Speech by Hon NN Mapisa-Nqakula on the occasion of International Women’s Day commemoration by Women Military Veterans

Date: 08 March 2014
Venue: Royal Elephant Hotel, Centurion, Tshwane

Programme Director
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
The Premier of Gauteng
Director General for Military Veterans
The Executive Mayor of Tshwane
Members of National and Provincial Legislators
Our distinguished International Guests
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Military Veterans
Comrades and Friends
Representatives of the media

Considering the rich political history of the International Women’s Day, and the special occasion and meaning of this conference, I feel quiet humbled to address you here today.

I look around this room with a personal feeling of de ja vu, to be amongst so many familiar faces after so long. These faces are a representation of our history, each one representing a memory and moments of my own life, as a child of the struggle. It is an instant feeling of being at home.

I am not sure if our national calendar pays too much attention to International Women’s Day, at least not to the extent that it should. I’m aware that many women organisations and various government agencies convene various consistent, but uncoordinated programs to mark this day, but not as a national effort.

For this reason not so much awareness has been instilled in the psyche of our society about the important role played by international solidarity, in the many gains that women have made in democratic South Africa.

It is a journey whose footprints I see amongst this audience, with many of you, some of whom are senior enough, making me unsuitable to the teller of that history in your presence.

Let me also take this opportunity specially to welcome our distinguished comrades representing governments and women organisations in the Continent and the world, as well as representatives of various multilateral institutions.
Your presence here, as was your support during our people’s struggle for freedom, is an indication that ours is a friendship of nations, built in the trenches but destined beyond any circumstance. I thank you all for making the time.

Ladies, and gentlemen. Friends and Comrades,
In 1913, a year after the formation of the African National Native Congress, which later became the ANC, Sol Plaatjie visited a rare group of women who were incarcerated at the Kroonstad prison. They were arrested for burning their passes in protest against a law requiring black and coloured women to carry passes. The protests were organised under the banner of the Bantu Women’s League, led by umama Charlote Maxeke.

On his return from taking to these women, Plaatjie wrote in his newspaper, Tsala ya Batho, and said:

“They don't care, even if they die in jail. They swear they will cure that madness; they will stop their protest only when the law prevents policemen from stopping and demanding passes from other men's wives?”

The government was later forced to relax the women's pass laws in 1914 and only then did their resistance end.
These events happened 100 years ago. They took place about three years or so, after the first recorded celebrations of Women’s Day internationally, in Europe and the United States.

It was a period when the Women’s movement was not as strong a global force as it is today, but women were mobilising nevertheless.

Even before these events of 1913, and before the formation of the Bantu Women’s League, 5000 women had marched to Gen Louis Botha’s office in Bloemfontein in 1912, protesting against pass laws. They were not organised under a specific Movement at the time.

This history of the unique history of the women’s Movement globally, and it is its uniqueness that makes our gains so far, even more significant.

Program Director,
There’s nothing in the history of the struggle for women’s emancipation that suggests that it was ever an easy struggle. The idea of championing a cause for women’s aspirations, did not only meet with resistance from traditional anti-progressive forces, but, for quite some time, even from within revolutionary and progressive formations all over the world.

It is for this reason, that while the legitimacy of many protests movements against race, culture and class oppression were recognised much earlier on, global support for the cause for gender equality followed a path more tedious.

Despite these difficulties, the truth that could not be denied, was that women had real social experiences that alienated them from the obtaining social structures of the time. So, even if the mainstream political thinking of the time refused to recognise this, it was these experiences of women that mobilised them as a social force.

They did not need an organisation or formal platform to express themselves as a social and political reality. Their own experiences were enough to mobilise their collective consciousness towards the struggle.

Despite concerted criticism of the rise of the feminist movement globally, women have never seen their struggle for emancipation, as being separate from national liberation or class struggles. In fact, here in South Africa, it was women who insisted that the cause for women’s liberation correctly belongs in the mainstream struggle for the liberation of our people, and not as an isolated consideration.

In South Africa today, each time we celebrate the gains made by the advent of our freedom and democracy, we also celebrate advancement in the cause for gender equality and women emancipation.

Programme Director,
A conference on women military veterans in South Africa is a platform that is confronted with several tasks. I am not sure whether the time we have can do justice to all of them.

