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Chairperson,
Distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen,
Colleagues,
Comrades and friends.

Women have made giant strides since 1994 in both the public and private sectors. An increased presence at all levels in institutional hierarchies and greater participation in the decision-making process through achieving positions of influence have been some of the indicators that the transformational process is well underway.

The question for us today must be how we translate the different positions that we have achieved in the public and private sectors into meaningful change, not only for other women working in the formal sector, but for all women, especially those particularly vulnerable women in the distant rural communities of our country.

The special situation of rural women is of particular importance to us in South Africa. As a silent majority, these women play a significant role in economic subsistence, the survival of the family, the provision of food and shelter, to name but a few responsibilities they must, of necessity, undertake.

In a development-based environment, the fundamental premise for entry into the economy, even at subsistence level, is equal access to the enabling resources. Women and especially rural women, if they are to survive, must have equal access to land, water, credit, technology, education and health services. But more importantly they must play an active role in the decision-making processes that set economic activity in motion.

In the past decade the number of people living in poverty has increased. But it has increased disproportionately for women, particularly in the developing countries, and that includes South Africa. Why is this feminisation of poverty permitted? I believe it is because, despite some real strides that I will mention in a moment, there is an overarching failure to mainstream a gender perspective in all political, economic and social transformation processes. I also believe that this is far from unique to South Africa; it is true internationally.

The achievement of true empowerment for women across all race and class barriers, and most particularly for black African women, remains the subject of national discussion and lies at the very centre of South African policy formulation. But still the "glass ceiling" persists at almost every level and it leaves most African women with unfulfilled expectations.

But South African women have come a long way since the new dispensation's ascension to power in 1994. It is an undeniable fact that women's access to political influence and to decision-making in both the public and private sectors has improved significantly since the country's first democratic elections in 1994.

Successive leaders in the African National Congress have recognised that the liberation of our country will remain incomplete until women participate fully and on an equal footing at all levels of society.

In Luanda, Angola, in 1981 former ANC president Oliver Tambo said: "...women in the ANC should stop behaving as if there was no place for them above the level of certain categories of involvement. They have a duty to liberate us men from antique concepts and attitudes about the place and role of women in society and in the development and direction of our revolutionary struggle.''

From the onset, when the ANC formed the new government, it acknowledged that there had been systematic marginalisation of women during a succession of apartheid governments. The organisation recognised an urgent need for corrective action to empower women. The new government was also determined to reflect this empowerment drive in the national, provincial and local government spheres of government. This is clearly captured in the inauguration speech by former President Nelson Mandela.

He said: "It is vitally important that all structures of government, including the President himself, should understand this fully: that freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression. All of us must take this on board, that the objectives of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) will not have been realised unless we see in visible and practical terms that the condition of the women in our country has radically changed for the better, and that they have been empowered to intervene in all spheres of life as equals with any other member of society."

In his State of the Nation address to our parliament in February this year, President Thabo Mbeki noted that the government had failed to achieve the necessary progress on gender equity. This was a clarion call for even faster and more effective implementation programmes to facilitate women's empowerment.

Men should play a more proactive role in changing women's daily experiences and reality to one that accord with the equality aspirations of our Constitution. I think that all the men in this country could take the lead from our President who has really put his money where his mouth is. Our government has not only sought to increase the number of women ministers and deputy ministers but a significant number of them have been appointed to "non traditional'' key positions such Foreign Affairs, Minerals and Energy and Public Service and Administration. Today I think it may be useful to remind ourselves that just eight years ago, there was but one woman in the South African Cabinet and she had the distinction of being the first-ever female member of that Cabinet.

Our Parliament too represents a clean break from the past with both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker in the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the NCOP being women.

Our government has not only put in place legislation aimed at empowering women but has also been exemplary in advocating equitable representation by reserving a number of seats in all spheres of government for women. In the civil service, several women hold positions at Director-General level and they are increasingly represented in the upper echelons of the Public Service.

