Chairperson, hon members, it is Women's Month again, just as it was last year and the year before. Again we remember and pay respect to those heroines who braved oppression and took on the Strijdom administration in the name of freedom.
We will again and again hear the same statistics, the same problems, and the same challenges facing women in speech after speech this year. When will we, who have benefited from this freedom, begin to help the less fortunate women also obtain their rights?
Women's Day allows us to celebrate our heroines of the past and reminds us of the fearlessness and determination with which we must face the future.
But we must also not forget the heroines of today. Caster Semenya, you have made it possible for girls and women all over our country and continent to dream bigger dreams, because you have shown them that anything is possible. [Applause.] We are proud of you, because your race was not just against world-class athletes, but also against the additional menaces of discrimination and sexism. In spite of these tremendous challenges, you ran your race and you won.
I would like to call on all women of our country to claim their constitutional rights, just as Caster claimed her medal, with dignity and tenacity. Only then will we be able to overcome that which threatens daily to break us down: poverty, violence and discrimination. As women, we need to stand up and be the leaders in the battles we face. We cannot sit back and wait for others to fight for us.
Legislation, the Constitution, the Equality Act have freed us all on paper, but only those in the upper echelons of our society are able to turn this into reality, leaving poor and rural women to continue to suffer the burdens of our society.
Today, I therefore call on all those women who have benefited - all of us in the House who have benefited from this freedom - to find ways in which to help less fortunate women obtain their rights. Thank you. [Applause.]