TUESDAY, 17 AUGUST 2004

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                PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

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The House met at 14:00.

The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS – see col 000.

                             NEW MEMBER


                           (Announcement)

The SPEAKER: Can somebody please thank the choir and ask them please to let us proceed with the work of the Chamber without further ado.

The Speaker announced that Mr P A C Hendrickse had been nominated on 21 July 2004 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr M M Masala. The member had made and subscribed the solemn affirmation in the Deputy Speaker’s office.

                          NOTICES OF MOTION

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Madam, I hereby give notice that I shall move as a subject for discussion:

The human rights tragedies in Darfur in Sudan and the massacre of Congolese Tutsi refugees in Burundi.

Mr M WATERS: Madam Speaker, I hereby give notice that I shall move as a subject for discussion:

A social welfare safety net as a means to alleviate poverty.

           CONGRATULATIONS TO SOUTH AFRICAN SWIMMING TEAM


                         (Draft Resolution)

Ms N D NGCENGWANE: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:

That the House –

 1) notes that –


    (a) on 15 August 2004, at the Athens Olympic Games, the South
         African men’s 4x100m freestyle relay team won a gold medal,
         and that, through this tremendous victory, our team wrote
         their names as well as South Africa’s into Olympic history by
         setting a new world record; and


    (b) to achieve this victory, the South African team had to defeat,
         among others, the USA and Australia in an event that these
         countries have dominated since 1964;

(2) congratulates Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend,Ryk Neethling and the entire South African Olympic team and the coaches and administrators on this heroic victory; and

(3) believes that this achievement will serve as an inspiration to the youth of our country and should spur them on to aim for further successes in all aspects of human endeavour as we work to reconstruct and develop our country, continent and the common world we inhabit.

[Applause.]

Agreed to.

     GOOD WISHES TO SOUTH AFRICAN OLYMPICS AND PARALYMPICS TEAMS


                         (Draft Resolution)

Mr T D LEE: Madam Speaker, I hereby move without notice:

That the House –

 1) wishes every success to the South African Olympics team and
    Paralympics team as they compete in Athens over the next weeks;


 2) believes that victory is achieved not only through the winning of
    medals but also through the character our athletes demonstrate while
    competing;


 3) knows that our athletes have already and will continue to provide an
    excellent advertisement for South Africa in the sportsmanship they
    demonstrate; and


 4) further believes that both our Olympics and Paralympics teams will
    surpass their achievements of the Sydney 2000 Games.

[Applause.]

Agreed to.

               CONGRATULATIONS TO SPRINGBOK RUGBY TEAM


                         (Draft Resolution) Mr W P DOMAN: Madam Speaker, I move without notice:

That the House –

 1) congratulates the Springbok rugby team on their sparkling
    performance in beating the All Blacks last Saturday; and


 2) wishes them well for the Tri Nations decider this coming Saturday.

[Applause.]

Agreed to.

   AMENDMENT OF ENTRY IN RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE CHILDREN’S BILL


                         (Draft Resolution)

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: Madam Speaker, I move the motion printed on the Order Paper in my name, as follows:

That, with reference to the resolution adopted by the House on 15 June 2004, the entry in the resolution concerning the Children’s Bill [B70- 2003] be amended to read as follows:

  Children’s Bill [B70-2003 (Reintroduced)] (National Assembly -sec 75).

Agreed to.

                      CELEBRATING WOMEN’S MONTH


                        (Member’s Statement)

Mrs N B GXOWA (ANC): Madam Speaker, I wish to make the following statement. Exactly eight years ago our country joined hands with our women to celebrate women’s month. This month came about because of the struggles of the women of our country.

This year coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Federation of South African Women. That was a milestone in our history and our struggle for national liberation. This year’s celebrations also coincide with the celebration of a decade of freedom. Before 27 April 1994 South Africa was among the worst performing countries in terms of women’s representation in Parliament. Today we are number 12 on a list of 183 countries surveyed, and we are among the most progressive countries in promoting and safeguarding the interests of women.

We call upon our government to continue in its effort to improve the status of women to the level of active participation in society. We challenge the business and other sectors to play their rightful role in enhancing the status of women. The emancipation, upliftment and empowerment of women is fundamental to the continuing growth of our new nation. Investing in women is investing in the nation. Thank you. [Applause.]

                  NNP AND DA AS OPPOSITION PARTIES





                        (Member’s Statement)

Dr A I VAN NIEKERK (DA): Geagte mev die Speaker, die besluit van die NNP om met die ANC saam te smelt, nadat die teendeel voor die algemene verkiesing voorgehou is, het die 250 000 ondersteuners van die NNP geskok en in ’n politieke vakuum gelaat. Selfs vir hul getroue ondersteuners soos F W de Klerk was die eensydige besluit onaanvaarbaar. Hy het nou die eerbare stap geneem om die NNP te verlaat. Dié besluit van die NNP bring Suid-Afrika nader aan ’n eenpartystaat. So ’n eenpartystaat kan baie probleme meebring; kyk maar net na wat in sommige van ons buurlande gebeur.

Suid-Afrika het ’n sterk, kritiese, positiefgesinde opposisie soos die DA nodig, wat nie kruiperige samewerking bedryf nie. Dit is binne die DA waar oud-NNP lede ’n tuiste sal vind – ’n party wat nie skroom om ’n standpunt te stel in belang van al die mense van Suid-Afrika nie. Ek dank u. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans member’s statement follows.)

[Dr A I VAN NIEKERK (DA): Madam Speaker, the decision of the NNP to merge with the ANC, after the opposite was exhorted before the election, has shocked the 250 000 supporters of the NNP and left them in a political vacuum. The one-sided decision was unacceptable even to its loyal supporters such as F W de Klerk. He has now taken the honourable step of leaving the NNP. This decision of the NNP brings South Africa closer to a one-party state. Such a one-party state can cause a lot of problems; just look at what is happening in some of our neighbouring countries.

South Africa needs a strong, critical, positively minded opposition such as the DA, which does not practise fawning co-operation. It is within the DA that former NNP members will find a home – a party that will not hesitate to take a stand in the interests of all the people of South Africa. I thank you. [Applause.]]

             ALLEGED CORRUPTION AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL


                        (Member’s Statement)

Mr V B NDLOVU (IFP): Madam Speaker, SA National Defence Force members have been arrested by the SA Police for illegal entrapment of Zimbabweans along the border with Limpopo. Allegations of theft and the ill treatment of Zimbabweans who enter South Africa through the Madimbo corridor are being investigated by the police’s special investigation unit. They have confiscated bicycles, cigarettes and blankets found stored in a room at the Madimbo military base.

This alleged behaviour is totally unacceptable and should not be tolerated. We therefore urge the relevant authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter so as to put a stop to it. If it is the truth, all the culprits should be brought to book. If members of the SANDF are involved in corruption, they should be removed from their posts.

                         THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT


                        (Member’s Statement)

Mr C T FROLICK (ANC): Madam Speaker, 108 years ago in 1896 the modern Olympic Games started in Athens, Greece. The founders of the modern Olympic Games had as their goal to contribute through sport to efforts to bring about peace in the world. Over the past four Olympic Games we have managed to send our Olympic team to compete with the best in the world. Our people sent a team with the understanding that they would advance this noble objective of the Olympic Games and sport in general.

The Olympic Games demonstrate the oneness of humanity. This is further emphasised by the objective of the Olympic movement that the mission of the Olympic Games is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating the youth through sport practice without discrimination of any kind, and in the Olympic spirit of friendship and fair play.

There are individuals who have left a mark on the Games. Wilma Rudolph, who won three gold medals at the Rome Olympic Games in 1960, is one such an example. When she returned home to Clarksville in the USA, a parade was held in her honour and she insisted that the parade be open to every citizen of the town, both black and white, and in the true spirit of the Olympic Games. She achieved this despite her disadvantaged background. I thank you. [Applause.]

                   DRUG ABUSE AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN


                        (Member’s Statement)

Mr L M GREEN (ACDP): Madam Speaker, gone are the days when the light bulb was exclusively used to bring light to our homes and the paper straw mainly for drinking a cooldrink. We are living in a day and age where crystal methamphetamine or crystal meths, or, as it is more commonly known, tik- tik, a highly addictive drug, is being sold in drinking straws and smoked using light bulbs by schoolgoing teenagers. The long-term effects of tik- tik include heart attacks, damage to blood vessels, possible brain damage and lung infections.

Our youth is our future and we must protect them against the scourge of drugs. I wish to call upon our government to use all its power and influence to bring an end to the drug scourge facing our nation today by preventing illegal drugs from entering our country, taking economic actions against countries with poor export and international travel control, stopping the illicit manufacturing of drugs in South Africa, and stopping the drug dealers from reaching the children of our country. Dealers sell their drugs around schools and recreation areas with impunity, and the government should punish the guilty swiftly and effectively.

             THE PAN-AFRICAN PARLIAMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA


                        (Member’s Statement)

Ms S D MOTUBATSE-HOUNKPATIN (ANC): Madam Speaker, just over five weeks ago the third African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government unilaterally gave our country and our people the honour to host officially the seat of the Pan-African Parliament. This is a historic event that cements the growing relationship between the people of our country and the continent, and the broader international community.

The ANC wants to thank the leadership on the continent for showing their confidence in us by allowing us to contribute to the democratisation and regeneration of the continent. We reaffirm our commitment to work with the people of the continent for the African Renaissance, and to work towards a better life for the people on the continent as a whole. We want to thank Africa and the world community for contributing to our liberation and for the role they continue to play in the transformation process of this country and the continent as a whole. I thank you. [Applause.]

                       TRAVEL VOUCHER SCANDAL


                        (Member’s Statement)

Mr D H M GIBSON (DA): Madam Speaker, the promised debate on the travel voucher scandal has not yet been programmed. Because this topic affects Parliament and all MPs, each day that passes, the damage to the reputation of MPs and Parliament escalates.

HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

Mr D H M GIBSON: The DA’s position is clear: any DA MP charged will be suspended and any DA MP convicted of dishonesty with public money must lose his or her seat in Parliament. There is a strong public perception that relatively junior MPs have been listed to date and that some powerful office bearers in Parliament and government are being shielded. I hope that you will accept that we must play open cards, publish the list of 135, publish the forensic audit report and practise what we preach: openness and accountability. The crooks must be punished, the innocent exonerated and only then will Parliament’s reputation be restored. [Applause.]

                      DEMAND FOR FREE EDUCATION


                        (Member’s Statement)

Dr S E M PHEKO (PAC): Madam Speaker, the PAC, as part of its Pan-African vision, wants to create a world where the children of the poor shall receive free education and take our country and continent technologically to unprecedented heights of advancement and economic prosperity. It is a great disappointment to the PAC that since the recent elections several institutions of learning, such as Wits, the University of the North, the Tshwane College of Technology and the Eastern Cape Technikon in Umtata have erupted, mainly over students who cannot afford to pay their tuition fees. It is indeed disgraceful that at institutions of learning such as the University of Pretoria African students are reported to have turned toilets into sleeping quarters because they cannot afford education and accommodation.

It is equally disturbing that after ten years of democracy in this country very few students pass matric. Less than 20% of matriculants went on to tertiary studies in 2002. This is because of the poverty of many students. They have no capacity to acquire this expensive education. The PAC demands free education.

              PERFORMANCE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY


                        (Member’s Statement)

Mr K A MOLOTO (ANC): Madam Speaker, the ANC welcomes the announcement by the Governor of the SA Reserve Bank on 12 August to cut the repo rate by 50 basis points. This demonstrates and indicates the resilience of our economy in the turbulent international economic climate. Ten years ago, at the dawn of a democratic order, the ANC inherited an almost bankrupt government. We inherited chaotic financial systems. There was no proper system of financial accountability. We inherited a double-digit inflation figure and an economy that was continuously shrinking. We had no access to international financial markets.

The macroeconomic policies we adopted as the ANC-led democratic government have yielded the positive results that we are enjoying today. Over the past 10 years our economy has been growing consistently. It has withstood the turbulent crisis that has affected many developing countries in the last 1990s. Today we have a prime lending rate of 11%, something which South Africans have never known in the past 23 years. Today we are the envy of many developing countries. This will increase our potential to boost economic growth, job creation and our ability to fight poverty. I thank you. [Applause.]

