1 August 2007
The Role of Civil Society in making Gauteng a Better Place for Women
Program director, MEC Mahlangu
Premier Shilowa and MEC's, MP's and MPL's
EM Duma Nkosi, other mayors and councillors
Mme Wendy Luhabe and other Women Leaders from all sectors of society
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
Members of the media
Programme Director, On behalf of the PWMSA Gauteng Province, I appreciate the opportunity to share with for us to contribute , on behalf of civil society , to the program of making Gauteng an even better place for women.
May I take this opportunity to share with you that yesterday the City of Tshwane like many others would do launched this year's Women's Month Programme. What is significant about this launch is that it was held in one of the poor communities in our Province , the community of Mabopane. In this area lives people who were deliberetly repressed and neglected with the aim to entrap them in poverty , underdevelopment , slavery and lifetime suffering over a period of decades. One of the reasons that this area was chosen was to honor and pay tribute to one of the stalwards of the struggle of Women against Apartheid who was banished there in an attempt to break her spirit.
This women , Mme Francis Baard instead accepting this lying down she used the area as yet another platform to continue the struggle for freedom and democracy for her people. It is in tribute to women like her that and the civil movement of her times that we should be inspired to do more in improving the lives of women for the better , being in a more favourable democratic dispensation. We want to thank Mme Bertha Xowa for giving the inaugural Lecture in honour of this stalward with whom she was priviledged to work alongside.
Today's occasion could not have happened on a more significant day. We commence with a month-long programme of tributes, reflections, celebrations and forward planning. As we gather here today it is in order for us to pay tribute to women who yesteryears gave their lives to creating a democratic , just and free South Africa we enjoy today. Today also we take stock of what we have achieved over the past thirteen years as a democratic society and pause to reflect on those amongst us that still suffer from the legacy of the past oppressive and dehumanizing apartheid era. We also gather today with great hope that as we know of the millions of our people that have already been freed making us confident that for those remaining a better life has already dawned. We have covered great strides in building a non-racial , non-sexist democratic society that is caring and that protects the rights of the vulnerable.
I have been asked to talk about the role of civil society in making Gauteng a Better Place for Women In doing so I would like us to draw inspiration from the Women's March of 1956 took place exactly a year and one month after the adoption of the Freedom Charter. While the Freedom Charter was the biggest gathering by progressive forces at the time, it was succeeded as it were to be recorded, by unprecedented mobilisation for the Women's March against pass laws, to date the biggest protest march by women ever .
There is definitely a link between these two events - The Freedom Charter Adoption in 1955 in Kliptown and the Women March of 1956 in Tshwane (then Pretoria). Both were characterised by an undying humane spirit and commitment to the values of justice by civil society. The meeting in Kliptown called for freedom and justice for all men and women. It called for the enjoyment of human rights for all. It pronounced that South Africa belongs to all those who live in it, black and white. It also pronounced that the wealth of the country should be shared amongst those who produce it. Indeed, the Freedom Charter was a document that, in the South African context engulfed by a backward ideology of racial superiority within a global era of male domination and patriarchy, quite a progressive bold and visionary step. I would want to argue that this had to be given that women themselves did not sit back but led this progressive movement alongside men , having themselves adopted the Women's Charter in 1954 , a year earlier.
What the 1956 Women's March did was to take the demands produced in the formulation of the Freedom Charter to an even higher level. At a simplistic level the Women's march was only or mainly about protesting against the imposition of pass laws on women. However, a historical examination of that march would suggest that it was in fact a considered effort to achieve what the Kliptown gathering achieved and make it more specific for women. The march was, on the whole, aimed at mobilising women. It can therefore, without any fear of contradiction, be argued that the pass laws provided a rallying point for a broader initiative. Some of the demands, or observations, contained in the memorandum handed to Prime Minister JG Strijdom supports this argument that the march was more than just pass laws. The memorandum read in part:
You will agree with me that the above demonstrated profound understanding of the devastation caused by apartheid on children and families over and above on women themselves. More than anything, it demonstrated a profound understanding on the devastation that would be caused by pass laws on the social moral fibre of the society. The apartheid regime was nevertheless not give to give a bother to the consequences of their policies until social forces were left with no option but to fight it head-on until it was destroyed. There are three major points that the march brought to the fore.
Firstly, and as already indicated, the march integrated women's issues into the mainstream of progressive politics.
Secondly, the march tore down racial and class barriers between women.
Thirdly, the march gave birth to a progressive women's movement that was waiting to be born.
We can therefore trace the birth of our movement, the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa in its organisational form, to the 1956 march and the mobilisation of civil society that took place even before then and thereafter. Over the years, as part of civil society , many women of courage led our movement despite harassment by the regime. We recall here the contributions of women like Mme Lillian Ngoyi, Mme Helen Joseph, Mme Francis Baard, Mme Albertina Sisulu, Mme Adelaide Tambo and many more. The list is too long to exhaust. These are the women who were prepared to face the wrath of the security machinery at the time.