But does political influence translate into empowerment and improvement on the status of women? How do we make rights real? Today provides us with an ideal opportunity to assess whether this increased visibility for women in positions of influence has translated into real change for women in general. Are we leveraging maximum change for women across the board? Are we translating our increased visibility and participation into to making our Constitutional rights real? Are we able to maximise this contribution in a work place that itself has remained structurally unchanged in spite of our entry into that environment?

Despite our increasing representation in the various sectors of government, we are facing daunting challenges in fulfilling our role as public representatives. This is hardly surprising given that unequal gender relations do not cease at the doors of the various legislatures. Women not only have to battle sexism, but also have to wrestle with the conflict between home and work. For example, working hours and working practices in Parliament continue to present women, especially those with children, with huge challenges. In most cases these gender specific problems are amplified by a general lack of institutional support.

Women with political influence are increasingly bringing the plight of women, especially rural women, to the fore and vigorously campaigning against the violence and male domination to which they are still subjected. The increased presence of influential and decision-making women in the legislatures, the executive branches and other structures of government has made it possible for women politicians and senior civil servants to promote women's interests through new legislation as well as through an increasingly strong lobby to transform male-dominated institutional norms, values and cultures. Men and male dominated institutions need to be empowered so that needs of women are placed on everyone's agenda, not just women lawmakers.

You see, however much better South Africa might be for you and I and other women who are employed, the simple truth is that most South African women do not yet have either the resources or the capacity effectively to change their lives for the better. Despite all the important milestones that I have outlined, the road ahead is still very long before institutional power is shared equally between women and men in the government and corporate sectors. The persistence of a predominantly male culture in most organisations makes it difficult for those women who have penetrated the "glass ceiling" to ensure that their voices are effectively heard and acted upon.

Realising rights is now our preoccupation. While our Constitution is regarded, as one of the most progressive in the world, our challenge on a daily basis is to realise the rights it envisages. We know that the majority of women continue to face marginalisation and discrimination in their homes, workplaces and communities. We will only succeed in our task if we manage to close the gap between ambitious, legislative measures and tangible implementation and delivery on the ground. It requires giving effect to substantive equality.

Women, especially black women still constitute the poorest group in South Africa and continue to face serious inequality and disadvantage in most facets of their lives. While a large percentage of these women are the sole breadwinners or heading households, they have little access into the mainstream employment sector. Most black women are therefore confined to the largely unregulated informal sector. There is therefore a strong and moral need to ensure that the country's economic transformation addresses their needs.

We should all realise that government alone does not have the resources and the persponpower to fully address the myriad challenges that face us. Cooperation with the private sector in a number of areas is therefore essential if women are to be truly empowered in all sectors, whether economic or political.

What are the practical things we can do to make a difference? Last week was the Cabinet Imbizo Focus week, where Ministers and Deputy Ministers were deployed to various communities to look where our policies have succeeded or are failing to make a difference and to listen to what people are saying on the ground.

In planning for my visit to the North Eastern Free State, I asked myself the question: What do people want to hear when we visit their communities? They want to hear about government programmes that represent change in their lives. They want to know about jobs. They want news about things that will change their lives and the lives of their children.

We decided to set up a Government Services Exhibition with individual stands interactively demonstrating what it is that government does. I climbed onto the buzzer and called my colleagues in the national and provincial governments to see what their departments could provide. The response was enthusiastic and positive. The exhibition included displays by Water Affairs; Arts and Culture; Justice; Land and Agriculture; SARS; Education; Housing; Social Development; Trade and Industry; Tourism and Environment.

It then dawned on us that the parastatals also had an important part to play in this process. One quick call to Dolly Mogatle at Escom and Chose Choeu at Telkom was all it took to get them on board. In fact Telkom provided a huge marquee for the exhibition. The vision of that splendid white tent in the middle of the Free State platteland was a sight for sore eyes! People queued patiently all morning to see what was inside that marquee and what they could learn.