SADC AND SOUTH AFRICA’S FAILURE TO STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN ZIMBABWE

                        (Member’s Statement)

Mr W J SEREMANE (DA): Madam Speaker, amidst our jubilation over our sports achievements, it is sad to notice that South Africa and the Southern African Development Community have again failed to stand up for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe.

The SADC meeting in Mauritius was a perfect opportunity for leaders to discuss the report on Zimbabwe by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which the Zimbabwean government has now had time to study. Instead, SADC leaders outdid each other in heaping praise on Mugabe’s government, despite the overt repression of the voice of dissent and the ongoing suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans.

The silence of the South African government is particularly disappointing given that South Africa is the current chair of SADC’s organ on politics, defence and security. One of the objectives of the organ is “to promote and enhance the development of democratic institutions and practices within member states, and to encourage the observance of universal human rights”.

By failing to deal with the Zimbabwean government’s destruction of democracy and its human rights abuses, South Africa is failing to carry out its responsibilities, and that is tantamount to fiddling whilst Rome is burning. [Applause.]

         ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CAUSED BY INDUSTRIALISATION

                        (Member’s Statement)

Prince N E ZULU (IFP): Madam Speaker, it is sad and incomprehensible that so many South Africans have lost their lives, lost their limbs and lost their potency through the pollution of the environment with gaseous, industrial and vehicular emissions. South Durban and its surrounding areas are typical examples of polluted environments the odour of which is detectable, not only by laboratory technology, but by passers-by through nasal respiration.

Here we speak of human suffering because we are part of it, not to mention the animal and plant catastrophe that goes unnoticed. The Constitution of the country protects the environment and all that live in it. Given the status of our polluted environment, it is clear that industrial profits and wealth are made at the risk of life and limb. Therefore, further industrialisation of the country needs to be guarded against through specifications and compliance targets that will render South Africa’s environmental air quality safe again.

Startling statistics from the victims of this scourge can no longer be ignored. Thanks go to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism for the sterling work they are doing in this regard. Men and women of goodwill are hereby urged to keep our environment clean and clear of all polluting substances. Thank you.

    RECOGNITION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE


                        (Member’s Statement)

Ms E NGALEKA (ANC): Madam Speaker, the United Nations, in recognising inequities amongst indigenous people worldwide, declared the decade of 1994- 2004 the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous people. The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is on 9 August every year. Indigenous people are spread across the world, from the Arctic to the South Pacific, and a rough estimate of their number is some 300 million.

It is recognised that the establishment and protection of the rights of indigenous people are an essential part of human rights and a legitimate concern. Africa is the cradle of humanity, with the oldest and greatest genetic and cultural diversity of any continent, and it’s also the richest in terms of biological diversity. Africa has one tenth of the human population but one third of the world’s languages, reflecting the diversity of the continent.

The South African government has taken the lead in Africa in recognising indigenous people. This includes the SA San Institute, the SA San Council and the working groups of indigenous minorities in Africa, the National Khoisan Consultative Council, the Griqua National Conference and the Continental Africa Indigenous Women’s Organisation.

Notwithstanding the South African government’s commitment to making reparations for violations and injustices, there is a need for broad consultation to develop policies and practices that recognise the right to self-determination of indigenous people in the United Nations system and their contribution of indigenous knowledge to sustainable development and biodiversity protection. I thank you. [Applause.]

       COMMENDATION OF COMMUNITY EFFORTS TO FIND BABY RAFIQUE


                        (Member’s Statement)

Ms M M SOTYU (ANC): Madam Speaker, I rise to commend the Western Cape government and the community of Mitchells Plain on their efforts to find baby Rafique, who went missing last week. We particularly acknowledge the role of Mr and Mrs Ohlsson, whose son Matthew went missing seven years ago. We also commend the community leaders and plead with them to assist the police in its courageous efforts to return baby Rafique to his home.

With this statement, we, as Parliament, would like to plead with the community to assist the community of Mitchells Plain to find baby Rafique. [Applause.]

 PLEA TO FIGHT AGAINST CIRCULATION OF DRUGS AND CHILD ABDUCTIONS IN
                             COMMUNITIES

                        (Minister’s Response)

The MINISTER OF SAFETY AND SECURITY: Madam Speaker, the hon Louis Green may have sounded romantic in the way he raised the issue in his statement. However, he was raising an important question.

This is one of those issues that we ought to be seized with, as the very people who are responsible as public representatives in this House. He is raising the matter of the circulation of drugs in our communities. I’m particularly happy that he is raising it on a day that we have schoolchildren among those who are visiting this House.

Ndivuyiswa kukuba kukho noomama noodadewethu apha namhlanje ngenxa yokuba indaba yezidakamizwa yindaba enkulu kakhulu. [I am particularly happy because the mothers and my sisters are here today, because the drug issue is our main concern.]

It is going to be very important for all of us - our communities, our children - to combine our efforts to ensure that we expose those who are circulating drugs in our communities, so that they are arrested and kept out of our communities for a long time. So, I do want to record my appreciation that he raised this particular question.

There is a new development in South Africa and, once again, I call upon the public representatives here to mobilise our communities so that, together, we can fight this. A number of our children are now going missing, because there are criminals out there who have decided to take these children away from their parents, and mostly, these children are used for sexual offences.

I am, therefore, appealing to all of us …

… kuni bantwana, boomama noodadewethu abakhoyo namhlanje … [ … to you, children, mothers and sisters present here today …]

… to help us to find these criminals, because they also have to be removed from society and kept in our jails for long periods of time. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

WOMEN CELEBRATING THE DECADE OF FREEDOM ON THE PATH TO TOTAL EMANCIPATION

                      (Subject for Discussion)

The SPEAKER: The next item on the Order Paper is the Subject for Discussion on Women Celebrating the Decade of Freedom on the Path to Total Emancipation. I will now call upon the hon Deputy Speaker to address us. [Applause.] While the Deputy Speaker is approaching the podium, I wish to take this opportunity …

… lokuba ndinamkele boomama. Ndithanda ukuvakalisa ukuba siyanamkela apha kwiNdlwini yoWiso-mthetho, sisithi le yimini ebalulekileyo ukuba nibe kho ukuze nive ukuba kuthiwani na ngamalungu ePalamente eniwakhethileyo. Enkosi. [Uwele-wele.] [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[… of welcoming you mothers. I would like to announce that we welcome you in Parliament; we say this is an important day for you to be present so that you can hear what the members of Parliament whom you elected are going to say. Thank you. [Interjections.][Applause.]]

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Madam Speaker, House Chairpersons, members of the executive, hon members, ladies and gentlemen …

Ke batla go kopa Ntlo eno gore e ntumelle gore ke go leboge Mme Sebui … [I would like this House to give me permission to thank Madam Speaker…]

… for lifting the status of women during this month of August. Today, and on many other days that came before today and up until the end of the month, we will be celebrating Women’s Month. We wish to thank you for your leadership in that regard.

I am also honoured to lead my leaders in this debate. I now know that the President of the ANC Women’s League will be participating. I want to thank her for participating in this debate in spite of her heavy schedule. It shows how important this debate is to all of us. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

Samora Machel once said, and I quote:

The emancipation of women is not an act of charity. It is not a result of a humanitarian or compassionate attitude. The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for the revolution, the guarantee of its continuity and the precondition of its victory. The main objective of the revolution is to destroy the system of exploitation and build a new society, which releases the potentialities of human beings.

This is the context within which women’s emancipation arises. This is the context within which we celebrate the pride of 10 years of democracy.

Empowering women to participate equally in power-sharing and decision- making structures at all levels has long been identified as a priority for the achievement of gender equality. The extent of women’s participation in decision-making structures, whether at global, regional or subregional levels, is an area of concern. In Africa, despite being faced with enormous obstacles, women have participated in the various struggles and liberation wars against colonial regimes, and in South Africa, against apartheid.

However, women have tended to make their contributions outside political and policy-making structures. Thus, while women all over this continent are well organised within families, communities and nongovernmental structures, and increasingly in regional and international networks of various kinds, their participation in the more formal political structures tends to be marginal.

Traditionally, political life is predominantly male. It is shaped by masculine norms and standards that are not readily accessible to women. Political life is organised according to male norms and values and, in some cases, even male lifestyles. For example, the political model is based on the idea of winners and losers, competition and confrontation, rather than mutual respect, collaboration and consensus-building. This environment is alien to women.

Despite the existence of formal commitment towards bringing about gender equity, many countries are slow to implement substantive change. Research suggests that in order to bring substantive difference in political decision-making, a critical mass must be reached that involves at least 30% to 35% of any women. Unfortunately, few countries worldwide have achieved this critical mass at national decision-making levels.

South Africa, however, is an exception in this regard with women increasingly represented in public life at all levels. Indeed, in this respect South Africa has taken a proactive stance that has paid dividends. At the last African Union summit President Thabo Mbeki actually called for a 50% representation of women, which was well received by his peers.

Today, through our integration with women in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere in the world, we are proud that Rwanda is a country with the highest percentage of women in their parliament in the world. Their presence is 48% while we stand at 32,8%. We are the second highest in Africa and number 12 in the world, as has been mentioned. It must be noted that we are ahead of the United States, which stands at position 58 in the whole world, and the United Kingdom, which is at position 48. [Applause.]

However, it must be borne in mind that empowering women entails more than merely enabling some women to become leaders. True gender equity entails addressing the needs of women as a whole. Thus, not only should more women have access to power but also women leaders should have access to sufficient resources to enable them to participate in decision-making for this government, whether at local, regional and national or international levels.

We cannot march on one leg or clap with one hand. Recognising our shared oppression, women are committed to seizing this historic moment to ensure effective equality in a new South Africa, in Africa and the world.

For decades patriarchy, colonialism, racism and apartheid have subordinated and oppressed women within political, economic and social life. South Africa has ratified several international and regional legal instruments that set the standards for the advancement of women. Furthermore, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, holds the principle of equality as a central value. Discrimination on a number of grounds, including race, gender, sexual orientation and disability, is prohibited.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women commonly called Cedaw, is the principal international legal instrument that sets the standards for the advancement of women. Its uniqueness lies in its mandate for the achievement of substantive equality for women, which requires not only formal legal equality, but also equality of results.

On Friday, 20 August 2004, as Parliament, we will be launching the Interparliamentary Union/United Nations handbook for parliamentarians on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and its optional protocol. Once again, thank you for your leadership.

As one who represented this Parliament at the Inter-parliamentary Union for some time and subsequently got elected as President of the Co-ordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians of that body, I can confirm that the South African background on democracy has helped a lot at the IPU. It is not only I who worked with these international bodies, but the SADC Parliamentary Forum was led by Deputy Minister Xingwana. Many other women on international bodies ensured that the driving principles of this government are not lost. To this end, I wish to congratulate Dr Ginwala, Speaker Mbete, and former chairperson Pandor, for their guidance and leadership at all these international meetings. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

At the heart of women’s marginalisation is the patriarchal order that confines women to the domestic arena and reserves for men the arena where political power and authority reside. Conventionally, democracy and human rights have been defined and interpreted in terms of men’s experiences. Society has been organised and its institutions structured for the primary benefit of men.

As we approach Beijing plus 10, we are well aware of the steps taken thus far from the Beijing Platform for Action and Beijing plus 5, and I quote:

Equality between women and men is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice, and is also a necessary and fundamental mental prerequisite for equality, development and peace. A transformed partnership based on equality between women and men is a condition for people-centred, sustainable development.

I want to dedicate this speech to all the mothers, sisters and children that are here with us today.

Ndiyavuya ukunibona namhlanje, boomama bethu. Ndivuya kakhulu nokubona abantwana. Ndiza kuthetha ngesiXhosa sam esingasulungekanga kuyaphi, kodwa ndiqinisekile ukuba siza kuvana. Siyabonga kakhulu ukubona ukuba le minyaka ilishumi edlulileyo kukho apho ifike khona yakhe yaguqula impilo yenu, yabonisa ukuba ukuma kwenu nivote ngomhla wama-24 kuApreli, kwenza ukuba kube kho iinguqu eMzantsi Afrika. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Siyabonga koomama.