Let us now turn to what we are experiencing today as women. Since coming into power in 1994 the ANC commenced with an ambitious yet difficult programme to reconstruct and developed our broken society. What we found was a society deeply divided and pained by the past. Ours had to be an accelerated programme of brining services to the poor. A programme of ensuring that schooling is no longer a privilege but a right.
Since 1994 through the State institutions amongst others we as a society started the task of trying to reverse the damage inflicted by apartheid on our nation. We have make significant progress with unparalleled record of delivery and economic growth for decades. Thirteen years later we can reflect with some sense of fulfilment that we have indeed come a long way building a society that has been the lives of women for the better. Well over a million houses built and many more families having decent shelter. We have seen an increase in the number of people who can access health services. We have seen the number of girl-learners increasing. We have indeed seen the number of professional women in different fields of study and work increasing. South Africa today ranks amongst countries with the highest number of women leaders, both in politics and business. In a recent interview with SABC Radio a Kenyan women delegate at a conference held here commented that South African women are conscious of their rights and are articulate. More women are empowered to stand their rights and to access opportunities created for them. A cursory look into some of the available figures on how we have performed as a country demonstrate that we have indeed come a long way in our attempt to improve the quality of life of our people. The social-assistance System (social grants) has seen beneficiary numbers increasing from 3, 8 million in April 2001 to more than 11 million in March 2006. In monetary terms income transfers to households, mainly through social-assistance grant programmes, increased from R42,9 billion in 2002/03 to R74,2 billion in 2005, representing an increase of 20% a year.
We have also seen the strengthening of the Justice System in protective the rights of women in situations of violence and abuse including the Victim Empowerment Programmes. Water and sanitation is another area where we can point out with pride some of our achievements. By March 2006 36 million people received Free Basic Water. About 15, 5 million of this number were indigent. While we are proud of the above we are also alive to the fact that we could not eradicate completely the damage of that was forseen by the civil society and Women in the fifties especially in hard hit areas like in Mabopane. To this end, there is a healthy tension between what we have achieved so far, and what must still be done to improve the lives of Women in our Province for the better. The levels of poverty amongst women remain a worrying factor. We all know that the unemployment rate stands at 25, 5%.[1] As with many social ills, it is women who bear the most brunt on the unemployment stakes. Levels of poverty are still worrying. Available figures show that just under 33% of households lived below the poverty datum line - calculated at R322 per month - in 2000.[2]
The relatively higher burden of disease on women remain, including that of HIV and AIDS. Women account for about 55% of HIV-positive people with those in the age group 25-29 the worst affected with prevalence rates of up to 40%. Statistics also show that women from poor socio-economic backgrounds are most vulnerable, with a 15, 7% average of infections, which can reach 33% in certain more vulnerable areas.[3]
The levels of violence on women remain stable but still high. According to statistics released recently by the Minister of Safety and Security 52,617 rape cases were recorded between April 2006 to March 2007, and about 9,367 of indecent assault were reported during the same period. We all know that these categories of crime affect mainly women and children. Specific to children, 4,258 of ill-treatment and neglect were reported.
The Barriers to economic opportunities for women are an area of key concern. Hence, it was encouraging to note the decision of the recent Cabinet Lekgotla that our accelerated growth strategy must be underpinned by positive bias towards Small Medium and Micro Enterprises. We hope that amongst those will be women who will contribute to the fight against poverty and equal access to opportunities provided by the favourable economic climate. At the launch of the Gauteng Chapter of the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa in March earlier this year, women from government institutions and non-governmental organizations , various political parties, business, professional, community based, labour movement, faith based sectors amongst others met and agreed to establish a single platform of Action to advance the role of civil society in indeed improving the lives of women in Gauteng for the better.
This Women's Dialogue therefore is an important forum to which in future civil society in an organized manner will have to report on what it has done to augment the role that government has played. Today's dialogue must also help define the strategic partnership that between the State institutions and Civil Society in general. I have no doubt that we will agree that government also need to play a role in strengthening civil society organizations and societal transformation in an much as we understand that the players in government (politicians and officials) are themselves members of communities and society in general. Programme Director, the above reflection touches on the role that must be played by civil society in making Gauteng a better place for all. We will not go into the definition or description of what civil society is all about. It is my submission and considered view that the role played by successive progressive movements including women's organisations throughout our history point to how important civil society is in any political and social setting. The role of civil society is almost always determined and informed by prevailing conditions.
