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9 August 2008

Today marks 52 years since that day in 1956 when the women of our country, the founding mothers of our nation, came face to face with the fathers of apartheid. On that day, the woman of our country bo matshwara thipa ka bogaleng spoke with one voice and said, we demand freedom, equality and justice for all in our land!.

Today we have come here, as we have done over the years, to remember those women. We have come to thank Mama Albertina Sisulu, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Sophie de Bruyn, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Lilian Ngoyi for bequeathing upon us that precious gift of liberation.

Although their march was organised as a protest against pass laws, it was however about the right of women to participate in shaping a nation, their right and freedom to participate as equals in the economic and social life of their country. It was about their right to speak and most importantly, it was about their right to be heard.

As we come to the end of fifteen years of democracy, it has fallen on us to explain what is it we have done to lift the burden of poverty off the shoulders of the women of our nation. We are required to explain to the nation what we have done to bring about equality and justice at work, in the economy and within society.

This is a task we undertake without equivocation because we know that since April 1994 we have been working hard to fundamentally change the structure of our society and economy. We have created a new order where women participate as equals and their voice is heard in all decision making structures. Today our country is a better place than it was in 1956. In four years when we celebrate a century of the liberation struggle our country would be even better than it is today.

But to achieve that, we must continue working together with the hardworking women of our country. We must keep our focus on the common interest of women and all our people. Their primary interest is in the development of their country, the reduction of poverty and the creation of jobs.

This is what we are committed to. In the remaining period my government and I will continue our forward march to make Gauteng a better place for women to live in.

We will push to have
* Women in 50% of all senior management positions.
* 50% of funding for small, medium and micro enterprise will be used to support women owned companies.
* 50% of our procurement budget spent on women owned enterprises.
* Use our Expanded Public Works Programme to provide business development support to women.
* Use the anti retroviral therapy to improve the health of mothers and prevent the transmission of the HI virus to babies and
* Open up opportunities and skills development through learnerships and internships.

We realise that many women spend most of their time looking after children and miss out on opportunities for advancement. To help these mothers and to give children from impoverished backgrounds an opportunity to do well at school we have decided to build 20 early childhood development centres in disadvantaged communities. Thirteen of these centres will be completed at the end of this financial year.

We are aware that freedom, equality and justice require us to do something about crime. While that crime is steadily declining in the areas of common assault, rape, assault and robbery, violent crime, the abuse of women and children and house robberies, in certain, areas remain unacceptably high.

We must continue to work towards improving the levels of safety for women at home, in the streets and at work. Our programme aims to address conditions that breed social crime including the installation of street lights and improving service delivery in poor areas.

Recent hikes in electricity, interest rates and the high prices of fuel have put many households under severe strain. Given their central role in the family, women feel this more. This calls on us to work with even more speed and vigour on the plans to prevent them from falling further into poverty.

We have made a commitment to provide an integrated package of services to the province's poorest families. This will be linked to our province wide Indigent Policy through which we have been able to provide a pro poor basket of services such as free basic water and electricity, rates rebates, social grants, free health care, free education, indigent burials, free scholar transport, home based care for those affected and infected by HIV and AIDS, food for poor children and families in distress and services for the elderly.

I want to commend the women who stepped forward and helped us to quell the recent spate of xenophobia attacks that shamed our province and country. Many women took a stance during that troubled period, provided shelter and support to victims of the attacks and ensured the return of peace and stability in the affected areas. Today it has become possible to reintegrate displaced foreign nationals because of the critical and pivotal leadership roles that women played.

To the women of our province and country I want to say, continue to raise your voice whenever injustices occur and when our cherished democracy is threatened. Indeed, there are still many challenges ahead but we shall not submit. We shall not retreat. Our march to a better Gauteng is now unstoppable.

I thank you.

Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
9 August 2008
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.gpg.gov.za)