Now we were on a roll! Surely the private sector and NGOs had a role to play too? I called Elmarie Moll, the Managing Director of Engen, whom I have never met. I explained to her that Engen was a major player in the economy of the Villiers/Qalabotjha community. Did they have a social responsibility programme for communities in which they have a presence? "Sure we do!" she responded and so she sent an able team of people to take a look around. I phoned Jane Zimmerman from KhumbulaZulu craft, Vaneetha Moodly from the Vuka Uzithathe Institute for Gender and Economic Development and Cal Masterton-Smith from the Decillion Foundation all of whom eagerly agreed to come along.

We had identified five informal businesses in Qalabotjha, mostly run by women, which support over 40 families and have the potential to grow. More importantly the spin-off for getting these small businesses going on a sustainable and more permanent basis will be to generate additional opportunities for others to capitalise on. We took our guests on a walkabout and introduced them to the local government councillors and other leaders in the community. These are, after all, the people that will implement the plans on the ground. After the walkabout we sat down at a "way forward" meeting. Here we identified matters that could be moved along in the short, medium and long term. We assigned responsibilities and identified tasks for each person there to look into and report back on.

At the end of the day we had identified several new opportunities and sustainable projects that are ideally suited to further development in that area. I am not naïve, I do not expect overnight change, but

* I do know that two rural women from Gauteng, supplied with copper wire from Telkom have now agreed to pass their skills on to the women of Qalabotjha, to start a small but highly sustainable project there.

* I do know that the money for the expansion of an agricultural project will be approved in the coming weeks, because the MEC for Agriculture in the Free State, Mann Oelrich, has seen with his own eyes what potential can be unlocked in that community.

* I do know that Cal Masterton-Smith will make enquiries with the European Union to provide solar heating for the already successful chicken project to avoid winter deaths in the baby chick production line.

* I do know that the Decillion Foundation whose logo is an owl will now consider ordering the beautiful wax owls made in Qalabotjha by the Tshwaranang Women's' project for year-end presentation gifts.

* I do know that Portia Nxumalo, a public affairs consultant will be reporting back to Engen with specific recommendations for future participation the Qalabotjha community.

We all know that our councillors earn salaries for their work on local councils, but none of them have ever been trained to manage their individual tax returns. They pay P.A.Y.E. and S.I.T.E. but they never make deductions for the use of their personal vehicles, personally provided stationery and telephone expenses. We rounded up Gerna Gress from SARS and took her with us to the Free State last Friday to arrange for workshops with councillors and emerging business persons to receive training and education in this vitally important aspect of public governance.

You see, bringing people together around an issue can and does make a difference. I have another example of how a chance meeting and an exchange of information have made a difference in the North Eastern Free State.

The former High Commissioner to the UK, Comrade Cheryl Carolus, invited me in August this year to be the keynote speaker at the annual Women's Day workshop that is held at South Africa House in London. As was to be expected with Comrade Cheryl, it was a splendid affair.

During my time there, I met with Dr. Dennis Goldberg, the Director of an NGO called Community H.E.A.R.T., which operates out of the United Kingdom. He advised me that he had books to donate to schools in South Africa. He promised to send me some of these books, but advised me at the time that I would be responsible for internal (i.e. South African) transport arrangements for the books. I readily agreed to his proposal and promptly filed the matter in the deep recesses of my mind, thinking that it was a nice idea, but that it would probably never come to fruition.

Well, 111 boxes of books have arrived in South Africa and have ready been collected from the Department of Education in Pretoria. I am proud to say that we have found a generous sponsor in the private sector to assist in the transportation of these books to about 34 school libraries in the North Eastern Free State. Many of the schools receiving these books are farm schools in the rural districts of Roadside, Memel and Eram. The distribution of these books has been a real challenge and I am now a real transport expert, for those of you who have to tackle similar challenges in your respective lines of work!