In a situation characterised by political tension and the existence of an oppressive and undemocratic government it is inevitable that civil society would play a liberatory role, with a view to changing such a dispensation, or directly to remove a regime on one hand whilst on the other hand carrying the developmental responsibility of assisting society under siege. Civil Society during the Apartheid era assumed the responsibility of providing quality and alternative education, establishing clinics and hospitals in communities, establishing and involving people in income generating projects, managing poverty alleviation programs , community safety campaigns and well as in cultural activities that promote a caring human rights culture sustaining morality and human solidarity. The debate today must be what happened to that vibrant social movement. Why has the progressive developmental social movement slowed down with the advent of democracy? Is it because funds from donors went dry, is it because leaders went into government and limited their involvement in community organizations and non-governmental structures? Is it perhaps because civil society became complacent and left all the tasks to those of them in government to redress the social ills and develop the new society necessary? Is is because of ignorance amongst us of the importance of strengthening civil society institutions that must defend the gains of our young democracy now and into the future? I would like to argue that as a South African people we opted for a participatory democracy where government is of the people, elected by the people and governing with the people. We opted for a developmental state that empowers its citizens just as much as it delivers services to them. It is in this context and in line with the declarations, resolutions and the vision of the Progressive Women's Movement of South Africa that I would to comit all member organizations to reporting on the progress made in redefining the role, embracing the responsibilities and contributions made by civil society in improving the lives of women for the better in our province. It cannot only be government that reports but all components of our society. I have no doubt Premier that we will unearth many good developmental work with significant contributions in this regards, a systematic co-ordinated platform will take these initiatives by ordinary South Africans to an even much higher levels with greater possibilities of accelerating progress from our collective efforts.
In a democratic society, a fairly young one like ours, some of the important roles that civil society should consider playing are the following : -
On the other hand, through operating just outside the realm of the state civil society organisation have developed a particular competence of interpreting the dynamics of societal transformation through the lens of vigilance. In this regard proactively and in response to gov initiatives civil society needs to make its contributions in policies, legislations and various programs from the point of view of social lens .
By its very nature, a transformation and development agenda requires all spheres of the society to collaborate in bringing about change and development in a society. This model has been realised by United Nations organisations such as the International Labour Organisation. The ILO has since added a fourth component to its traditional tripartite arrangement of government (state), business and labour. The fourth component is now civil society in its broadest interpretation. Our own Nedlac has since adopted the same arrangement.
It is my considered view that civil society organisations must partner both the state and the private sector in ensuring that different growth strategies drawn up by both the province and different municipalities are realised.
Programme Director, let me, in conclusion, and reflect on the specific role of the Progressive Women's Movement, limiting myself to the Gauteng Chapter. The PWMSA-Gauteng Province has been established to advance the objectives of the PWMSA and to mobilise society in the province to participate in local and national initiatives. PWMSA-GP will specifically co-ordinate provincial activities and provide guidance and support to local structures.
Our aim is to promote the respect of women's rights as human rights, the protection of these rights as well as to foster gender equity in society. We also aim to support international, national and local initiatives that seek to improve the quality of life of women and children in general and specifically within the province through, amongst others:
1. Recognition, profiling and supporting of women programs and institutions that promote the development of women; 2. Forging strategic partnerships with the government, other state institutions, business and other civil society organisations around common objectives; 3. Raising funds and mobilising resources from government, business and potential funders to support initiatives; 4. To engage in policy, research and monitoring of issues and programs related to gender equity and the development of women of South Africa in general and in the province in particular; and 5. Promote networking and mentoring programs around the advancement of women and gender equity at an international, national and local level. Relatedly, to profile the months of March and August as International, Africa and National Women's months.
For 2007 - 2009 the following areas have been identified as focus areas that need attention for ensuring development of women becomes a success, it include:
1. Establishing Partnership with other stakeholders around enabling women to access economic opportunities including access to credit; 2. Endorsing the national initiative of the skills revolution for women and promotion of the education of the girl child; 3. Profiling the plight of women and engaging government around cases of discrimination especially in poor communities, farms and other vulnerable circumstances; 4. Promoting initiatives that aim to improve the healthy lifestyles, reduce the burden of diseases on women with a specific focus on chronic diseases, TB, HIV and AIDS; 5. Work with all people and institutions to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, to participate, promote and build solidarity with other women around activities and initiatives that promote National, Regional and International Equality, Development and Peace; and 6. Strengthening the PWMSA-GP as a platform of solidarity that represent progressive ideals of all women by women from all works of life, across social classes, from varied sectors and communities and women within and without business and government institutions.
We call on this dialogue to reflect on these priority areas with the aim of identifying our different roles and responsibilities as we indeed forge ahead together in improving the lives of Women in Gauteng for the Better, consolidating on the achievements and gans made to date. We have made strides but we can cover ever much more ground if we work together as strategic partners each making their contributions. The key is therefore collaboration.
I thank you!