Bakhona abanye abaza kuthetha emva kwam. Baza kuthetha kakuhle ukuze nibeve kakuhle. Kodwa nam ndizamile. [Kwahlekwa.] (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

I am happy to see you today, our mothers. I am very happy to see children as well. I am going to speak my language, Xhosa, although it is not all that good I am sure we will understand each other. We are very grateful to see that the past ten years have had an impact in other places and have changed your lives. This shows that the stand that you took in casting your vote on 24 April brought about changes in South Africa. [Applause.] We thank the mothers. There are those who are going to speak after me. They are going to speak well so that you understand them. But I have tried. [Laughter.]]

Le nkulumo yami ngifuna ukuyethula phambi komama. Ikakhulukazi, sikhumbula omama abahlale emajele ukuze thina sikhululeke namhlanje. Sikhumbula omama abangakwazanga ukungcwaba abantwana babo namadoda abo, abangazi nokuthi bafela kuphi. Konke lokho kwenzeka ukuze mina nawe namhlanje sibe kule Ndlu enkulu kangaka. (Translation of Zulu paragraph follows.)

[I would like to deliver my speech in the presence of women. We remember especially women who spent time in prison for us to be free today. We remember women who were unable to bury their husbands and children, who don’t even know where they died. That happened so that you and I could occupy this big House today.]

Thirty minutes before I came here, I spoke to one such woman who was in our jails for some time, Deborah Matshoba. She would have wanted to be with us here today, but she is unable to travel. [Applause.]

I was very young and naive when I met Deborah Matshoba. She introduced me to politics while I was a student at the University of Zululand. Ever since I met her, my life became meaningful. I discovered how much of life I was leading in a vacuum before I met her. She was detained under section 10 of the Internal Security Act in 1976 for five months at what we called Number

1. Two weeks after her release in February 1977, she was detained at a roadblock in Vrede en route to Durban and held under section 6 of the Terrorism Act. If you think that that Act was bad, then you must get the Afrikaans version of it – artikel 6 van die Wet op Terrorisme.

Just to mention it would actually make you shiver. She was held in several prisons around the country under solitary confinement. She asked me to tell women parliamentarians: “You are doing us proud.” She said I should say to the Ministers that South Africa will never be the same because you are leading. You will gradually change this country to a better one. She said we must give you strength through her message that the struggle still continues. [Applause.]

It was very touching on National Women’s Day this year to see all the former prisoners of Number 4, including our own Minister Brigitte Mabandla who addressed them. She was once detained there. During all these hardships, women learnt to survive and adapt to new environments. Sis Deborah said, and I quote:

There never was a time when she felt as strong as she did when she was in prison, tortured and isolated. The stench of urine and blood from the blankets somehow also had a sweet scent of freedom. She arrived at a point where she could turn pain into pleasure. What she knew was that even if death was imminent, victory was certain.

[Applause.]

When women gathered in Johannesburg in April 1954 at the founding conference of the Federation of South African Women, they resolved as women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working women and housewives, African, Indian, European and coloureds, that their aim was to strive for the removal of all laws, regulations, conventions and customs that discriminate against women and deprive women of their inherent right to the advantages, responsibilities and opportunities that society offers to any one section of the population.

When Hendrik Verwoerd, as Minister of native affairs then, made a statement two years later that women would carry dompasses as from the beginning of 1956, he definitely insulted women. In response, a women’s antipass movement evolved. We will forever be indebted to those women.

Ngugi wa Thiongo, in his book titled Grain of Wheat, says this about Africa, and I quote:

Still licking the scars of past wrongs perpetrated on her, could she not be magnanimous and practise no revenge? Her hand of friendship scornfully rejected, her pleas for justice and fair play spurned, should she not nonetheless seek to turn enmity into amity? Though robbed of her lands, her independence and opportunities – this, oddly enough, often in the name of civilisation and even Christianity - should she not see her destiny as being that of making a distinctive contribution to human progress and human relationships with a peculiar new African flavour enriched by the diversity of cultures she enjoys, thus building on the summits of present human achievement an edifice that would be one of the finest tributes?

When I read this, I become happy, knowing that Francis Baart said: “I will enjoy freedom in my lifetime, I know there will be freedom in my lifetime.” Today she lies less than 100 km from the Gallagher Estate, where deliberations on the Pan-African Parliament will take place. It is with pride that some us reflect on these old people who gave us what we have today.

Under the democratically elected government South Africa has signed and ratified many international and regional instruments that aim to improve the status of women. In an address to African leaders the Secretary-General of the United Nations observed: “If you want to save the African continent, you must save the African women first.”

South Africa is therefore fortunate to have a government that has gender equality as, amongst other things a fundamental tenet of the Constitution of the country. Not only has this been backed by a comprehensive legislative and policy framework, but acceding to particular regional and international instruments further demonstrates this commitment. These include the following: Cedaw, which I alluded to earlier; the Beijing Declaration; the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development; and the UN Millennium Declaration adopted at the Millennium Summit in New York.

It is incumbent upon Parliament therefore to monitor government performance in regard to these areas. In addition, Parliament must ensure that those instruments that have not been ratified are indeed ratified nationally. We should also lobby for regional ratification so that such instruments can come into force.

African women will also be afforded a prominent role in conflict resolution by being appointed as AU special envoys and representatives to trouble spots on the continent. The Pan-African Women’s Organisation enjoys observer status at the United Nations. It also has observer status at what is now known as the African Union.

The late president of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, once said, and I quote:

The liberation of the land of our birth and of all its people will materialise as a genuinely popular victory on the basis of the involvement of the masses, including the women in their millions as a conscious and active part of the anti-sexist, anti-racist and anti- colonial democratic movement of South Africa.

One of the fundamental tasks that this process of national liberation confronts is the liberation of the women of our country from their triple oppression on the grounds of sex, class and colour. South African women have always played an active role in the transition to democracy. They were active in the country’s inclusive approach to the negotiations prior to 1994, whose peaceful outcome took the entire global community by surprise.

As such, South Africa championed and participated in peace initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Sudan. In addition, the dialogue hosted by the office of the first lady created a space for women from fellow African states to share the experiences of South African women during the liberation struggle, the ensuing negotiations and the transitional period that preceded our first democratic elections. These meetings have benefited both the women of South Africa and their counterparts in building a strong continental voice, calling for peace as a fundamental precondition for sustainable development and the substantive realisation of human rights.

In conclusion, these principles are strongly reflected in the values that underpin the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nepad. Mindful of our broader commitment to the international community and its human rights agenda, we wish to place on record our solidarity with the women of Palestine. We salute our heroines such as Francis Baart, Helen Joseph, Dorothy Nyembe and many other women of that generation who today want to look at us as their mirrors. We cannot betray their struggle.

Amongst us today we have Rita Ndzanga a recipient of the Order of Luthuli: Silver award. We congratulate you, mama! [Applause.] Courage can sometimes mean taking a principled yet most difficult decision, or at times a stand against those you love. Courage is going deep within and finding your own weaknesses. We have achieved with the little that we have and we will continue to achieve.

Ngeke siniphoxe bomama. Sizohlala sikule ndlela esikuyo yokuthi umhlaba wethu ube umhlaba wabo bonke bonke abantu abafuna ukuphila kuwo. Sizokwenza zonke izinto enifuna ukuthi sizenze. (Translation of Zulu paragraph follows.)

[We won’t disappoint you, women. We shall stick to this policy that our land will always belong to people who wanted to live on it. We shall do whatever you want us to do.]

Re dire tiro yotlhe e lo batlang re e dire ka bo nontlhotlho, bonatla le bo ineelo. Re tla dira se ka lorato ka gonne ke lona ba ba re beileng mo maemong a. Lo dire jalo bagaetsho le ka moso me lotle ka makatla-namane. Ke a leboga. [Legofi.] (Translation of Tswana paragraph follows.)

[Doing all the work that you want us to do with great delicacy, showing courage and commitment. We will do this with love because it is you who elected us to these positions. Keep it up in this spirit even in the days to come, turn up in numbers. Thank you. [Applause.]]

Ms S V KALYAN: Madam Deputy Speaker, being a woman in South Africa during the month of August is really great, because women’s issues are highlighted, more so especially because historically women are the second most disadvantaged group in South Africa. It is a month when the commitments, achievements and contributions of women are acknowledged by means of politically correct rhetoric, and accolades are accorded to the patient, caring, strong and long-suffering women who make up the backbone of South African society.

While the concept of celebrating a women’s month is a good one, the question that begs an answer is why cannot women’s issues be highlighted every month, and indeed every day? Do we as a group not exist for the other 11 months of the year? Are women’s issues not as important for the other 11 months of the year, or are the problems of South African women so burdensome that they can only be dealt with in one large dose during the month of August?

South Africa has a wonderful Constitution. It is nonsexist by its very nature, and takes a strong stand on discrimination. Section 9 in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution categorically forbids any person from unfairly discriminating against anyone on one or more grounds, including gender, sex and sexual orientation. While we have some very good pieces of legislation protecting women, such as the Domestic Violence Act and the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, it is my considered opinion that the legislation fails women in the implementation stage. This is evidenced by the increase in sexual assaults on women and a poor prosecution rate of the perpetrators. Research has also indicated that every six minutes a woman is killed by her partner.

Gender deconstruction is the key to the real emancipation of women, but are we doing enough? A recent study done in KwaZulu-Natal on adolescents between the ages of 16 and 18, both male and female, from middle-class and working-class environments, indicates that not enough is being done to dispel the stereotypes on the gender issue. All the respondents in the study stated that South Africa can only be led by a man, and that women are not up to the task.

With regard to domestic power, male respondents were adamant that men should have more say in the house, that women were suitable only for childrearing, and that they would not allow their wives to undermine them. The study also confirmed the stereotypes in respect of careers. One only has to judge the reaction of male passengers on an aeroplane when the pilot is a woman. Many men make weak jokes about whether she knows what she is doing.

We have come a long way, and South Africa is a society in transition. We are facing a huge crisis in respect of the Aids pandemic. The seesaw attitude of whether or not to provide antiretrovirals, the unintended consequences of child-headed households and sacrifices by the eldest girl- child are regrettably not cause for celebration.

In celebrating our decade of freedom, let us acknowledge that lots of work needs to be done to deliberately recondition the stereotypes that hinder the true emancipation of women in South Africa. Unfortunately the reality is that biology is still the determining factor in deciding a woman’s role and status in society. Let’s seek collectively to heal the damage caused by gender abuse, and to integrate both sides of the gender divide in a spirited and holistic manner. Only then can we say that women have been totally emancipated and are free to be. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Madam Speaker, Deputy Speaker, hon members, dear friends …

… bomama nabantwana abaphaya e-gallery, siyanibulisa namhlanje. [… mothers and children in the gallery, we greet you today.]

On this day 22 years ago, a gallant fighter, a selfless revolutionary, a patriot, a mother, an intellectual, a leader of the workers and a daughter of South Africa was killed by a bomb, leaving her husband and children to continue the fight for freedom for all the people of South Africa. Her name is Ruth First, wife to Joe Slovo. I want to dedicate my speech to her memory today, and many other women like her, who could not reap the fruits of our freedom. [Applause.]

I also want to thank Comrade Rob for reminding me, for as I walked in he quickly came over to me and said: “Do you remember that 22 years ago Comrade Ruth First was assassinated?” I really want to thank you, comrade, for that beautiful gesture.

I am indeed grateful that once again Parliament has made time for us to have this debate here in the National Assembly. I believe the issue of our honest assessment of our own contribution to women’s empowerment will continue to occupy our minds for quite some time, for as long as we have not reached the point where all discrimination against women has been addressed, our society will continue to be confronted with this matter.

We have correctly provided an analysis of the experience of the majority of South African women as that of triple oppression, and pointed out that there has been a real linkage between the object of our dual struggle for national liberation on the one hand, and on the other, the specific removal of all forms of oppression against women. The political objective needs to be contextualised when it comes to the struggle of women, because not only were women facing national oppression as black women, or disadvantaged by their class position as part of the poor and the working class, but also because, additional to this, they were black.

