Chairperson, today the DA is proud to celebrate and observe the United Nations International Women's Day, and we support its theme: "Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for All".
There are still far too many challenges facing women in South Africa and it is unacceptable that the ANC-led government gives only superficial recognition to these. As the DA, we express our discontent with the lack of genuine commitment from national government as a whole to bettering the lives of all women across the country.
Chairperson, this reminds me of what Mamphela Ramphele said in her speech at the Helen Suzman Memorial Lecture in Cape Town in November 2009, and I quote:
Our society is bleeding. The social pain endured by those who have remained marginal in our society has burst into greater and louder protests in our streets. ... The public good is undermined by imperatives of the "morality of the party and its survival".
Our democracy is at risk from the level of inequality that is exacerbated by patterns of actions that are unethical.
I am of the opinion that there is a strong correlation between political will, public awareness, expectation of service delivery, equality, and what constitutes ethical behaviour. Political support and will regarding service delivery, equality and ethical behaviour are critical. The political will to make service delivery, equality and ethical behaviour central to oversight, governance and administration responsibilities also involves the will to question current behaviours, public and private practices, structures and processes that perpetuate inequality. Chairperson, many policy-makers remain basically unaware of the relevance of the entire human rights, equality and ethics discourse to their professional spheres of operation. All of us therefore need to get in touch with our own perceptions, stereotypes, prejudices, attitudes and beliefs about these, and understand how these impact on women and the broader society, as well as on service delivery.
When the dignity of our people and our institutions is under threat, we as a nation are in big trouble. It is therefore important that we start with ourselves. I challenge all of us, from the President of our country, hon Mr Jacob Zuma, to the Cabinet, Parliament, the judiciary, all Members of Parliament, members of the NCOP and all members of provincial legislatures, as well as councillors in local government, to rethink whether we are indeed the leaders to bring about change for our women and our nation as a whole.
We dare not sigh or shrug our shoulders when we have the opportunity to interrogate the deeper reasons for our failure in achieving visible and lasting solutions to today's socioeconomic problems of devastating proportions. How can we claim that we are upholding the Constitution and that we are serious about serving all our people?
In a recent article in the Mail & Guardian of 19 to 25 February 2010, Ramphele also said, and I quote:
Inequality and inequity in societies create social pain and shape the quality of social relationships. Psychologists have now demonstrated that pain inflicted on the psyche is as devastating as physical pain, if not more so.
Yes, this is devastating pain. Anybody sitting here today who has ever been discriminated against or unequally treated on the basis of the colour of his or her skin, his or her sex, or his or her disability, religion, culture, etc will understand what Ramphele's "pain inflicted on the psyche" means to all of us.
It is pain that damages your dignity and self-worth, and has lifelong implications and effects unless inner peace is found. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was one way of easing this pain caused by our apartheid past, but the effects of that pain remain. This is evident in the intolerance between individuals, in communities and broader society.
Chairperson, gender inequality remains unchanged in many ways. According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women, simply increasing women's share of seats in Parliament alone is not the solution, as it does not guarantee that they will make decisions that benefit the majority of women. We therefore have to ensure that as women in politics we make a concerted effort to influence decisions and the priorities agenda in order to obtain policy results that will improve the status of women in general. We also recognise that politicians across the globe still confront a masculine model of politics, as political life is organised for male norms and values, and in many cases even male lifestyles. The challenge is how well we are able to shift to an inclusive model of politics that enhances equality for both men and women - meaning that like men, women should be recognised for their particular contributions, values, norms and lifestyles.
The pain Ramphele is speaking about is also the pain that hurts deeply in the psyche when women with disabilities experience exclusion in relation to the nondisabled in inaccessible economic and social environments. It is the hurt that people who are poor feel when harshly disrespected because they are poor. It is the hurt women feel who continue to be beaten and raped by men, when girl children are raped and their psyche scarred for life, and when harsh disrespect is verbalised between women and men.
Addressing those responsible and holding them to account on an ongoing basis on the issue of violent sexual and gender-specific crime should be one of the primary concerns of this House. There are probably as many theories about why the country is in the grip of an extraordinarily violent expression of male sexual power as there are incidents of rape in a day. We should be careful that in an effort to achieve greater gender equality we do not have the opposite effect. We should guard against the possibility that politics may stand in the way of the effective safeguarding of our women and girl children in the country.
Ramphele further says that any disruptions caused in the interconnectedness and interdependence within families, communities and society also inflict pain and leave those marginalised vulnerable to feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty. This reminds me of the interconnectedness between women and men as wives and husbands, where divorce inflicts pain when that relationship is disrupted or when partners each go their separate way; between colleagues, when the natural association between women and men is threatened by issues of sexual harassment in the workplace; and between parents, when disagreements on gender-based traditional roles and responsibilities in the family often end in psychic hurt.
These are some of the issues that threaten our humanity at the core and our morality and social cohesion as a nation. These are issues that make a mockery of claims of upholding the Constitution. Ongoing, robust dialogue in finding new solutions is a necessity. Turning dialogues and parliamentary debates into real action should be the key priority. I thank you. [Applause.]