Our Host, the Mayor of Ugu District, Cllr, S Ngcobo;
All Members of the Executive Council present;
The Speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Ms N Boyce;
Senior Government Officials;
Councillors, Traditional Leaders, and the Clergy
Members of the Media;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi!
We rise in salute.
We rise in celebration.
We rise to honour the courage of our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts and the girl child in whose womb lies the future of our nation.
We elevate to national glory Mam' Charlotte Mannye Maxeke and the path-breaking generation she represents.
So too, the 20 000 women of all races, ethnicities, faiths, ideologies, geographic origins, and classes who marched to Pretoria in 1956 to demand a free and democratic society.
Who carried with them the resounding trumpet of the Freedom Charter that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
Their profound legacy must never be forgotten.
Their undying spirit and sacrifice must spur us onward in uniting our people and building our nation, re-building our nation.
Let us remember them by elevating our women doctors, teachers, nurses, government officials, journalists, safety and security personnel, journalists, the women of our households and our communities to the status of heroines.
Glorifying their names and their contribution to our society will not happen simply because we proclaim them as heroines.
In word and deed we must enable them to realize the fullness of their being.
A harsh reality in our society is that women are physically, emotionally and economically vulnerable.
Women are vulnerable to the quadruple scourge of poverty, inequality, unemployment and patriarchy.
More distressing is that women and children are vulnerable to violence in every sphere of society
South Africa is a violent society. Let us acknowledge that without reservation. Let us acknowledge that with shame.
Gender-based violence is an ugly sore on the face of our nation.
Far from being a refuge of peace and tranquillity, our homes are very frequently crime scenes - where women are beaten, raped or killed often at the hands of intimate partners.
That must stop.
GBV must stop by us each making a conscious decision that no violence will be perpetrated in our names, by our actions or by our omissions.
Our omissions are that we protect perpetrators.
No family honour is safeguarded when a child rapist makes a financial payment to wish away a crime.
No love is strengthened by ukuthwala. It is often minor girls who are kidnapped and violated under a cockeyed conception of culture.
In all our cultures, crime is crime.
Culture must never be a cover for crime.
We must isolate the perpetrators of GBV. Call them out even if they are close to us. To protect them is to put our grandmothers, our mothers, our partners, our sisters at risk.
We are also very concerned about violence in our schools.
Let us work to ensure that our teaching and learning environment is safe for all.
Women and girls especially must feel safe in our schools.
As men and boys let us stand up individually and collectively to say – “No violence in my name!”
In July, our Provincial Government hosted a Social Cohesion and Moral Regeneration Council with our traditional leaders, religious leaders, civil society, business and other sectors.
This is an ongoing and priority programme of our government.
The urgency of calling the council was in large part due to the recent civil unrest, economic destruction and threats to our social cohesion.
The programme of action that emerged from the summit is being implemented in every corner of our Province through the District Development Model (DDM).
I urge each of us to join those efforts aimed at rebuilding KwaZulu-Natal.
Let us also be cautious about racialising and ethnicising criminality.
The language we use will have lasting effect. It is in all our interests to be careful what we say.
Where crimes were committed, those must be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. To label or stereotype a race or ethnicity risks polarizing our society even further.
This does not mean we must hesitate to point out racism or ethnicity whenever these raise their ugly heads.
Social Cohesion and Moral Regeneration will of necessity be enhanced by economic access, opportunity and demonstrable actions to eradicate poverty, inequality, unemployment, patriarchy and racism. Responsibility for advancing this programme rests with government, the private sector as well as the entire range of social partners in civil society.
The year 2021 is dedicated to the memory of a pioneer and freedom stalwart, umama u Charlotte Maxeke who through all her work and efforts sought to contribute to a South Africa that is united, prosperous, and at peace with itself. She proved that women were capable, effective leaders.
Our country commemorates Women’s Day and Women’s Month under the United Nation’s theme: “Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights for an Equal Future”.
The theme reminds us of the need for coordinated global actions to ensure that gender equality is a lived reality for all women and girls. It is about implementing socio-economic programmes that are aimed at liberating women economically, advancing their freedoms, and defeating patriarchy.
Patriarchy and sexism is not a challenge facing one country or one region. It affects the whole world and as we gather, no single country in the world has achieved gender equality and completely removed patriarchy.
As the UN states, Generation Equality must begin now. We are called upon to ensure that we contribute to the emancipation of women from the bondage of patriarchy, sexism, violence, and economic marginalisation.
In this regard, we are urged to re-imagine our economies and our political systems so that they consciously uphold the human rights of women and uphold their dignity and equality.