Correctly so, therefore, this should be the premise on and context in which any discussion on the progress we have made thus far and the resultant changes should be based; and our engagement on the issue of women’s empowerment should be holistic in so far as it does justice to addressing all of these forms of oppression experienced by these women.

In addition, we should emphasise the overarching intent that the emancipation of all our women, black and white, is a necessary precondition for the building of a truly nonsexist, nonracial society and for its development.

Two weeks ago we celebrated the 48th anniversary of our National Women’s Day. As part of his address to the many South African women who gathered there, our President reminded us that last year the African Union had adopted a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. In reference to this epoch-making adoption, he had this to say, and I quote:

This is important because the protocol addresses the central challenge of the emancipation of African women and goes beyond the simple recognition of the rights of women, but enjoins all Africans actively to remove all forms of gender discrimination, integrating the gender perspective in policy decisions, legislation, development plans, programmes and activities, and demands that corrective and positive action should be taken in those areas where discrimination against women continues to exist.

He also said:

We need to work together as social formations and government in collaboration with others in our sister countries to ensure that we implement this important protocol.

This is where I thought we needed to start today. In the past few weeks since we officially launched the month of women, we’ve said a lot in answering the question as to why South African women should celebrate our 10 years of freedom in our country. We’ve even done a lot of celebrating ourselves. Let us rather take some time to look at what needs to happen when the dust has settled. When the month of women comes to an end, what challenges will remain for us, for the women of our country, for our society as a whole?

The President said that the charter demands from all of us that corrective and positive action be taken in those areas in which discrimination against women continues to exist, and that hon members define clearly the depth of the challenge we still face.

So, within this general directive and with the advent of many gains we have already registered during the first decade of freedom, what is it that we want women to look back on after the completion of the next decade? I believe much still needs to be done by way of consolidating the current gains, because the reality is that where we have provided electricity there are still many who have not benefited. Many still await their first water tap, even if it is just a communal one.

There are millions of women who could have benefited from the current changes introduced by this government, including in the area of protection, but cannot do so because they do not have much information about what they are now entitled to. So all these good things we have done, including changes in legislation, will never have any meaning for or impact on the lives of these women unless they are made aware of such benefits. The immediate challenge therefore is for us to communicate more on some of the benefits that have become available to women as a result of this democracy.

Inyani, bomama, kukuba zininzi izinto esizenzileyo. Mininzi iMithetho esithe sayiphumeza apha ePalamente, efana nemithetho ethi ootata abanalo ilungelo lokusibetha, kodwa ingxaki kukuba oomama abakazazi iimfanelo zabo. Siphumeze imithetho yokuba ootata bangasibethi, kodwa oomama basabakhusela ootata ngoba abakawazi amalungelo abo.

Laa mthetho ungesondlo sabantwana uthi utata akenzi mntwana ze kodwa amshiye, wenza umntwana ze amondle de afikelele kwixabiso lokuba abe nokuzimela. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Yaphela loo nto. Kambe oomama abakayazi into yokuba xa utata engamondli umntwana kufanele ukuba bahambe baye kumbamba utata lowo. Lilungelo lomntwana ukuba ondliwe. Ngamalungelo ke lawo bomama esithe sawalwela, sade saphumeza nomthetho wokunikhusela.(Translation of Xhosa paragraphs follows.)

[The truth, mothers, is that there are lots of things that we have done. There are many Acts that we have promulgated in Parliament, such as those that state that men do not have a right to assault us. But the problem is that women are not aware of their rights yet. We have promulgated an Act to the effect that men must not assault us, but women are still protecting men because they do not know their rights.

The Child Maintenance Act stipulates that the father does not simply father a child and then leave him. You father the child and maintain him until he reaches a stage where he can support himself. [Applause.] That is the past. But women still do not know that when a man is not maintaining the child she is supposed to go and lay a charge of failure to comply with maintenance against that man. These are the rights that we fought for for mothers. We even promulgated the Protection Order Act.]

Despite the challenges we face with regard to the consolidation of the current gains, there are many other challenges that, as a country, we need to address in advancing the cause of women’s empowerment. I say “as a country”, because these are challenges for all of us. Yes, some of them have to be addressed by government, but there’s a lot of space for all of us to play a role, and many roles we can play in reversing the social impediments which disempower women.

We’ve received a lot of praise when it comes to the recognition of the role of women in leadership - I do not think we are doing badly in this area – and, as we have said many times from this podium and from other platforms, we should really recognise and appreciate the foresight of the ANC-led government in championing this cause. However, we can do even better.

There’s going to be a need for us as a country to invest even more in the education of the girl-child, to prepare them to play a meaningful role in the leadership of their country, not as recipients of some favour but in their own right and not on the merit of their capacity.

In this way we would be creating a pool in numbers to draw from when we intensify this programme of recognising the role of women in leadership. The quota system, in which women represent slightly over a third of leadership in our public institutions, should be recognised as a temporary corrective tool and cannot be permanent.

The deliberate investment in the development of the girl-child should be our focus towards a more permanent solution. We’ve raised on several occasions the matter of building a unity of purpose for women in our country. The challenge in this regard has been the need to build a united women’s movement as a platform for all women across the political spectrum to engage each other on issues of women’s empowerment.

We really believe that our country needs a social movement whose minimum agenda is consensus-building across various issues facing our women. Of course, this is a decision that we took some time ago, and we’ll still be able to report to the nation at a later stage on the progress that has been registered in this regard. We believe that the dialogue that is being led by Mrs Mbeki can be used effectively as a springboard to move towards that direction.

Perhaps the most important of the challenges that our society faces during the second decade of freedom will be to ensure that women are empowered and are able to make a meaningful contribution to the life of the economy of our country. In this regard we need to emphasise our investment in the skills development and training of women to gain access to employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.

As the President said, it is important that this process must not only benefit a thin stratum of successful women, but women as a whole, including the poorest of the most disadvantaged in urban and rural areas.

There are many other specific challenges that will form part of the debate, including addressing such issues as housing, rural and urban development, gender in the workplace, violence, domestic abuse and the protection of our children. I’m happy that there are specific speakers who will pay adequate attention to these issues.

I do, however, feel the need to raise one matter, which politically poses even greater challenges to our ability to explore the economic potential buried on our continent. We need to look at what it is that South African women can do to alleviate the situation of women on our continent and to strengthen some of the efforts that have already been initiated.

Many women in Africa have continued to witness the horror of war and its consequences for human development, and how those who harboured great amounts of greed have plunged our continent into an abyss of blood and forced women and children to flee into the wilderness and become refugees who are vulnerable to secondary suffering, such as rape and dehumanisation.

In the end, we should always remember this, that for as long as wars continue to ravage our continent, destroy precious vegetation, threaten the potential for economic and human development, so can we also forget about real emancipation of women taking firm root anywhere on this continent.

At the end of this debate, it should be possible for all of us to recommit ourselves and the public to serving to give more of our energies towards the resolution of the question of women’s oppression, because in doing so we will be giving the real development of humanity a much greater boost.

Because I’m still left with one minute I am happy to report on the campaign we launched two weeks ago calling on women to verify their marital status. We were receiving an average of 78 or 79 women per day before we launched the campaign, and that number has since doubled. I would like to tell you that a number of the women who came forward discovered that, indeed, their marital status reflected in our records was wrong or, indeed, some of the single women painfully discovered that they were wrongfully married to people they had never met.

Therefore, I want to urge all of us to encourage as many women as possible to come forward and continue, even beyond August, to verify their marital status. It is not correct that single women are married to men they have never met before. It is exploitation, particularly because, in the main, most of the women who are victims are women who are the poorest of the poor, who are vulnerable and who live in shacks. When they went to look for jobs their identity documents were taken away from them, and that is how they became married to people they had never met.

We also encourage women who are married in customary marriages to come forward and register their marriages, so that the law can protect them. [Applause.]

Oomama mabeze ngaphambili baze kubhalisa imitshato yasemakhaya ukuze umthetho ubakhusele. [Women should come forward and register customary marriages so that the law can protect them.]

We’ve seen a number of women quietly coming forward to register their marriages, so that they can be protected. Please, let us encourage as many women as possible to do that. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Dr M G BUTHELEZI: Madam Speaker, women are the backbone of South Africa. They are that in any country anyway. Today, as a Parliament we salute and say thank you to the women of all families and communities in our nation.

In the past we have rightly celebrated the important role that women have fulfilled in our struggle for liberation. We have also highlighted the unfinished agenda of the liberation of women from all forms of oppression and sexism which continue to flourish within our families, at our workplaces, in communities and society.

We must strive to narrow the gap between the paper rights of women codified in the Constitution and the real lives that women lead. The grim reality is that abject poverty affects women worse because they bear the responsibility of raising families and are often the sole breadwinners.

The shocking truth is that physical and sexual violence against women have climbed steadily since the advent of democracy. The contribution of women to our struggle for liberation and the unfinished agenda of women’s liberation will rightly remain high on our agenda until the work is complete.

This year, however, I think we must talk about and rightly celebrate the many women who are at the frontline of the war, who are involved in it and are bearing its full brunt. Our people are dying by the hundreds of thousands because of HIV/Aids. Millions of South Africans are now directly or indirectly affected by this terrible pandemic – a horrific pandemic that is spreading death, destruction and suffering on a scale that exceeds by far the toll of many of the past wars experienced in our land.

If this Parliament were to rise to the responsibility we bear, we would hold weekly discussions about the war on HIV/Aids until we can master the capacity of giving to this war the leadership so desperately needed. Unlike in the case of any other war fought before, women are at the frontline both in terms of the contribution which is required of them to win the war, as well as in respect of the casualties of death and suffering which this war is imposing.

Women are dying of HIV/Aids. The infection rate for girls is six times that for boys. Two and a half times more young women in South Africa are infected than their male contemporaries.

Mothers are burying their children and are required to have fathomless amounts of energy and strength. They have to hold together families ravaged by HIV/Aids - mothers of children born with HIV/Aids, wives and partners of those affected by it. Women are also victims of that which is going wrong in our war against HIV/Aids, such as the inertia in smashing the collective madness flowing from the absurd notion that by raping a virgin one could be cured of HIV/Aids.

As all of you are aware, in the past two and a half months I have buried two of my own children because of HIV/Aids. They were two wonderful children who lived ordinary lives like millions of other South Africans. Like many other South Africans, through no fault of their own, they fell victim to this pandemic.

As I remember them, I must pay tribute to my wife, Irene Thandekile Mzila Buthelezi, who has endured the pain and suffering of a depth that those who have not been in her position cannot even begin to comprehend. I pay tribute to my wife, because in so doing I today pay tribute to all the mothers of South Africa who had to bury their children prematurely or who are struggling with children who are infected or affected by HIV/Aids.

It is only during times of war that parents bury their children as often as we do and that so much mourning and funerals characterise our lives. Like in many wars before, we have cried for our dead for so long that our tears have run dry. Now we need to muster the courage to transcend our pain and come together as a nation to end this nightmare.

We have all dreamt of a free, nonracist and nonsexist nation. If we are honest with ourselves, we must accept that our nation is still far from being free, nonracist and nonsexist. In an absurd and paradoxical manner the HIV/Aids pandemic is the great equaliser that is killing our people irrespective of race, social class or gender.

Only the most naive can continue to believe that they are not going to be directly or indirectly affected by HIV/Aids because of its alleged limitation to the poorer reaches of our nation or those of a particular sexual orientation. HIV/Aids has placed me on my knees and destroyed my family in spite of the lifestyle stringently maintained by my wife and I and the social status we enjoy.

Throughout history nations have been forged into unity because their people have fought together in great wars, side by side and shoulder to shoulder. We hoped that the struggle for liberation would bring together all South Africans and build us into a single nation. We have achieved much in this most noble of endeavours, yet in spite of our nation-building efforts we all know that we are far from having created a united South African nation.

