Programme Director, Advocate Mikateko Joyce Maluleke

Hon. Minister of Social Development, Mme Lindiwe Zulu

Hon. Deputy Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize

Ms Mandisa Tshikwatamba, DDG at the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture

Members of the media

Ladies and gentlemen

Good Morning

I wish to extend my condolences to the families and loved one of many South Africans we have lost to the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF).

In addition, my sincere condolences to the families of the South Africans who lost their lives due to recent unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and in parts of Gauteng.

I would like to thank Minister Lindiwe and Deputy Minister Hlengiwe for their unwavering support. My appreciation also goes to members of the media for taking time to join us today.

It is an honour to join you in this media event to officially launch Women’s Month 2021.

As we launch Women Month 2021, we honour, remember and salute all women from all generations who have been part of our struggle and have made significant contributions for our nation’s freedom, democracy and development.

This year we will commemorate Women’s Month under the theme “The year of Charlotte Maxeke: Realizing Women’s Rights”. This is in recognition and celebration of the 150th birthday anniversary of Mme Charlotte Makgomo Mannya Mxeke.

Women’s Month provides a unique opportunity to pay tribute to the role and contribution of women in shaping the current South Africa’s democratic dispensation.

It also an opportunity to reflect on what progress have we made and current challenges in achieving gender equality in our country.

We will once again commemorate Women’s Month and Women’s Day under difficult circumstances due to the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This pandemic has further exacerbated the plight of women by increasing women’s economic and social insecurity.

The objective of this briefing and interaction with you as members of the media is to mark the beginning of the programme for Women’s Month 2021. It is also an opportunity to Call to Action to the nation to achieve gender equality in our lifetime.

Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the suffering with heart-wrenching impact on individual women, children and LGBTQIA+ persons, families, communities and the society as a whole.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Despite the current difficult situation confronting us, it is of utmost importance that we use the month of August to turn the spotlight to the plight of women in this country.

Women and the LGBTQI community in our country continue to experience the worst forms of violence and abuse. Just over this past month, we read stories of sexual assault allegations at the University of Cape-Town, Stories of Policemen in court for requesting bribes to make rape cases disappear, policemen also murdering their girlfriends and wives, stories of murdered children in Limpopo, the story of the man who murdered his estranged wife and dumped her body in a pit toilet.

Women economic inclusion and access to the mainstream of the economy should be a priority. We have to provide women the key to freeing themselves women from shackles of depending on their perpetrators for livelihoods.

We therefore call on all government departments and the Private Sector give 40% of procurement to women owned business even when there’s no legislation as we all have a moral duty to have a just an equal society as enshrined in our constitution and reach 50-50 by 2030.

Tomorrow, 31 July, Pan African Women’s Day will be observed under the theme: “Financial inclusion of women: challenges and opportunities”. Our goal is to allow women across Africa to trade on the continent, across borders.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement will create the largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participating.

Access to information on how to register a business, how to do business with the state, in all languages, remains a challenge for tens of thousands of women.

Next week the Department will begin a series of radio shows on 11 of South Africa largest stations. The focus is to answer the questions women business owners have, but cannot get answers to, especially in all African languages.

We will late this month host the Women’s Economic Assembly in response to Pillar 5 of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

The Assembly will put major sectors under the spotlight to evaluate the level of participation of women-owned businesses. We are also beginning to look more into manufacturing, mining and mineral exploration, and women in the green economy.

Members of the media,

I recently attended the Women Peace Table convened by the Gertrude Shope Women’s Mediators Network (GSWMN).

I was inspired by the willingness of women to roll up their sleeves and contribute to long-lasting solutions to challenges facing our country.

This is consistent with a Sepedi saying that “Mosadi o tshwara thipa ka mo bogaleng”- loosely translated as “Woman holds a knife where it’s sharp”

We are better together. Let us work to rebuild South Africa. It is time to rise from the ashes in a united front to rebuild our country from the devastation.

I wish to call on all South Africans to join hands and lend a helping hand in our national effort to rebuild. Together we can come back stronger.

Our nation’s unyielding spirit gives us hope and with which we can rebuild our future together. This is the same spirit that helped us reconcile our differences and make a break from the oppressive apartheid regime.

As a people we have performed the miracle before, we made the transition from apartheid to peace and democracy. Government cannot do this alone.

We need all citizens to assist in the task of rebuilding our nation. Let us turn this upheaval into an opportunity build better than before and show our spirit of resilience.

We commend the role women played as peace builders in the struggle for our freedom by maintaining peace efforts and ensuring calm within communities.

You will recall that the National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security was adopted by Cabinet in August 2020 and launched in March 2021 to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.

The implementation of the action plan requires robust dialogue at every level of society in which communities are central to developing peace building strategies that are able to speak to the unique conditions in each community.

The second pandemic of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide remains a dark stain on our country’s image. As Government, we remain committed to eradicating GBVF in our lifetime.

Our priority is the implementation of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on GBVF in the context of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on GBVF.

We have made remarkable progress in the implementation of the NSP in the following areas:

1. Monthly progress reports on the implementation of the NSP were submitted to the President.

2. National Departments have integrated the NSP priorities in their Departmental Annual Plans and have been reporting against their annual targets.

3. We are working with Provinces and Districts to integrate the NSP into their Provincial Departmental Plans, District Development Plan and establishment of District Rapid Response Teams.

4. We have developed a Draft Bill to establish a National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide that will coordinate the implementation of the NSP to ensure that as a nation, we eradicate Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in this decade. We will be consulting on this Bill soon.

The implementation of the NSP is not only the responsibility of Government.

I call on all sectors of our society including the media to take ownership of the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide so that we can eradicate this scourge together.

Our appeal to the nation is to Be part of a collective of change makers of all ages ensuring equality for women and girls and realising women’s rights.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The National Women’s Day commemoration on 9 August 2021 will be virtual event and consist of pre-recorded messages that will be televised to the nation.

Our national anthem and the national anthem of the African Union will be played while there be also be cultural performance.

There will also be a message from the Premier of Limpopo Province (as the province was identified as the host for this year’s commemoration); remarks from the Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities; as well as the message from the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture.

His Excellency, President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the address to the nation via televised message.

Throughout the month of August, focus will be on various programmatic activities using various media platforms to stimulate public discourse on realising women’s rights and promoting the principles and values of Mme Charlotte Maxeke.

A high-level meeting will be the National Women’s Economic Assembly to be held on 26 August in collaboration with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, Presidency and Department of Small Business Development.

The global community has recommitted to accelerate the generation equality agenda by 2030. Let us lead the way to ensure a just and equal society that the women who marched in 1956 fought for.

In conclusion, I would like to remind our people that the COVID-19 is still with us. Let us continue to observe all COVID-19 protocols under the current adjusted alert level: 3 I also wish to encourage all eligible South Africans to register and get vaccinated.

Finally, I take this opportunity to officially launch Women’s Month 2021. Working together we must overcome COVID-19 and Gender-Based Violence and Femicide.

Source: Government of South Africa