Let us be unambiguous. Gender Equality is a right and it must become a societal norm. Realising the rights of women and achieving gender equality is an act of justice, not a favour that anyone can accord to women and girls.
There is no doubt that continued discrimination of women and girls holds women back making our country not to realise its full potential too.
It must be part of our historical mission to create a KwaZulu-Natal and a South Africa where women, girls, and people in the LGBTQI community will not be afraid of walking home at night. It is up to us to liberate our boys and men from oppressive masculinities. We owe it to those that are yet to be born to come into a more humane world that honours the dignity of the girl child and women.
In KwaZulu-Natal, our various stakeholders in the fight against GBV are implementing a provincial action plan to eliminate GBV and Femicide. This plan promotes prevention, and is premised on these pillars:
Community Mobilisation, Moral Regeneration & Instilling Social Cohesion
Strengthening Law Enforcement
Promote Responsible Recreation, Reduce alcohol & Substance abuse among the Youth & Students
Support Victims and Families
Women Economic Empowerment
We call on our traditional leaders, leaders of faith-based organisations, civil society and communities to be daily seized with the programme of deepening and advancing gender equality.
We also wish to take the opportunity to applaud individuals and groups, including the Men’s Sector in our province which is actively involved in transforming social mores and
developing young boys to be better men who regard women as their equals, not inferiors.
Our schools and tertiary institutions have a critical role to play ensure that we end all forms of discrimination against girls and women.
The women of South Africa, especially those from rural areas, remain vulnerable and at the periphery of socio-economic development. And we know that economic marginalisation of women compel them to enter into abusive relationships with men, increasing the risk of them being exposed to deadly sexually transmitted disease, including HIV.
We urge young girls to take their education seriously, stay at school, and avoid falling pregnant when they are not ready to raise children. Our government continues to support education at all our public schools and tertiary institutions through NSFAS. We condemn strongly men who abuse our daughters or take advantage of their poverty.
Through EDTEA, the province has set aside a budget of R1 million in the current financial year to benefit 100 women in business (10 districts ) who will be trained on End-user computing skills level 3 with advanced internet skills focusing on the use of social media.
The Department is also working with National Home Builder Registrations Council (NHBRC) in co-ordinating the NHBRC Home Building Skills Training. No less than 190 women in various districts have been trained in Bricklaying, Plumbing, Roofing, Carpentry etc.
EDTEA has compiled a KZN Black Industrialist Database which indicated that there are few women Black Industrialists in the province. The study identified aspirant Black lndustrialists that are involved in the manufacture of natural hair and beauty products. To improve the KZN Black Industrialists pipeline, the KZN based aspirant Black Industrialists will be supported in the manufacturing of natural hair products to access pharmaceutical retail stores like Clicks and Dischem.
To empower women, in KZN we are mainstreaming gender in all our provincial departments and agencies. We are using government procurement process and set asides to support cooperatives and SMMEs that are owned by the women and the youth, a group that continues to face the burden of high unemployment in our country.
Through Radical Economic Transformation, RASET, and the implementation of Operation Vula, the provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal is pushing ahead with transformation in favour of women economic emancipation and gender parity.
Operation Vula initially identified six commodities for meaningful black participation. These are bakery, clothing and textile, furniture, paper & pulp (detergents), fertilizers (seeds and animal feed) and construction.
Recently, on 22 June 2021, we launched the Operation Vula Fund as the backbone of the KwaZulu-Natal’s Economic Recovery Plan. We announced that we will disburse equipment with a combined value of R300 million to more than 1000 SMMEs who have been selected as successful applicants. We reported that at least 42% of the successful applicants are youth owned-businesses.
Funding has been approved to 447 women-owned businesses, which represents 47% of the total successful applications lodge with OVF. Government is revising the OVF Policy in order to ensure that there is funding set aside for women-owned businesses.
We seek to grow the economy and create jobs in these sectors: Agriculture, Industrial Development, Health Innovation and manufacturing, Clothing and Textiles, Creative Industries, Informal sector, Investment and Trade, Infrastructure Development, Tourism, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), ICT and Innovation and Finance.
In KZN, we are implementing the policy of 30% set asides for women, youth and black- owned SMMEs. On local procurement, our target is 35%youth; 30% women; 5% people with disabilities, and 60% allocated to Africans. We also have an ambition that by 2024, 50 % of government spend should be on entrepreneurship for women-owned and women-led business.
We also wish to encourage the youth, in particular young women, to take advantage of the Youth Development Fund which is managed by the Office of the Premier and the Department of Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA). We were the first province in the country to initiate such a fund to support youth-owned enterprises.