The war against HIV/Aids provides such an opportunity, painful as it is. We are dealing with an enemy which pays no attention to the considerations that too often divide us, be it our different political homes, our particular race, ethnicity, social status, gender or sexual orientation. Our nation will either be forged into unity or forever destroyed, depending on how we respond to the war against HIV/Aids.

Like any other war in which the survival of a nation is at stake, victory or defeat depends on the calibre of leadership which a nation can muster. Until now the leadership on the war against HIV/Aids has been disastrous and has compounded the problem. Similar leadership provided in respect of a war against an external enemy would cause people openly to talk about treason and collusion with the invader. The people of South Africa have been equally betrayed by a leadership that has not made HIV/Aids a national emergency and the absolute priority that it is. We, the top leadership of South Africa, have not done so.

HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment and poverty are killing our people and tearing our nation asunder. They should be dealt with as national crises, which receive the fullest attention in the engagement of government and an overwhelming allocation of public spending. Some of my colleagues may regard my making such statements as inappropriate on such an occasion, but I know that this is a paradigm shift that this Parliament needs to bring about. Whether we talk about women, transportation or banking, we need to do so within the context of addressing these three national emergencies.

Women are suffering more than anyone else in our society because of unemployment, poverty and crime. Women are targets of crime to a much greater extent than their male counterparts. They fall prey to crimes perpetrated against them such as rape, family abuse and different forms of discrimination at the workplace and in their communities. Women face the full brunt of the ever-rising unemployment and ensuing poverty. They are the first to be retrenched and they are more often unemployed than their male counterparts, in spite of often being more reliable than men.

In my long-standing experience in government, especially when I was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu government, I noticed time and again that one could rely on female public servants more than male public servants to get the work done. It is obvious to me that because the survival of the species depends on women’s reliability in attending to the needs of the newborn and raising it to adulthood and independence, God has made them more giving, more reliable and more enduring. Yet they are still less employed than their male counterparts, which shows the bias in our society that still runs deep.

If on this occasion we are genuine in our desire to celebrate the women of South Africa beyond just lip service, this Parliament must resolve to bring about far-reaching changes to the policies and leadership with which HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment and poverty until now has been handled. It is essential that we as a legislature begin to provide leadership to address the weaknesses and public policy failings of the executive by fighting this war, by rising to these challenges and by pulling together in the trenches, shoulder to shoulder. We shall not only overcome, we will succeed in forging a new nation, reborn and free from the legacy of the past and at ease with itself.

In a very special and unique way this Parliament is the fulcrum, indeed the people’s cabinet if you will, of our nation. In view of the gravity of the emergency of HIV/Aids, particularly in the lives of women and children, I suggest that we convene at least one day a month for a dedicated session to deliberate upon the progress that the executive and we as parliamentarians are making in our nation and community in the fight against HIV/Aids. We would then report back to the nation. Is this not the very essence of parliamentary democracy? I believe such a lead from the people’s Parliament could play a decisive if not determining role in winning the people’s war. Now is the time for action and not words. And I know it can be done.

As I mentioned at this podium before, I was lucky to attend the SA Christian Leadership Council in Pretoria in July last year, where the first lady of Uganda addressed us. She said that in Uganda they have reduced the incidence of HIV/Aids from 30% to 5%, which she said even then was still too high. She quoted a speech made by her husband in Italy in which he discussed HIV/Aids, where his Excellency Yoweri Museveni said that if we rely only on a piece of rubber to stand between us and our salvation, then we are already doomed. And I am not saying that we should not actually publicise condoms, but I don’t think that we should think that once we have mentioned condoms we have completed our job. Action speaks louder than words. We can speak until we are blue in our faces, but I mean if Uganda can do it, we can do it too. Let us make a start today. I thank you, colleagues. [Applause.]

Ms N M MDAKA: Madam Speaker, Deputy Speaker and hon members, I greet you all in this House. This debate is aptly named, because it calls for celebration whilst also acknowledging that we are still moving towards total freedom. Women have indeed much reason to celebrate a decade of democracy. This decade has seen the establishment of specific measures to improve the lives of women, especially in terms of legal protection. Women can celebrate the advances made in the past 10 years.

First among these pro-women laws is surely the Constitution with its wide array of enshrined rights guaranteeing women equality and dignity. On this foundation a legal framework has been built to protect women from abuse and domestic violence. The legal framework provides for maternal health care and access to equal employment opportunities.

There is, in fact, a long list of laws and legal provisions that aim to protect and promote the rights and aspirations of women. Perhaps then we should say that South African women have attained legal freedom, but not necessarily practical freedom. In this regard, I do not believe that we can separate the challenges facing women from the challenges facing the nation as a whole.

It is, however, a sad fact that for nearly every major challenge facing the country, women bear a significant amount of the suffering. The vast majority of the jobless are women. Similarly, poverty in rural and urban areas is the domain of many women. When it comes to crime, tens of thousands of women are raped, murdered, assaulted and abused every single year.

As far as equity in the workplace is concerned, women continue to lag behind in managerial appointments. Only 24% of all managerial positions in the Public Service are filled by women, despite the fact that the Minister for the Public Service and Administration is a woman.

When it comes to HIV and Aids, statistics show that nearly 60% of those infected are women. Therefore it is clear that women should be in the vanguard of addressing all the major challenges facing this country. The challenges facing women are no longer just legislative, but administrative too. The laws are there and it is now time to ensure that they are being implemented. Surely this Parliament has a duty to do this, to help the women of South Africa to make the leap from legal freedom to practical freedom?

Allow me to give an example of the economic potential of women in terms of unemployment and poverty being such pressing challenges. Recently, Business Day ran a very short article about a Mrs Rose Opperman, whom they described as a granny. She is from Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal and she specialises in homemade confectionery. Your first reaction might be that she, like many enterprising women in the country, is making some additional money through her skills in the kitchen. Many people would automatically expect it to be a part-time small business that supplements her household budget.

However, Business Day reports that she employs 129 women and that every month they produce 800kg of Turkish delight, two tons of fudge and seven tons of nougat. All of it is handmade. The only other detail in the article is that Mrs Opperman started just four years ago and is now planning to export her products. The article does not say - and neither do I know - whether this woman and her staff have received any training. I do not know whether she had assistance with developing a business plan. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Mrs R A NDZANGA: Chairperson, hon Ministers, Deputy Speaker and colleagues, women in our country have a proud tradition of voicing their anger in the form of protest against unjust and discriminatory laws. Given the South African history of severe political oppression, it is not surprising that the main purpose of women’s associations was to mobilise women to become active in issues affecting women in general.

Njengomama, ndiya kuba andiwenzi umsebenzi wam ukuba andithethi ngooma abafana noMama uViola Hashe, owayengunobhala we-Government Workers’ Union ngamaxesha oo-1960; uMama uMabel Balfour owayengumququzeleli wombutho i- Food and Canning eTransvala kwangelo xesha; uMama uShanti Naidoo nentombazana ekwakusithiwa nguNondwe Mankahlana ndiza kuphinda ndibuyela kubo. (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[As a mother, I would be failing if I did not talk of women like Ms Viola Hashe, who was the secretary of the Government Worker’s Union in the 1960s; Ms Mabel Balfour, who was the organiser of the Transvaal branch of the Food and Canning Association during those times; Ms Shanti Naidoo, and also the girl called Nondwe Mankahlana. I will come back to them.]

As August is the month of women, I would be failing here if I did not mention the evil of forced removals during the apartheid regime. I was a victim of forced removals.

Ngexesha lokufuduswa ngetshova kwabantu abona bantu beva ubuhlungu kakhulu ngabantu abangoomama. Babethathwa baphoswe ngaphezulu kwizigadla zikarhulumente wocalucalulo. [During the forced removals, women suffered the most. They would be forcibly loaded into the apartheid government trucks.]

Fa re bua ka go fudusiwa ka dikgoka, Bakwena ba Mogopa, ke sekao sa batho ba bangwe ba ba ntshitsweng kwa dikgoka kwa lefatsheng la bona. Ba na le diheketara tse 8000 tsa lefatshe. Lefatshe la bona, la ne la tsewa mme la fiwa maburu a le mabedi gore a fudise dikgomo tsa bona ntswa batho ba fetotswe bao ba tlhokang magae.

Batho ba tsewa ba latlhelwa kgakala gaufi le molelwane wa Botswana kwa lefelong le le bidiwang Pagsdraai. Fa o re o a lelebela, mmu wa kwa teng ke motlhaba o o fisang moo o ka fisang le matlho. Puso ya tlhaolele e ne e batla gore re tshele jalo re le batho ba bantsho.

Ba ne ba na le metsi a a phepa. Ba ne ba lema. Ba na le masimo. Ba kotula mabele, dinawa, le mmopo mo lefatsheng la bona. Fela gore maburu a fitlhe, a ne a fepa dikgomo mme a se na nako le batho.

Botlhoko jwa go fudusiwa ka dikgoka ka nako ya tlhaolele, ga bo felele foo. Fa re fitlha mo bathong ba bagolo, ga ba nne nako e telele. Ba a lwala. Ba bangwe ga ba nne, ba a feta ka ntlha ya dipelo tsa bona tse di botlhoko ba gopotse magae a bona.(Translation of Tswana paragraphs follows.)

[When we talk about forced removals, we can give an example by referring to the tribe called Bokwena ba Mogopa, a tribe that was forcefully removed from their land, where they owned 8 000 hectares of land. Their land was taken and given to the two whites who drove their cattle, and people were left homeless.

People were taken and thrown far towards the Botswana border at a place called Pagsdraai. When looking at the soil of that place, it is sandy and hot to the extent of burning ones eyes.

They used to have fresh water and engaged in farming, owning ploughed fields, harvesting crops, beans, and mealies from their land. Immediately after the arrival of the whites it was cattle only that were fed, and people were left stranded.

The pain of being removed forcefully from the land during the apartheid era was still far from an end. When we look at the senior citizens, we see that they do not live for a long time, and some of them passed away due to the pain caused when longing for their land.]

During the forced removals, communities did not only have their homes destroyed. They also had their cattle, sheep and chickens taken from them because they had to leave them behind, and there are some people who until now still do not have them.

Fa go tla dikiletso kgotsa bannings ka bo1990, ditlhopho tsa 1994 di ne tsa tlisa tshepo mo bathong. Batho ba nna le tshepo ya gore mafatshe a bona a tla boa. Ke nnete, bao ba neng ba nna le tshepo ba ne ba bona mafatshe a bona. Fela go ne go ntse go na le bao ba senang tshepo.

Ba ba neng ba lebile ba re ‘lekgoa o tla le dira eng’ e bile ba re ‘lekgoa le legolo’. Fela gompieno, ke bona ba ba tabogileng fa morago ga batho ba ba setseng ba ntse mo magaeng ba batla go ba senyetsa. Seo ba tshwanetseng go se itse ke gore fa ANC e tsenya batho mo mafatsheng, ga e ba beye fela, e ba baya ba na le tsela ya go itshedisa. Fa ba lema ba tla lema gore ba tle ba bone botshelo jwa bona jwa kgale.

Go tloga ka 1948 go fitlha go 1960 ke nako e re neng re kopanya bomme. Re agile makgotla a rona ka fa tlase ga South African Federation of Women. Ga fitlha ditlhopho ka 1948 tseo di neng tsa re tlisetsa mathata a le mantsi jaaka molao wa influx control.

Molao o wa influx control o ne o re fa o le motho wa kwa KwaZulu-Natal ga o a tshwanela go ya kwa Gauteng. Fa o le motho wa kwa Transkei ga o a tshwanela go ya kwa Gauteng. Fela bomme ba ne ba lwantsha molao o. Ke koo ke kopaneng le bomme ba tshwana le Mary Moodley, Rose Slagter, boWynberg le boMolly Anderson.

Ke rile ke tla boela mo go Nondwe le Shanti. Shanti le Nondwe ke basetsana ba e leng gore ka nako e re neng re tshwerwe ka yona, re tswaletse, ba ne ba laelwa go nna dipaki tsa puso ya tlhaolele. Kgetse ya rona e ne e bidiwa, State versus 21.

