Siyatigcabha ngawe. [We are proud of you.]
The democratisation of South African society has offered many new opportunities and challenges to previously disadvantaged groups. Young women in particular are recognised as a vital resource whose future prospects are tied to that of the country as a whole.
Women have, with only love and inspiration, carried society through the good and the bad times, promoting its values so that people can take their rightful place in history. Who are these young women?
They are the girl children and young women who have worked behind the scenes carrying their siblings forward, including in child-headed households. We should be able to honour the role played by these young women in an attempt to find ways to define them as an important force behind every society. These women deserve a place in history. We have seen all over the world that the education of the girl child is of critical importance, and countries that see the education of girls as a priority have shown economic growth over the past 30 years. Furthermore, we have seen that GDP growth per capita has soared there, illustrating the fact that the role of women should never be undermined. India is a prime example.
Women represent more than half of the South African population, and if South Africa is to meet its developmental goals, developmental measures initiated by government will need to target women, specifically young women, because they constitute a large number.
However, these developmental measures will need to deal with the various obstacles that hamper the economic development of women. These issues include poverty, access to housing, access to proper health care and social welfare, violence against women, education and employment. These issues are important because they provide the framework within which governmental endeavours should be channelled and they highlight the importance and the need to empower women in South Africa economically.
Women must be at the forefront. Young women must occupy the front ranks in the struggle to ensure equal access for women to educational, health, social welfare, sports, cultural and recreational facilities. They must lead the struggle against HIV and Aids, as well as against rape, physical and other forms of abuse, and other such practices that oppress and exploit women. They must fight for their rights and dignity, both in word and deed.
Women must raise the level of political and social consciousness, responsibility and activism of young women to ensure that they are active in women's organisations, including progressive women's movements. They must support the Progressive Women's Movement and ensure that it succeeds in discharging its historic responsibility as the champion and custodian of women's unity. Such organisations can be utilised to raise to prominence the issues and challenges faced by young women.
Young women in South Africa must make use of the many opportunities that are now available as a result of our freedom and democracy to empower themselves and their communities. Society has absolute confidence in women's ability to be both good and efficient leaders in society and in government. The task of empowering young women to take up leadership roles in all sectors of society demands that we work together, in tandem, to build a society that will take women forward.
It is our collective responsibility as young women leaders, especially in this Parliament, to ensure that the young women in the communities we come from are guided along the way.
Despite its short life, democratic South Africa has achieved significant milestones in improving the status of women in all aspects of society - in government, in business and in community structures. This is in keeping with the provisions of our Constitution, which enshrine the right of all people in our country to dignity and equality before the law and nondiscrimination.
However, the progress we have made so far should not induce in us a feeling of complacency. Society is transforming and the developmental process is forging ahead. In this context, the democratic era has opened up many avenues that were inaccessible before. The Constitution guarantees equality in the Bill of Rights. Yet gender disparities are common across the entire breadth of our society.
In the period between 1997 and 2000 the National Youth Commission developed the National Youth Policy, a further element of government's plan to develop a comprehensive strategy to address the challenges facing young women in South Africa. The policy's main aim was to ensure that the country began an historic process of engaging our youth in sustainable social development programmes.
The policy had, among other goals, the following: to instil in all young women an awareness of, respect for and active commitment to the Bill of Rights and the values enshrined in the Constitution; to instil a clear sense of their national identity; to recognise and promote the participation and contribution of young women in the reconstruction and development of South Africa; and to enable young women to initiate actions that promote their own development and that of their communities.
In conclusion, our young women leaders should continue to draw inspiration from the 1976 youth to ensure that their collective voice shapes the future of South Africa. [Applause.] Today young women should continue to have their collective voice heard in matters of democracy and social change in order to bring about a better life for all. The baton is in our hands as young women, as young mothers, and as future leaders to take up the struggle to transform society to our advantage. I thank you. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr Speaker, hon Deputy President, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers, members of both Houses, our guests in the gallery from all political parties and religious groups, I greet you and all women in our country in this month of August. [Applause.] As a very new Ministry, three months old, the Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities is happy that we are having this debate today as we round up what has been a very successful and vibrant Women's Month under the theme, "Together empowering women for gender development and equality".
I want to salute our stalwarts, omama bethu [our mothers] and our grandmothers, who passed on the baton to this generation, this generation of women, young and old, who must forge ahead for a better South Africa. I remember umama Albertina Sisulu, and she is still alive. I remember and salute umama Winnie Mandela, umama uBertha Gxowa nabo bonke omama elizweni lethu [and all the women of our country], and those unsung heroines who continued to slog under very difficult conditions, trying to improve their own lives and the lives of their families.
During this month of August we have held various types of activities to observe Women's Month in almost every province, with the exception, unfortunately, of the Western Cape. In this province the most primitive statement was made by a member of the Western Cape legislature about the status of women in our society. Johan Visser of the DA told the legislature that a woman's place was in the kitchen!
I want to declare that in terms of power a woman's place is everywhere. [Applause.] We strongly condemn this statement, especially in a province where all members, or the majority of the members, of the executive are men. It is a setback for the women of this province, who are constantly being excluded from the progress that the whole of our country is making in mitigating the debilitating effects of patriarchy and in improving the status of women in our country.
One of the positive developments for the women of our country has been the increase in the number of women representatives in our legislature after our last general elections. Women now make up 45% of our national Parliament. This puts South Africa at number three amongst the countries with the highest women's representation in the national parliament ... [Applause.]... after Rwanda and Sweden. It is important to acknowledge that this progress has been as a result of one political party, the ANC, taking a voluntary decision within its own structures to have 50:50 gender representation.