In the context of marking 20 years of freedom and democracy in our country, this conference should assess the extent to which women have been beneficiaries of the fruits of freedom. To what extent has the new dispensation made an impact in the lives of women, in particular those women who fought in the trenches, for whom freedom was the only reward.

The conference should assess the specific challenges of women veterans and how, as a country, we have taken care of our veterans, the heroines who sacrificed everything for our freedom.

We should also be able to interrogate whether the necessary platforms have been created for our veterans, particularly women veterans, to continue making a contribution in the rebuilding of our country.

Colleagues,
This is the first time that women military veterans have gathered in this manner. We meet here, not only to celebrate the occasion of International Women’s Day, but also to use the opportunity of this conference, to share our diverse and rich experiences. An important outcome of our deliberations therefore, should be the creation of a coordinated mechanism of cooperation. Structures cooperation is necessary amongst like-minded individuals and organisations if our deliberations are to impact on the lives of women both in our respective countries and the world.

This platform should be an opportunity to reflect together on where we come from; where we are, and on the way forward for the political, social and economic emancipation of women.

Programme Director, 2015 will mark 40 years since the United Nations declared March 8 as International Women’s Day. It will also be the deadline for the world to report on progress made in realising the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. As you are aware, all of these MDGs have an impact on the lives of women all over the world.

The indication so far is that the progress made with regard the Millennium Development Goals is uneven, reflecting both the capacity of the different nations, as well as the level of commitment to certain specific goals.

While the world has made significant strides in advancing the political and social aspirations of women, the unevenness that exists points to a situation of extremes.

Progress in certain regions of the world has been significant where women enjoy the political and economic freedoms protected and regulated by legal and constitutional framework. This progress is however counter balanced by other regions of the world where very little or no progress has been made.

During the past decade, the UN focused on specific areas of concern to highlight the plight of women during International Women’s Day celebrations. These have included:

  • About 25,000 brides are burned to death each year in India because of insufficient dowries. The groom's family will set the bride on fire, presenting it as an accident or suicide. The groom is then free to remarry.
  • In a number of countries, women who have been raped are sometimes killed by their own families to preserve the family's honor. Honor killings have been reported in Jordan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other Persian Gulf countries.
  • According to UNICEF, 100 million to 140 million girls and women have undergone some form of female genital mutilation. Today, this practice is carried out in 28 African countries, despite the fact that it is outlawed in a number of these nations.
  • Rape as a weapon of war has been used in Chiapas, Mexico, Rwanda, Kuwait, Haiti, Colombia, and elsewhere.
  • Hunger and poverty among rural women and children.

As we gather here, we need to look at the skewed nature of the world we live in and re-affirm the role of renewed solidarity in addressing the challenges faced by women all over the world.

The uneven nature of the progress we have made so far, is a clear indication that no inward looking programs at a national level can succeed. As it was the case then at the beginning of the 20th century, when the International Women’s Day was conceived, only united global action is required today.

Comrades, friends
We are welcoming to our country when we celebrate two decades of freedom, but it is also a time when we are conducting an honest assessment of the journey we have taken so far, and what it has meant for our people.

In this regard, we have acknowledged the lack of a coordinated program to support our military veterans. Having established a dedicated state department to focus on the needs of our veterans in 2010, too much time was spent on creating systems for the bureaucratic functioning of the department.

I am however confident that the interventions that we have made in the past few months, including lengthy consultations we have had with National Treasury, have positioned the department on a path to resolve the problems affecting its ability to deliver to our veterans.

We have now approved and gazetted the Military Veterans Regulations, as the legal framework required to dispense social and economic benefits to deserving veterans.

I am particularly encouraged by the fact that last year, we succeeded in establishing the South African National Military Veterans Association (SANMVA), as the umbrella association through which we can coordinate our programmes.

As we move towards 2015, I am particularly optimistic about the course we have taken. I believe that only united action can bring about real change, not only for women but for humanity as a whole.

As correctly observed by the current serving Secretary General of the UN, Ban ki Moon, when he said:

"Countries with more gender equality have better economic growth. Companies with more women leaders perform better. Peace agreements that include women are more durable. Parliaments with more women enact more legislation on key social issues such as health, education, anti-discrimination and child support. The evidence is clear: equality for women means progress for all." I can’t agree more.

I wish you all the success in your deliberation and look forward to concrete recommendations on how women and women military veterans can inspire change that will help all of humanity. The world can only benefit from more solutions suggested and led by women.

Thank you.


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