used in human history to exclude and repress the progress of women in our communities. Critical in this regard is the creation of the material and cultural conditions that would allow the abilities of women to flourish and enrich the life of the nation. In doing so, we would place women at the centre of evolution and development in our society.
The ANC believes that we cannot say that we are progressing as people and as a nation unless the women of our country are truly liberated and until we have reached a state of gender equality and gender equity. In view of the challenges that the democratic South Africa still faces in achieving gender equality, and as revolutionaries tasked with responsibilities to lead the transformation project, it is necessary to ask ourselves: What kind of struggles do we still need to engage in? What type of organisation do we still need to lead such struggles?
Women and men always remember that we were united through the discovery of our common wounds and scars. The national democratic and nonsexist society will not come as a consequence of liberation of the white minority regime, but as a result of a collective deliberate resolve and effort to eradicate all forms of gender discrimination.
Let me remind all our male citizens here, as Susan Anthony writes: "It was we, the people, not we, the male citizens, but we, the whole people, who fought for liberation." The mobilisation of women is the task not only of women or men alone, but all of us, men and women alike, comrades in struggle in our pursuit for gender equality. The mobilisation of the people into an active resistance and struggle for liberation demands the energies of men, not less than of men, as a system based on the exploitation of man by man can in no way avoid exploitation of woman by the male members of society.
The emancipation of women is not an act of charity or a result of a humanitarian or a compassionate attitude. The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for the revolution, the guarantee of its continuity and precondition for its victory. The ANC will, therefore, continue to strive for the realisation of the commitment of the Freedom Charter which says: "The rights of all people shall be the same, regardless of gender, race, or colour."
At this moment, let me quote from OR Tambo in his conclusion session of the conference of the women section of the ANC in Angola:
The women section is a weapon of struggle to be correctly used against all forms and levels of oppression and inequality in the interest of a victorious struggle of the people. There is, therefore, no way in which women, in general, can liberate themselves without fighting to the end the exploitation of man by man, both as a concept and as a social system. If we are to engage our full potential in this pursuit of the goals of our revolutionary struggle, then as revolutionaries we should stop pretending that women in our movement have the same opportunities as the men.
This is a clarion call for all of us to take stock of how far our society has come and how far we still have to go in our pursuit of total equality and total equity.
Women have suffered and continue to suffer from all forms of oppression. As women warriors, we will suffer, but, hon members, friends and comrades, we must rise and rise every time we face challenges.
Let me conclude by borrowing these poetic words from Maya Angelou, a well- renowned poetess, who wrote:
Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.
I thank you. [Applause.]