Ka nako eo, go ne go twe re batla go menola puso ka dikgoka, ke sa itseng gore ke dikgoka tse re di tsayang kae. Fela bomme ba babedi ba, ba sa ntse ba le bannye, ba gana go ema le go supa batho bagaabo. Ba araba ka gore…(Translation of Tswana paragraphs follows.)

[Around 1990 was the time when bannings were put in place, but the 1994 elections gave hope to the people. They believed that their land was to be given back. It is true that those who believed managed to see their land given back, but still there were those who never believed.

There were those who just watched, saying, “What can you do to a white man?”, and further saying that the white man is the master. But today the same people chase around those who are at home trying to destroy their belongings. What they must know is the fact that the ANC allocates land, and does not just give land; it gives both land and a way of making a source of income. When they are farmers they are given that opportunity to farm to enable them to live the same life as they used to live.

The years 1948-1960 were the ones in which we as the women united. We built our committee under the South African Federation of Women. The 1948 election started many problems, problems such as the Influx Control Act.

This Influx Control Act stipulates that if you are from Kwazulu-Natal you are not allowed to be in Gauteng; if you are from Transkei you are not allowed in Gauteng. But women fought against that Act. That was where I met women such as Mary Moodley, Rose Slagter Wynberg, Molly Anderson and others.

I said I would come back to Nodwe and Shanti. These are girls who were ordered by the apartheid government to be state witnesses at a time when we were in custody; that case was named State versus 21.

At the time it was said that we intended overthrowing the government forcefully. I did not know what force they were referring to, but these two ladies, who were still very young at that time, refused to stand and point at us. They answered by saying …]

… we are not prepared to give evidence against our people.

Ba ne ba latlhelwa mo kgolegelong dikgwedi tse tharo. Ba ne ba bodiwa gore a ba sa ntse ba ikemiseditse go sa bue, mme ba re ga ba ikemisetsa go bua, mme ba ba latlhela gape dikgwedi tse dingwe tse tharo.

Pele ke nna fa fatshe, go na le mme o ne a bidiwa mme Mvhemvhe. Ga ke mo lebale. Mme Mvhemvhe o ne a pateletswa ke mapodisi a lekala le le kgethegileng kgotsa special branch gore a bue gore ngwana wa gagwe o kae. A gana go bua. Ba ne ba mmogisa mme a nna a gana go bua gore ngwana wa gagwe o kae. Ba feleletsa ba tsere rre Mvhemvhe go mo tswalela mme ba feleletsa ba sa itse gore rre Mvhemvhe o feletse kae. Ke ka nako eo dilo di neng di le thata, ka nako ya tlhaolele.

Fela gompieno, tshepo e ke neng ke bua ka yona ke re bomme ba ntse ba na le yona gore ba tla bona mafatshe a bona, ke nnete bomme ba bone mafatshe a bona. Ba boetse mo matlong a bona. Ba a lema. Ba a dira. Ba agile dikolo. Ba agile dikheretšhe.

Ke a le kopa Ditona, tsamayang le ye kwa Mogopa. Le ye go bona seo le thusitseng setšhaba ka sona, mme le bone gore batho ba kwa Mogopa ba simolotse ka tsela e e jang, le ka moo ba thusitsweng ka teng ke puso ya rona le puso ya ANC. Gompieno ba tswelela pele. Ke a leboga.

Ke leboga gape le Moporesidente wa rona mme Nqakula. O sa ntse e le mosetsana yo monnye fela ditiro tsa gagwe di bontsha bogolo. [Legofi.] Ke a leboga fa re bone mme a tshwana le mme Nqakula ka tsela e e jaana. E kete re ka nna le ditlogolwana tse dingwe, bomme Nqakulanyana ba bannye, ba ba ka tswanang le ene mo lefatsheleng le la rona la Afrika Borwa gore botshelo jwa rona bo tle go fetoge, bo ye pele, e bile re tswelele pele.

Tshepo e a thusa. Go botoka go nna o na le tshepo go na le go nna mo lefifing, ka gonne, fa o tshepile tshepo ya gago e tla go tswela molemo. Tshepo ya gago e tla go tswela mosola. Fela fa o lebeletse gore Mangope e ne e le ene morena a busa, e bile Mandela kgotsa Moporesidente Mbeki a ka se etse sepe, o latlhegile. O latlhegile.

Ga re bana ba rona ba latlhega. Bana ba rona a ba nne le tshepo. Ba a bona gompieno gore lekgotla la rona le dira ka tsela efe. Re a dira bomme. Kgwedi eno ya Phatwe ga se e e simolotseng fela. [Nako e fedile.]

Ke a leboga modulasetilo. [Legofi.] Bagaetsho, a pula e ne! Pula! (Translation of Tswana paragraphs follows.)

[They were sentenced to three years imprisonment. They were asked again whether they still intended to remain silent; they confirmed this and they were sentenced to a further three years.

I would like to speak about a lady called Mrs Mvhembe before I go back to my seat; I cannot forget that woman. The police from the Special Branch forced her to give information about the whereabouts of her son. When she refused, they tortured her and when she did not tell, they ended up taking Mr Mvhembe and locking him in custody,, but ultimately they could not account for his whereabouts. It was during those days of apartheid when it was still tough.

But today I spoke about women who believed that they would get their land back, so that they could get back into their homes. They are farmers, they are from the working class, and they build schools and crèches.

I am making a request to the Minister that she should go to Mogopa to see how much help was given to the people and to see how the residents paved the way and the way in which our government helped - that is the ANC Government – so that today they prosper. I thank you.

I would like to thank our President, Mrs Nqakula. She is still a young girl but her work shows signs of maturity. [Applause.] I am so thankful to find a lady such as Mrs Nqakula in this manner. I wish we had other grandchildren like the young Nqakula - those who would be like her in our country, South Africa, so that our lives could be transformed, enabling us to look ahead and to have advancement in life.

It is better to be hopeful than to be in the dark, because if you believe in a thing the result will be positive. But if you can forget and place Mangope as a ruler who knew how to govern, and misguide yourself by saying that Mandela or President Mbeki would not perform, know that you are lost. You are lost.

Our children are lost. They don’t believe. They could see the manner in which our committee is committed. We women we are committed. This month, July, is not a month that just started. [Time expired.]

Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.] People, let peace be with you! Thank you!]

Mr L W GREYLING: Chairperson, you may well ask why a man is delivering this speech today. Here are a few reasons: Our party leader, Patricia de Lille, is busy taking Parliament to the people and is currently delivering another speech on the role of women in conflict resolution. The other reason is that the ID strives to be different and we like to bring another perspective to these parliamentary debates.

However, the most important reason is that we believe that it should not only be women who should celebrate this month, but men as well. Men should take this time to reflect on the enormous role that women played in delivering our democracy, and continue to play in deepening it. I am delivering this speech today as a man because I believe that the gender divide in this country, and for that matter the world, needs to be bridged urgently.

All too often issues that affect women are marginalised by being confined to the women’s sector. Many men do not believe that these issues concern them. Issues around the abuse of women and sexual violence will only be eradicated when men change their indifferent attitudes. Men need to understand that women and children are to be protected and loved, and never to be abused.

Every year we quote the alarming statistics surrounding rape and abuse as if this is magically going to change the situation. It is an unfortunate reality that the Government cannot legislate individual attitudes. Change can only be achieved through both men and women openly and honestly communicating their feelings about their attitudes and actions that perpetuate this situation. The ID intends providing such forums so that we can truly bridge this gender divide.

Attitudes are formed by the society in which we live. Our society is currently formed around the primary interests of men. The working day is not structured around working mothers with children. Women are often trapped by financial and socially endorsed dependence on men. Women can only be truly equal if they are economically equal.

Women also bear the brunt of the HIV/Aids pandemic in South Africa, with more women than men being infected. It is not enough for us as parliamentarians to light candles and wear ribbons. We have to take practical steps to eradicate this scourge. One such practical step is the femidom. On a recent visit to a rural hospital in the Eastern Cape, I was informed that the doctors there could not keep up with the demand for femidoms. The Department of Health cites cost implications for not being able to distribute enough of these female contraceptives, but the life of a woman is more important than cost implications.

The women of South Africa have, however, come a long way over the past 10 years. We have a Bill of Rights, a Constitution and many laws that protect the rights of women. Our democracy has also seen over a quarter of a million South Africans voting for the only woman leader of a nationally- based political party in Africa. The ID intends to take forward the mandate given to us by these voters to bridge the gender divide.

So many South African women have excelled over the past 10 years in their positions in leadership. These women are role models, not only for South Africans but also for other African women. We need to ensure that the gains that have been made for women in South Africa are spread throughout the continent. Women of South Africa, I salute you. [Applause.]

Ms C B JOHNSON: Thank you, Chairperson. I do not know how this is going to work in future, but I might be approaching the microphone from this side for the last time. [Applause.]

In the month of August we honour the women of South Africa, and we pay tribute to those women who continue to face adversity tirelessly and courageously. We also acknowledge these women and their contributions to the successes of our country. However, after 10 years of democracy, one of our greatest challenges is still the burden that many South African women continue to bear.

The preamble of the Women’s Charter, which was adopted in 1954, is still as relevant in 2004 as it was some 50 years ago. That preamble reads:

We, the women of South Africa, declare our aim to strive for the removal of all laws, regulations, conventions and customs that discriminate against us as women and that deprive us in any way of our inherent right to the advantages, responsibilities and opportunities that society offers to any one section of the population.

The irony is that 50 years later, we, as Parliament, have rewritten the laws. We have redrafted the regulations, cleaned up the Statute Book and ruled out gender discrimination forever. But in civil society, outside the walls of the parliamentary precinct, some of the very same challenges and obstacles, namely those of convention, custom and circumstance, continue to confront the women of South Africa in almost every community and on a daily basis.

Women make up 52% of the South African population. Twenty-one percent of adult South African women are unable to read or write. Nearly half of them live in rural areas where unemployment is rife and job opportunities are scarce. Women account for 56% of all unemployed people. Thirty-one percent of male-headed households live in poverty, while nearly double that percentage, households headed by women, live below the poverty line. Women also still earn less than men for doing the same job.

A recent report shows that the individual gross income for a woman is, on average, 51% less than that for a man. In order to address poverty, South African women need secure access to our labour markets and to lasting economic empowerment.

Violence against women and children remains one of our most serious challenges that we must face. Research by Amnesty International has found that, in South Africa, an average of 147 women are raped daily. It is estimated that every six days a South African woman is killed by a husband or life partner.

Although crime affects all South Africans, it affects women most severely. Until the day that all women are safe in their homes, in their places of work and society at large, South Africa will, to a large extent remain an unequal society. But the major achievements in advancing women’s rights far outweigh and outnumber the challenges. It is these achievements that we need to celebrate as we celebrate our 10 years of democracy.

Change has brought about both advantages and opportunities, not only guaranteed by our Constitution, and not only guaranteeing equality, but also committing each and every one of us to continuously strive for a truly nonracial and nonsexist society.

There have been many lasting achievements. On the issue of gender representation, statistics show how far we have come towards achieving a more balanced society. In 2003 women constituted 24% of senior management in the Public Service; 21% of our ambassadors and high commissioners were female; and 20% of our judges and 26% of our magistrates were women.

We are bringing up our daughters and we are establishing in the minds of the girl-child the idea and belief that they can grow up to be whatever they dream to be. If I had entered politics before 1994, I would have struggled to find a role model because they were few and far between. Today, when I look up I see role models in all parties all around me. That has contributed to shaping the women who have gone before me. [Applause.]

Democracy has directly impacted on the lives of South African women. It has led to better access to water, electricity, housing and basic services; improved basic conditions of employment; and better access to justice through specialised courts, family courts, maintenance courts, and very focused domestic violence legislation.

The women of South Africa have shown that today, as in the past - when they marched to the Union Buildings – they remain committed to the promise of a better tomorrow for all. This is a commitment that all of us in this House share and strongly endorse. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Nmz D C MABENA: Igama lamakhosikazi!

AMALUNGU AHLONIPHEKILEKO: Malibongwe!

