Honourable Speaker
I salute Mama Albertina Sisulu for being one of the great “mbokodo” who laid the foundations for uniting women and moving South Africa forward.
Today our biggest challenge is “Building one South Africa” and encompassing some of the great values that were enshrined in the charter drawn up by the farsighted multiparty women’s resistance organisation, FEDSAW, against oppression.
Amongst others, they called for the equality of opportunity, equal pay for equal work, paid maternity leave, child care for working mothers and for all women, including women living under customary law, having access to land and security of tenure for women
40 years later, the Women’s charter for effective equality was adopted and handed to former President Mandela on 9th August 1994. A good foundation was laid but was it followed in the interests of women and children and the progress of the nation at large?
And here we are now embarking on a yet another process of updating the charter to be launched in 2019 and nothing much has changed for the majority of women, especially those in rural areas where poverty and hunger are biting, hence the exodus to the urban areas.
The demands then, remain the same for most women now.
This is an indictment of the government in which corruption has become endemic, where luxury cars, extravagant housing and top heavy administrations with budgets in the red, are more important than providing services to the electorate, the poor and marginalised.
This is also an indictment on a government which turns a blind eye to the scourge of “carpet interviews”, where women have to submit themselves to sexual acts in order to secure employment.
Patriarchy and all the evil it generates in the lives of women and children, still rules!
Those brave women aimed “to fight and combat sexism within the state.”
Does this sound familiar?
Do you remember the tragic case of Fezekile Kuswayo or Khwezi, a young woman who was raped /assaulted, within the home of an uncle, umalume, and who was then vilified and humiliated as she went to court by the baying crowd, her political sisters, in defence of the “charming” perpetrator who had betrayed her and taken advantage of her vulnerability?
Was this not a point raised in the Conference yesterday that women do not defend or support one another in speaking up about sexual offences, domestic violence, femicide and in business ventures?
Why do our male parliamentarians not speak up and speak out against these outrages?
Although the Constitution speaks to gender equality and policies relating to land redistribution, emphasising gender equity, prioritising women to gain access to land, nationally, women constitute only 23% of land redistribution beneficiaries.
What the Democratic alliance stresses is that there should be security of tenure especially for women so that they can farm productively and efficiently, having access to finance and thus being able to feed their families.
If the husband should die, the widow cannot be evicted as the property is in her own name.
This protection is needed as there is sometimes collusion between traditional leaders and the woman’s male relatives or her in- laws to take over the land.
Government support and extension services to new land owners are vital, so that farmers can prosper and become successful producers of food. Yet women receive less than 10% of available credit and 7% of extension services – there should be a fair deal for all, male and female.
Remember that empowering women also empowers the families especially in education and nutrition.
The cost of living in South Africa has skyrocketed, due to VAT and petrol hikes, sugar tariffs and this has negatively affected the budgets of all, especially those of the women-led households.
At 29.5%, the official unemployment rate for women is higher than for men at 25.3%. The variance increases to 7.5 percentage points when you consider the expanded definition of unemployment. Sadly, only 32% of managers in South Africa are women, and an even smaller percentage are advocates, ambassadors or heads of SOEs.
Some would argue that there has been some progress in the new dispensation.
Indeed, there are more women in politics and the business and the professional world, but the odds are still stacked in favour of men with the glass ceiling still firmly in place, and many women having to submit to carpet interviews in order to secure jobs.
Sex for promotion, sex for good academic results, sex to make dockets in court disappear, sex for good positions on party lists —- is this what South Africans want?
No, we want a country that is governed efficiently, where there is no corruption, where budgets are spent on the needs of the people – more funding for police, for the Justice system, honest prosecutors, magistrates and maintenance officers, more social workers, doctors, nurses and teachers, more schools and libraries and young people who are inspired by their leaders and their moral stance and good governance .
Let us unite and build One South Africa where there are jobs, safety and security, freedom and fairness for all.
Nkosi sikela i afrika