Had all the political parties represented in Parliament agreed to 50% representation, we would have achieved a 50% women's representation as set out in the Southern African Development Community's Protocol on Gender and Development.
We need a firm commitment and a legislative framework compelling all political parties and all sectors of our society to have gender parity. That is the legislation that the new Ministry is developing for consideration by this House. Once again, the report of the Commission for Employment Equity, released this week, highlights the challenge of poor representation of women at management level. This report confirms an urgent need for legislation with strong enforcement mechanisms and punitive measures to achieve gender and racial transformation, particularly in the private sector.
Madam Deputy Speaker, another key area of development for women, following the last general elections, has been the establishment of the new Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities as a direct result of the struggle of women themselves. It is now up to all of us as women to ensure that we use this institution to our best advantage.
The issue of the inclusion of children and persons with disabilities in this new portfolio has been raised, and I'm glad that hon Minister Motshekga dealt with this matter, but I want to speak to a few issues myself. Firstly, from a structural perspective, there is no need to worry about whether the issues of women will be mixed up in some way and attention to women's emancipation lost. The new department will have three equally strong divisions focusing on addressing the interests of each of the three focus groups that the Ministry is responsible for. Each division will be headed by a senior official at the level of at least deputy director-general. That person will be responsible for the co-ordination of issues relating to the particular sector throughout government and the Ministry's relationship with civil society, international bodies and other sectors.
The Ministry acknowledges that the challenges facing the three groups are not the same, and separate programmes are being put in place to promote the interests of each group. I must reassure you that none of the target groups is going to be neglected as a result of an overemphasis on another sector. My role will be to ensure that we make progress on all these fronts.
From a political perspective, we must remember that our struggle against both racism and sexism has been underlined by the principle of unity around a common programme for social, political and economic justice. From 1912 on, as other speakers indicated earlier, women called for the unity of all South Africans across class, gender and racial lines against colonialism and also against apartheid. In 1956 such unity manifested itself in the march of women of all races to the Union Buildings to protest the pass laws, and today we salute them because they struggled so that we could be here today.
Those opposed to the inclusion of other social groups in the activities of the new Ministry need to unpack what this statement means, and I want to ask the following questions. Can we honestly say that there is no commonality between women's struggles against sexual violence, for example, and the cases of rape, murder and abuse faced by girl children? Is there no link between girl children's challenges regarding access to education and the problems of skills and lack of access to economic participation facing women today? Are the programmes to raise all our children with principles of equality and nonsexism not going to impact positively on the women's struggle against patriarchy in our society? What do we do with women with disabilities? Are they not part of the women's movement? We will make efforts to ensure the inclusion of women with disabilities in all our women empowerment programmes.
Of course, there will be diversion in the interests of the three social groups represented by the new Ministry, and their priorities will vary. However, this is accommodated in the structural arrangements that are being put in place in the new department.
We should also be supported by appropriate budgetary allocations to all three programme areas. As some of you may be aware, the Ministry has already had separate consultations with the three groups in a process leading to agreement on the strategic priorities for the new Ministry, and consensus is emerging. We also want to go to provinces and local government to interact with them at that level.
In the area of women, the key issues agreed upon during consultation with women's groups include, firstly, the enforcement of the 50:50 gender parity that I have already spoken about. Secondly, there is the establishment of a Women's Empowerment Fund to facilitate funding for women empowerment initiatives. There is still a concern that the existing empowerment funds are either inaccessible to ordinary women or are not structured to enable women in rural areas to break the shackles of poverty. We are targeting those women on the periphery of the economy.
Thirdly, there is an urgent need to respond to the challenges of violence against women. I know that we have started work with the mayor of the OR Tambo District Municipality and other stakeholders, such as amakhosi [traditional leaders] at Lusikisiki and elsewhere in the Eastern Cape, to ensure that there is a programme so that this matter is really given the attention that it deserves, the issue of "ukuthwala" [a form of African marriage arrangement in which all formalities take place after the unsuspecting bride has been taken away by her in-laws] kwa bantwana. [of children.] [Applause.]
This includes preventative measures empowering women to report cases of abuse, mobilisation of community action against these incidents and improving police ability to respond to these cases. I am glad that there is already interaction between us and the Ministry of Police in this regard.
Lastly, we need to ensure gender mainstreaming. This means ensuring that all government priority programmes, such as job creation, poverty alleviation and access to health and education, incorporate the interests of women.
The challenges facing women are many, and we are concerned about the treatment of one of our young women. Caster Semenya is an example of the difficulties resulting from sexism. The questioning of her gender is based on a stereotypical view of physical features and abilities that are attributed to women. Such stereotypes demonstrate the extent of patriarchy in the world of sport. We want to congratulate her on her amazing victory, and also the whole team. [Applause.]
As the Ministry of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, we will be following this matter right up to the end, and we will stand by Caster all the way through. We have already written to the president of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, IAAF, Mr Lamine Diack, and the secretary, Mr Weiss, demanding an explanation of a number of issues relating to this matter. We demand transparency from the world body of sport about the sequence of events that led to Semenya's gender being subjected to such unjustified scrutiny. It is our view that her human rights were grossly violated. We need to mobilise all support and complement each other's efforts if we are to succeed in our struggle against patriarchy.
The Women's Movement should continue to facilitate the unity that is necessary to sustain and advance the struggle for a nonsexist, nonracist, inclusive and caring society. We have got to work together with the Progressive Women's Movement, whose establishment and launch was heralded by those heroines who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956. It is ours; it belongs to all of us who understand the progressive agenda of transforming our country into a better one. I thank you. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.