Nmz D C MABENA: Sihlalo, bongqongqotjhe abahloniphekileko, malungu wePalamende ahloniphekileko nabo boke abantu abahle abasivakatjheleko, angithome ngokuthokozisa umma uMaria Solomons weSolomons Haven ngonongorwana anikelwe yena i-Woman of Worth Award. Ngethando likamma ukwazile ukubuthelela abentwana abalahliweko kunye nabahlukunyeziweko,nomma uSara Mahlangu we-Middelburg Emhluzi Township eMpumalanga owathola unongorwana we The Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Yena ukwazile ukwakha amathuba womsebenzi ama-82.

NjengamaSewula Afrika singakhohlwa lapho sivela khona. Ababegade basicindezele nabo babecindezelwe mangisi. Ngalenyanga yabomma siyabakhumbula abomma bamabhunu abazi 26 370 kunye nabentwana babo ebafela eenkambheni zamangisi ngesikhathi sepi yamabhunu – Boer War. Singalibali abokhokho abakhothamako abafaka isandla emzabalazweni nekukhuthazeni abomkhulu ukobana balwe nombuso webandlululo. Siyathokoza kubogogo abasesenathi la eSewula Afrika, abanye baphakathi kwethu. Nizinkakaramba zomzabalazo befuthi niziinkutana zekululeko. [Ihlombe.] Wathinta abafazi!

AMALUNGU AHLONIPHEKILEKO: Wathinta imbhokodo!

Nmz D C MABENA: Begodu uzakufa. Ikosi uBadumeleki wathunyelwa nguZimu ngomfazi ngombhana wayedelela uZimu. Umfazi wambetha ngemboko walayela umratha kungakafiki isikhathi. [Ihleko.] (Translation of Ndebele paragraphs follows.)

[Mr D C MABENA: The name of women!

HON MEMBERS: Let it be praised!

Mr D C MABENA: Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon members of Parliament and distinguished guests, let me start by congratulating Mrs Maria Solomons of Solomon’s Haven on the award she is receiving, namely the Woman of Worth Award. With her motherly love she was able to bring together all abandoned and abused children. I also want to congratulate Mrs Sara Mahlangu of Middelburg, Mhluzi Township in Mpumalanga, who was awarded The Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She was able to create 82 job opportunities.

As South Africans let us not forget where we are coming from. Our oppressors were in turn also oppressed by the English. It is during this Women’s Month that we also remember 26 370 Afrikaans women and children who died in the English camps during the Boer War. Let us not forget our ancestors who participated in the struggle by encouraging our forebears to fight against the apartheid regime. We are thankful to our grandmothers, some of whom are still with us in South Africa, others are among us. You are the pioneers of the struggle and the heroines of democracy. [Applause.] If you touch the women!

HON MEMBERS: You will be in trouble!

Mr D C MABENA: And you will die. God sent a woman to King Badumeleki because he (the King) was disobeying God’s commands. He was beaten by the woman and died before his actual time of death. [Laughter.]]

The social dislocation resulting from colonialism and the migrant labour system helped to disrupt family life and undermine women’s rights. I salute those brave women who protested against passes in passive resistance campaigns in Bloemfontein, Winburg and Jagersfontein in 1913, and the approximately 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 for the same cause. They took this bold step to liberate all of us.

With regard to marital instability, a growing number of female breadwinners, an increase in spinsterdom and domestic conflicts, engendered by the humiliation and subservience of most men’s work experience, influenced women to be more socially assertive.

During the 10 years of democracy the OSW and the gender focal points have made numerous inroads with regard to dealing with gender imbalances and they have to be commended for that. Because of the power dynamics between men and women, it is important that women assume leadership in the struggle to transform unequal gender power relations. Therefore the challenge facing us liberated males is to support the women’s struggle by organising ourselves at churches, stokvels, soccer matches, etc, and to join hands with organisations such as the National Network on Violence Against Women.

We should develop mechanisms that will encourage a child-support defaulter to pay and adhere to his child maintenance order. We should develop a focused process of engaging men in gender transformation and in strengthening family life processes for the next 10 years. We must develop mechanisms that engage men in the evolution of a process that will ensure a break with the past in terms of the negative aspects of patriarchy. Rapists, sexists and chauvinists must not be given room to breathe.

During the month of August we must participate in women’s projects on a voluntary basis, build a house for a vulnerable woman or plough her agricultural fields, or report customary systems that will not allocate residential sites to women. Divorced women with children should not be forced to leave their homes. We must develop mechanisms that will discourage male relatives from evicting widows from their homes and fields after their husbands’ deaths.

Abobaba abalahlwa bomma kufanele balise ukuthanda ukudumuza. [Men deserted by their women must stop resorting to shooting.]

They must stop being trigger-happy.

Nabafuna ukuzibulala bazibulale babodwa. Bangabulali umma nabentwana. Namkha nakuziintjhimani bakhambe bayozilahlela emanzini. [Ihlombe.] Ekuvaleni ikulumo yami, ngithi uZimu ulithando. Usithandile wasipha abomma abahle, abaqiniselako, abaletha ukufuthumela ngekhaya. Asibahloniphe ukwakha i-Afrika neSewula Afrika enqono. Wathinta abomma, wathinta imbhokodo! Malibongwe!

AMALUNGU AHLONIPHEKILEKO: Igama lamakhosikazi!

Nmz D C MABENA: Ngiyehla. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of Ndebele paragraphs follows.)

[If they want to commit suicide, they must die alone. They must not kill the mother and the children. If they are unsuccessful in their propositions, they must go and throw themselves into the river. [Applause.] In conclusion, I must say that God is love. He loved us so much that He gave us these beautiful women, who persevere and bring warmth in the family. Let us respect them to build Africa and a better South Africa. If you touch the women, you will be in trouble! Let it be praised!

Hon MEMBERS: The name of the women!

Mr D C M MABENA: I thank you. [Applause.]]

Ms C DUDLEY: Chairman, as a woman born and raised in Africa I stand on behalf of the ACDP in recognition of the many changes in South Africa that have given women cause to celebrate.

The ACDP supports and applauds the conscious effort being made in all spheres of government and society to recognise the valuable role of women, past, present and future. The allocation of time today is testimony to this and we in the ACDP salute you, Madam Speaker, Madam Deputy Speaker and, of course, the Chief Whip.

Much has been said today concerning the empowerment of many women and much has been said about the continued bondage and difficulties of many others. While we choose to celebrate – it is good for us to celebrate – it is obvious to all that the struggle for true freedom is not yet over. Many battles are still raging, and courageous South African women are as critical today as they have been in the past.

I was amused recently as I listened to some “emancipated women” earnestly discussing freedom. They finally agreed that if one factor had to take the credit for the emancipation of women, it would be the washing machine – an interesting conclusion bringing light relief from the usual concept of men being the enemy and women having to prove themselves as somehow superior.

This makes me think of a story a colleague told me that I quite enjoyed. It was about Fred Astaire, a famous male dancer, and his female partner Ginger Rogers. A fan was exclaiming about the talents of Fred Astaire when his colleague – and I presume it was a female – pointed out that while Fred was talented, Ginger not only did everything he did but had to do it backwards and in high heels. That’s something to think about.

The women of South Africa are courageous. They have faced and still face daunting challenges. It is not selfish ambition or power that inspires them, however, but concern, not only for themselves and their daughters, but for the welfare of their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers. With unemployment, hunger and poverty a harsh reality for vast numbers of South Africans, it is not easy for women to celebrate.

Violent crime still plagues us as a nation, with no fewer than 250 000 people having been murdered and over 500 000 women and children having been raped during this decade. Official figures estimate that 5,3 million people in South Africa were HIV-positive at the end of 2002, and that approximately 2 million children under 18 had been orphaned by 2003. If this is the cost of freedom we are in big trouble.

Dr Buthelezi, our hearts go out to you in your loss, and we in the ACDP thank you for your courage in sharing your experience with us.

While many of our challenges are external, much of the struggle for women and men is internal. I think, for example, of my own struggle from frightened child through complex teenager and defensive young woman to being who I am today and will be tomorrow. I’ve learnt many things but none more important than the discovery that my need for love, worth, security and purpose cannot be filled by any human person or physical thing.

Once I acknowledged God as my source and looked to Jesus to fill my needs I quit placing unrealistic expectations on myself and others, and I was free from the power I had given circumstances and people, including men, to dictate my emotions, my self-worth, my destiny. Free from hostility from past hurts I was better able to relate to people on the basis of their needs rather than my own. Looking for satisfaction in the wrong source is always temporary, doomed to failure and disappointment. We become slaves to what we think will fill the emptiness in us that is designed to be filled by God. For some, it is men, for others women, career, money, food, drink, drugs, etc. Even the mighty ANC, or the ACDP for that matter, is doomed to fail you and bring bondage if it is the centre of your existence, your source.

I spent over half of this decade of freedom here at Parliament, engaging with issues which impact on the lives of women and their children. In the face of such awesome responsibility I could not help but be conscious of my limitations as a mere human being, but I have never doubted my relevance as a woman.

What I hadn’t bargained on, though, was the overwhelming rejection I face daily as a confessing Christian with a biblical worldview. Of course, my white face did not make things much easier. On many occasions I would have gladly traded this white face, but I know from my own past behaviour – broken behaviour – that rejection of others stems from our own pain. I can only imagine the hurts that many still carry.

Perhaps the saddest thing I have witnessed during my time at Parliament, precisely because it attacks everything good and incredible about women and destroys the most vulnerable in society, is the deception many women have bought into concerning abortion. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Dr C P MULDER: Thank you, Chairperson. Today we are discussing a very serious and very important subject, namely Women Celebrating the Decade of Freedom on the Path to Total Emancipation. However, over the past weekend, as well as yesterday, there were persistent rumours that the ANC unilaterally wanted to change the subject for today’s debate without consultation. Yes, it was said that they wanted to change the subject from Women Celebrating the Decade of Freedom on the Path to Total Emancipation to a different topic, namely, Women and Everyone Else Celebrating the Decade of Freedom on the Path to Total National Party Destruction. [Interjections.] I am very sorry that the NNP members are not here at the moment. I have also heard that this latter topic will not be discussed in the House at any stage, but definitely only in private.

The fact of the matter is that I have looked at some of those NNP members and I am not sure that they will be able to do what is expected of them. They will have to speak to hon Annelizé van Wyk, Manie Schoeman and others to see if they will be able to do the necessary toyi-toying and the necessary singing, but they will get some lessons, I understand, from the ANC. [Interjections.]

Chairperson, in a statement in 1990 the ANC committed itself to the principle of women’s emancipation and the formation of a 30% quota for women in all constitutional structures of the ANC.

Die feit van die saak is die enigste iets wat in die staatkunde vasstaan, is verandering, ook wat die posisie van die vrou betref. Hetsy in die staatkunde of in die totale samelewing, moet ons erken dat daar groot verandering plaasgevind het. Dit was natuurlik nie net in Suid-Afrika die geval nie, maar wel oral oor die hele wêreld wat daar geweldige veranderinge plaasgevind het. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[The fact of the matter is that the only thing that remains constant in politics is change, and this also pertains to the status of women. Whether in politics or in society as a whole, we must acknowledge that immense changes have occurred. This, of course, is not only the case in South Africa but in fact everywhere throughout the world where enormous changes have taken place.]

Luckily we have come a long way from the kind of views expressed by some in this regard. Honoré de Balzac once said, and I quote: “In 20 centuries, scarcely 20 great women are to be counted.”

He must have been a very cynical person with no vision at all. Today, we all know that there are millions and millions of great women on this planet.

Today the hon Deputy Speaker made the following point: The complete ethos of politics and democracy have been structured …

If I understand her correctly -

… around values that are men-driven, such as winners and losers, confrontation, etc.

She then argued that women-driven values such as mutual respect, consensus and collaboration should rather be the norm. I couldn’t agree more. If that is the case, then I would say that we also definitely need many, many more women in Parliament, also within the ANC, because if we are driven by mutual respect, consensus and collaboration then I think we would all get much further with what we are trying to achieve in Parliament.