We have insisted that with the second phase of the Fund, we want to see more enterprises owned by young women benefiting. As the provincial government, we have only been heartened by the testimonies of the youth, and especially young women who benefited from the Fund. Many of them are creating jobs, growing, and expanding into new markets.
Let me share one story from Ugu District which we are supporting through Operation Vula. Oatlands Oyster Mushrooms is a company owned by 28-year-old Asanda Mkhize. Operation Vula Fund assisted her by building a structure at which she farms the mushrooms. The fund also provided sprinklers, seedlings and Jojo Tanks. This enabled her to increase production leading from producing 100 mushrooms a week to producing more than 100 in a day.
Oatlands Oyster Mushrooms is based in KwaNositha Location ward 27 under the KwaMavundla Traditional Authority, in Ugu District Municipality. This successful business was started in 2018.
Currently they supply the following shops: Spar Harbour view, Green Groceries Marburg, Food Lovers Market South Coast Mall and Scottburgh, Green Groceries Port Shepstone and Marburg, Fresh Earth Farmers Market. Fresh Earth Farmers Market also supplies Durban Food Lovers and Johannesburg Food Lovers every week.
The business goal is that the project begins to venture into market outlets all over Ugu District level, Province and National.
Compatriots, the ANC-led government remains inspired by our historic mission of creating a society which is truly united, non-racial, non-sexist, equal, democratic, and prosperous.
On Women’s Day, we wish to touch the wounds of the hurting and acknowledge the pain of the families who lost their loved ones following the recent unrests which engulfed KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Mothers have lost their sons and daughters, wives their husbands and brothers. We remain a nation in mourning still coming to terms with the devastation. Once again, we convey our deep sympathies and heartfelt condolences to all families.
We also wish to use this day which is dedicated to the heroic struggles of the women of South Africa to express solidarity to all people who lost their properties, businesses, as well as their jobs. While our media successfully captured for the nation the big, ugly and terrifying scenes at major malls, warehouses, and major roads, there are many more of our people, including here in Umziwabantu Local Municipality who suffered alone without making national headlines. There is no doubt that the recent violence and devastation will only worsen the vulnerability of women in our province.
As the Provincial Government, we wish to express our full solidarity to the women of KZN who are in the informal sector eking a living for their families. We salute our mothers who wake up at dawn and travel to faraway fruit and vegetable stores to stock and come and sell in their communities. We recognise the strength of women entrepreneurs who sell meals in our small towns near bus and taxi ranks.
This violence destroyed small businesses owned by black women providing critical services like printing and internet services. The violence and mayhem affected you and made life even more difficult. It was a double blow to see the people of Ugu District torch water tankers and other community infrastructure when this area continues to face the challenge of water shortage. We have more work to dispel the image that KZN is a violent province where investments are not safe.
Honourable Speaker, This Women’s Day reminds us of outstanding women like Lilian Ngoyi, Hellen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophie DeBruin-Williams who came together and united against the slavery of the passes being imposed on black women. These were women who were a part of the Federation of South African Women who drafted the Women’s Charter in 1954 that was included in the Freedom Charter. In 2021, South Africa needs their spirit, needs their sense of leadership more than any other time.
We ask all the women of KwaZulu-Natal to unite and to lead our province in the healing of wounds and unity efforts. Women are by nature a source of life and wisdom. They give birth to all of us, and so they have more respect for human life. When a mother sees a child or person suffering, injured, in pain, or even dead, she often feels those birth pangs, hence she would say, “kuyahela”.
We ask the women of Inanda, KwaMashu, Phoenix, Chatsworth, Wentworth,Harding, Kokstad, Msinga and many other places to lead us in eliminating violence, building bridges, and creating harmonious, caring communities. We call on all of you to stand up against criminals and demand justice for the victims of violence.
As I conclude, we once again wish to pay tribute to all health workers in our province, in particular our nurses. We honour you for being the modern days Charlotte Maxeke’s, Victoria Mxenge’s, Dorothy Nyembe’s and Phyllis Naidoo’s. It is you who have been at the forefront fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Our healthcare workers themselves have lost their lives while saving our own lives.
In their memory and memory of the many South Africans who died from the pandemic, we reiterate the message of observing safety protocols which includes the wearing of masks in public spaces, cleaning of hands regularly with soap or sanitiser, and maintaining social distance. We encourage the people of KwaZulu-Natal to overcome vaccine hesitancy and be vaccinated in their numbers so that we can achieve population immunity and defeat this pandemic.
Rising together with the women of KwaZulu-Natal to rebuild our indestructible, resilient, and beautiful province.
Let us rise to realise women’s rights for an equal future.
The time is now for Generation Equality!
Together Growing KwaZulu-Natal!
Malibongwe!