So how can you make a difference? Speak to your local government; volunteer your expertise for community-based projects in your community. Bring women and men with access to Corporate and Foundation Funds into the communities that could benefit from their programmes. Assist marginalised communities to apply for funding. Many communities are more than willing to bring their sweat equity to a project, but are entirely stymied by the complicated business proposals and application forms that unlock access to that funding. If you are a lawyer, why not offer two hours a week at a legal clinic or Justice Centre run by the Legal Aid Board. Speak to your local MP and find out about challenges in the constituencies that they represent.

Huge strides have been made in mainstreaming women in to the political and economic spheres. But there is much to be done. We must capitalise on these gains and prepare a co-ordinated way forward. We must be activists for change and we must encourage the men in our society to become activists for change. Our message is clear: that making women's rights real in the in the home, in the workplace and in the community is good for the family, its good for business and its good for government. And we will not settle for less!

By embracing the concept of substantive equality, we have moved beyond the notion of formal equality to embrace the accommodation of 'difference' both between men and women and difference amongst women. This paradigm shift has opened the door for dealing with women's experiences in South Africa, particularly the compound oppression suffered by African, rural, working class and poor women, as a direct legacy of our apartheid past.

Economic reforms, trade liberalisation and globalisation offer women's empowerment threats, challenges and opportunities. Advances made in the field of labour legislation, for example, could come under threat from large multi-national corporations. We have real indicators that private sector responses to rights-based labour legislation have not been entirely positive.

This is evidenced in our country by the increasing casualisation of the workforce. Traditional employee/employer relationships are increasingly being replaced with fixed term, benefit-free contract work agreements. On the other hand, the less formal structure of the work place is also offering women greater freedom in balancing professional and domestic aspirations. For those few with the capacity and infrastructure, informal networks, hybrid publications and cyberspace, with web-pages, chat rooms and e-mails have multiplied women's voices as never before.

This networking opportunity offered by globalisation has strengthened the voice of women around the world. The past decade has witnessed what has been termed the "third wave of feminism" which has distinguished itself by embracing differences and finding strength and unity in diversity.

At the core of this new approach is an attempt to base the analysis of politics on the experiences and perspectives of women, rather than men; a view first raised by black feminists over a decade ago.

In her anthology on Politics and Feminism, Barbara Arneil describes the new approach as follows: "This new feminism begins with concepts of difference rather than sameness...it respects difference of perspectives among women ... and it recognises the multiplicity of identity..."

The millennium generation feminists are calling for a new understanding of the 'personal is political.' This new subjectivity does not consider gender alone; it includes all aspects of identity (sexuality, race, class and ability.) It calls for a language and politics of 'hybridity' that reflects the collective experience marked by the realities of multi-cultural exchange, fusion and conflict. It encompasses lives that combine blackness, whiteness, brownness, gayness, bisexuality, and straightness.

We must seize the moment to build allies for a new and inclusive feminist agenda and we must determine a new approach. We must put in place a global network of people who share our new vision. We must unite the voices within the trans-national women's movement to become an even stronger player in the international policy arena. As women, we must carve our role as institutional players in global politics. We must work towards eradicating the marginalisation of especially poor women wherever they exist.

We cannot reach consensus without addressing the structural causes of poverty and disempowerment. Our challenge now is to identify and cultivate a socio-economic and political common ground within a framework of widely ranging ethnic and national identities across the North-South divide. While building common ground, all participants must maintain and respect differences to reflect the dignity of individual experiences.

I believe that the inscription on South Africa's post apartheid Coat of Arms - the highest visual symbol of our new democracy - can guide us is this new era. The motto, ke e: /xarra //ke, is written in the Khoisan language of the /Xam people, the oldest known inhabitants on the southern tip of Africa. It means literally: "diverse people unite". It calls for unity in diversity and the recognition of a common humanity regardless of race, class or gender.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Issued by Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development

12 November 2001