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Ladies and Gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure to address you here today on this important topic. The celebration of Women's Day just last week helped to focus our country's attention on the important role that women have played in the past, and on the economic, social, and even legal discrimination which they still face. But it is also important to note that Women's Day also urged all of us to consider the best ways in which we can build a society and country on a foundation of gender equality. Not only is this critically important from the perspective of the human rights culture we espouse, but it is also important to recognise that the empowerment of women in South Africa is vital if our economy is to grow and prosper. Without the development of women, there cannot be development in our country. Women need to play an increasingly important role in the leadership of businesses in our country, and in particular, in state owned enterprises.

None of you here today need me to remind you of the multitude of challenges that face women in business in South Africa. After all, all of you at some stage or another have felt the heavy hand of discrimination, even paternalism that has marked the recognition of women's role in society. Similarly, and I am sure that the deliberations of the next two days will provide evidence and information that shows how strong the forces of reaction still are in our country. This is the case, even though South Africa has one of the most modern and liberal constitutions in world. It fully recognises the vital contributions of women in all aspects of life. In addition, our Parliament has passed some of the most progressive pieces of legislation to empower such as the equality clauses in our Bill of Rights, legalised abortion, improved access to social services for women, and so on. We have also created structures like the Commission on Gender Equality to assist in the transformation. In addition, by international standards the number of women in our Cabinet and Parliament is high. The ANC has adopted a 33% quota for women in all elected positions. It has further resolved that a capacity building programme preparing women for leadership and also supporting them once elected will accompany the quota system. Women have been appointed and also elected by their peers, the majority of whom are men in elected structures, into important positions as chairpersons of committees, into cabinet and as deputy ministers.

Despite all these gains that the women in South Africa have made, the reality is that in practice the gender battle has yet to be won. The struggle for gender equality is a complex and protracted process. Cultural and gender based stereotypes still exist and result in discrimination against women. The battle finds expression in advertising, stereotypical images of women as housewives, and in the terrifying and deplorable testimony of bruises, fractures, even bullying, sexual abuse, rape and death, many of our women display. South Africa is not alone in the world, and our experience is uneven, but we cannot ignore or underestimate the extent of the challenge here just because it is a global phenomenon. The pursuit of gender equality is a task that we all, women and particularly men, need to understand and to pursue.

Unlocking the productive capacity of women is one of the most important ways a society can multiply its efficiency and global competitiveness. Thus it is also true that if we want our state owned enterprises to attain their full potential, we also need to unlock the capacity of women in those organisations and in the communities who benefit from the activities of those enterprises.

As the Minister of Public Enterprises, the easy thing would be for me to just ensure that the state owned enterprises meet the target for women as set out in the Employment Equity Act. I could provide statistics that indicate the improvements that have occurred within our enterprises. But too often there is a tendency to seek comfort in statistics rather than interpret them merely as indicators of an unfinished task. The statistics show, for example, that the number of women in top positions, in management and the boardrooms of industry have improved from a pitiful situation. They more frequently do not show that women, and black women in particular, are most often victims of retrenchment or low wages. The stats however do not really indicate that women have been empowered, rather than simply employed. I believe we have to adopt a much more proactive stance on ensuring that women are being empowered.

State owned enterprises have a number of roles in empowering women. The first and obvious one is the empowering of women who are employed by the enterprise. To society in general, the enterprises have a role in empowering women through the services that they provide. Finally, the enterprises have a role in empowering women through their procurement policies.

Starting with the last one first, my Department is in the process of formulating a procurement policy for state owned enterprises. It is estimated that state owned enterprises spend between R40 billion and R60 billion on procurement per year. If these procurement budgets are spent in line with Government's procurement policies, there will be significant progress towards black economic empowerment, empowerment of women and small business development. Already the major SOEs such as Transnet, Telkom, Eskom and Denel have made some progress,
but this is tempered with the fact that currently much of the technical expertise in our country is male dominated. This arises from the discrimination in the education system as well as the prevalence of perceptions that women were "unfit" for work in technical vocations. Fortunately, this is beginning to change with the shifts in the education policy of the country, enrolments at higher institutions, and major efforts in training and development conducted by the SOEs themselves. To keep an eye on the developments, he DPE is developing a monitoring system. All procurement will have to be in line with the policy. We believe that the procurement policy provides many new opportunities to women operating in small and medium sized enterprises. Our procurement policy is aimed at encouraging procurement from previously disadvantaged groups and specifies targets for procurement from black people, women and the disabled.

State owned enterprises have a role to play in empowering women in society as part of their development role. The implementation of the rural electrification programme has had an immense positive impact on the lives of many rural women. Rural women with access to electricity are no longer required to walk kilometres collecting wood for cooking and heating their homes. Their saved time and energies can now be more positively directed towards productive activities. Electricity has also enabled many rural and urban women to enter into small business activities. Similarly, telephones have also had a positive impact on the lives of women. Almost all our state owned enterprises also have foundations that have targeted development programmes, many of which benefit women. Many of these programmes support community development, development of schools and clinics and small business development. As the restructuring initiative is geared specifically towards improving the efficiency of SOEs, and their ability to fulfil development roles, success in this field will improve the situation in rural areas. The main reason for this is that SOEs are part and parcel of the integrated rural development programme of government.

Within the enterprises themselves, government encourages "operational empowerment". Operational empowerment describes the variety of processes related to active hands-on participation. These range from more meaningful access to training and skills development, affirmative action in management, to entrepreneurial opportunities through outsourcing and easier access to finance. We actively encourage the management and boards of directors to empower those who have been previously disadvantaged.

We need to encourage the appointment of more women to the Boards of Directors of the state owned enterprises as well as to the private sector companies. We also need to ensure that more women managers are appointed. Training and mentoring programmes need to be put in place to ensure that more women are able to take on these roles. Deliberate innovation is required within state owned enterprises to change the perceptions about women. We need to create corporate environments that encourage the development of women within our enterprises and that enable them to realise their full potential.

I would like to pledge that my Department and I will be promoting gender equality as part of the restructuring of state owned enterprises. Within the Department there is a programme known as Alternative Service Delivery that specifically addresses questions like black economic empowerment and the empowerment of women within the restructuring of state owned enterprises. These initiatives will need to be monitored carefully, and I am sure that the Department will benefit from frequent interactions with organisations such as the Gender Commission and others that concern themselves with the issues we are addressing. For many of us, this is new terrain, and we cannot afford to bumble along with only best intentions without listening to those who are directly affected by the programmes.

When women marched on the bastions of apartheid power in 1956, they voiced their disgust and opposition in the words of a simple statement of power, authority and determination: "wa'thinta abafazi, wathinta imbokodo." Just as rocks are useful weapons in time of conflict, they are more frequently used as the foundation stones of mighty edifices. Without women, and without respect for women, our endeavours will become mere relics built on sand. Initiatives such as this workshop must lead us towards practical means to empower all of us through the empowerment of women in general.

I thank you.

Issued by the Ministry of Public Enterprises, 16 August 2001