Wat hierdie onderwerp betref, mnr die Voorsitter, sê die VF PLus baie duidelik: Vroue en mans is gelyk, afgehandel, klaar en dit moet so hanteer word. Tweedens, geen geweld teenoor vroue of kinders van enige aard kan ooit aanvaar of gekondoneer word nie. Dit is verkeerd, afgehandel en klaar! Die agb Minister van Binnelandse Sake het gesê dat vroue nie weet wat hulle regte is nie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)

[Regarding this subject, Mr Chairperson, the FF Plus states clearly: Men and women are equal, and that settles it, and it should be managed in this way. Secondly, any kind of violence against women and children can never be accepted or condoned. It is wrong, and that is that! The hon Minister of Home Affairs said that women do not know what their rights are.]

He said that they should go to the maintenance courts and get their maintenance, etc.

Dit is waar, en ek stem 100% daarmee saam. Daar is geen rede hoekom ’n kind moet swaarkry omdat ’n pa nie onderhoud betaal nie, maar dit is ook miskien waar, en die vraag ontstaan: Is dit nie so dat ons strafregstelsel en ons totale juridiese stelsel in terme van onderhoudshowe ons vroue in die steek laat nie? Ek het al gekyk hoeveel probleme daar vir ’n vrou is wanneer sy na die onderhoudshowe gaan om daar te kry dit waarop sy geregtig is en dat die kind kan kry wat hy ook basies nodig het.

As ons na hierdie onderwerp kyk, sê ek van die VF Plus se kant af, daar is verskillende groepe in dié land met verskillende kulture en verskillende gebruike in Suid-Afrika. Dit wat as vroulike status of as vroulikheid in die een gemeenskap beskou word, of die kwaliteit van lewe wat ’n vrou geniet, is nie noodwendig dieselfde as hoe dit in ’n ander gemeenskap in Suid-Afrika beskou word nie. Trouens, as ons begin praat van die kwaliteit van lewe van ’n vrou, is dit ook direk gekoppel aan haar spesifieke gemeenskap, met ander woorde haar kultuur, haar godsdiens en haar taalgemeenskap. Wat deur die een gemeenskap as status of kwaliteit gesien word, word nie noodwendig deur ’n ander gemeenskap só ervaar nie.

Daarom maak die Grondwet spesifiek daarvoor voorsiening, in artikel 31 waar erkenning gegee word ten opsigte van die verskillende kultuur-, godsdiens- en taalgemeenskappe, en waar dit duidelik gestel word dat persone wat aan daardie gemeenskappe behoort, nie die reg ontsê mag word om met ander lede van daardie gemeenskap hul taal, kultuur en godsdiens te gebruik en te beoefen nie, want hierdie dinge is ook baie nou verwant aan gemeenskappe, wat mense se ervaring is en hoe hulle basies leef.

Die VF Plus is dankbaar dat ons hierdie dag kan herdenk, dat ons hierdie maand kan herdenk. Ons sê weer eens: Mans en vroue is gelyk en dit moet so hanteer word. Ons hoef dit nie verder te debatteer nie. Baie dankie. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)

[This is true, and I agree 100% with that. There is no reason why a child should suffer because a father does not pay maintenance, but it might also be true, and the question arises: Is it not so that our criminal procedure system and our whole judicial system leave our women in the lurch as far as our maintenance courts are concerned? I have already looked at the number of problems facing a woman when she goes to the maintenance courts to get there that which she is entitled to, and so that the child can get what he basically needs.

When we consider this subject, then I have to say on behalf of the FF Plus that there are various groups in this country with diverse cultures and diverse customs in South Africa. That which is viewed as feminine status or femininity in one community, or the quality of life that a woman enjoys, is not necessarily viewed in the same manner in different community in South Africa. Indeed, if we begin to speak about a woman’s quality of life, it is also directly linked to her specific community, in other words her culture, her religion and her language community. What is considered to be status or quality in the one community is not necessarily experienced as such in another community.

That is why the Constitution makes specific provision for this in section 31, where recognition is given in respect of the different cultural, religious and linguistic communities, and where it is clearly stated that persons belonging to those communities not be denied the right to use and exercise their language, culture and religion with other members of that community because these things are also very closely related to communities, what people experience and how they basically live.

The FF Plus is grateful that we are able to commemorate this day, that we can commemorate this month. We reiterate this: Men and women are equal and must be treated in this manner. We do not have to debate it any further. Thank you very much. [Applause.]]

The MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Chairperson, hon members, our guests …

Ke batla go simolola ka go dumalana le Mme Ndzanga gore tlhogo ya rona ya mokgatlho wa basadi wa ANC ke senatla. Mme Nqakula o lekanwe ke tiro ya gagwe. Ke batla gore ke lebisa kwa go ene, ke re, mafoko a gago a a gomotsa. Nna ke tlile go simolola fa o tlogetseng teng. (Translation of Tswana paragraph follows.)

[I would first like to agree with Ms Ndzanga that our head of the ANC Women’s League is brave. Ms Nqakula is equal to the task. I would like to direct this to her and say, your words comfort. I will start where you left off.]

Ndiza kuqala ngokubonisa oko uMam’uNdzanga ebezama ukukubonisa apha, ukuba esikuvunayo ngoku sakulwela kwakudala. Ndiza kuyilanda ke mna. Ndiza kuyilanda ngokuthi ndikhethe omnye nje owayeyinkokeli yamakhosikazi ukusukela ngo-1896. Lo muntu ndithetha ngaye nguCharlotte Maxeke. (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[I will start by explaining what Mrs Ndzanga was trying to say here, that what we are enjoying now is what we fought for a long time ago. I will trace it back. I will trace it by mentioning one person who was the leader of women from 1896. That person is Charlotte Maxeke.]

I identify Charlotte Maxeke as a patron of justice for women. But let me begin by paying tribute to all those great women who fought for justice and liberation, and helped to bring us where we are.

Charlotte Makgomo Manye was born at Ramokgopa in Pietersburg in 1878. Around 1896 she met her husband, Marshall Maxeke, while on a singing tour to the United States. She was offered a scholarship to study in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Wilberforce University.

On her return in 1905, she got involved in the struggle for justice. She was articulate and talked about all the injustices that our people were suffering. She was also involved in mass demonstrations against the extension of passes to women, the most famous of these, of course, well known to ANC women, was the march of 1913 in the Free State. In 1919 she was one of the founders of the African Women’s League, a branch of the ANC. She was also appointed president of the African Women’s League.

As a journalist, Charlotte Maxeke wrote extensively about the social conditions of African women in urban settings. In a seminal paper she presented in 1930 at Fort Hare University, she linked the dysfunctional family life of Africans in urban areas with the migratory labour system, in particular the restrictive regulations that limited the free movement of African people.

Many do not know that as early as then, she was critical of the judicial system. She was aware of the difficulties of women in accessing work opportunities in urban areas, and of the abuse and contempt they suffered at the hands of magistrates and judicial officers. She was also concerned about the plight of children and called for the establishment of juvenile courts to deal with cases of children in trouble with the law. Maxeke demanded that female magistrates be appointed for such courts. In her critique of the treatment of juveniles as adults, she said that sending them to jails and reformatories was utterly ruinous.

I want to pause. We must think of where we are today when we talk about transformation. The establishment of the Federation of South African Women in 1954 and the great march to the Union Buildings are also important milestones in the struggles of our women for justice.

The women in the ANC and the Mass Democratic Movement prior to 1994 were guided by the programme of action adopted at the Malibongwe Conference. The conference, held in Amsterdam in 1990, recognised that, and I quote:

… the emancipation of women can only be addressed as a total revolutionary transformation of the socioeconomic relations in South Africa. Our aim is to further chart the way for mobilisation towards unity in action against apartheid, and commit ourselves to the creation of a united, nonracial, democratic and nonsexist society.

Do you remember that phrase from when we were drafting the Constitution? [Interjections.] Comrades, colleagues and friends, you will remember that at the time extensive suggestions were made for the protection of women against violence, for the promotion of equality, for the promotion of women’s rights. Similarly, extensive proposals were made for the welfare of the children.

The women were at the centre of articulating policy for women’s rights. Madam Johnson is correct, and indeed Mr Mulder, and to a degree Madam Dudley. We worked so hard that today the agenda for women’s emancipation and women’s advancement is not the preserve of the ANC. Today it is claimed by all and sundry. [Applause.]

From the activism and struggles of Charlotte Maxeke and the leadership of the time, to the mobilisation of women prior to 1994 and presentday efforts to address the question of justice for women, I can boldly state that victories scored to date are the result of consistency and the progressive policies of the ANC. After 1994 we sought to advance women’s rights as human rights, in other words, that women have the right to equality, the right to access to resources, access to positions of leadership in both the private and public sectors – and I must add the judiciary – freedom from want and poverty, the right to health, and the right to protection from violence and abuse.

Bekungolwethu lolu hlelo. Bekukhuluma amakhosikazi. Ngiyabona futhi ukuthi bayavuma omama abahleli laphaya. Kukhona abakhumbulayo ukuthi ngesikhathi siye eMalibongwe, kwakukhona izinkulumo ezenziwa ngamakhosikhazi ayesuka enyakatho, esesiyibiza ngeLimpompo namhlanje, amanye ayesuka endaweni esasiyibiza ngokuthi yi-Border, eMpumalanga Koloni, amanye esuka eNtshonalanga Kapa naseGauteng. Wonke amakhosikazi ayeze nezinkulumo zawo. Ayeseke ayibamba imihlangano eminingi ekhuluma ngale migomo esinayo namhlanje. Le migomo iyona eyenziwe ngamakhosikazi. [Ihlombe.] Translation of Zulu paragraph follows.)

[That has been our programme. Women were giving speeches. I notice that women who are sitting there concur. Some of you would remember when we visited Malibongwe. There were speeches that were made by women from the North, which is at present known as Limpopo; some were coming from the area called Border, the Eastern Cape; some were coming from Western Cape, as well as from Gauteng. The women came with their speeches. They had several meetings before about the policies we have today. These policies were made by women. [Applause.]]

Today the promotion and protection of women’s rights enjoy priority status in our governance structures, and in the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster in particular. In this we are guided by President Mbeki, who in his opening address to the second Parliament in June 1999, said:

One of the central features of the brutish society we seek to bring to an end is the impermissible level of crime and violence. Acting together with the people, we will heighten our efforts radically to improve the safety and security of all our citizens.

Ningakhohlwa bakithi ukuthi uma ngiqala ngoCharlotte Maxeke ngizama ukukhombisa ukuthi wayegxeka kwakhona ukuthi abantu babehlala emijondolo ngendlela eyayenza ukuthi kungabi nanhlonipho kwasemakhaya, eyayenza ukuthi kube nenhlupheko, amakhosikazi angabi nasithunzi, futhi akhubazwe ngamadoda awo. Konke lokho uMaxeke wakubona ngo-1930. Sisabhekene nakho nanamhlanje. Uma nikhumbula eMalibongwe, yizo futhi lezi zinto ebesikhuluma ngazo. Namhlanje ngifuna ukugcizelela ukuthi lolu hlelo ngolwethu. Ngolwenu makhosikazi. (Translation of Zulu paragraph follows.)

[When mentioning Charlotte Maxeke I am trying to show you that she was against the idea of people living in shacks because it created disrespect in homes, creating poverty leading to indignity of women and abuse by their partners. Maxeke noticed all that in 1930. We are still facing the same even today. If you remember well, these issues were discussed at Malibongwe. I would like to stress that this programme is ours. It’s for you women.]

Giving substantive effect to the women’s rights that are protected in our Constitution, we have passed a number of enabling laws addressing the difficulties that women face. The most important of these relate to combating violence and the abuse of women. These include the Domestic Violence Act, which constitutes a substantial broadening of the limited scope of its predecessor and recognises that domestic violence is a serious social evil which impedes women’s development and is an obstacle to achieving gender equality.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act regulates sentencing and this ensures that judicial officers regard offences of this kind as serious crime. We are continuing with efforts to ensure that our people know about these important laws. For the women effectively to utilise these laws they need to know about them. I am not convinced that women in this country know enough about these laws.

Ukhulumile-ke ngalokho uComrade Nosiviwe. [Comrade Nosiviwe has talked about that.]

We need feedback from the women affected by the laws. As we seek to consolidate the gains made in the first decade of freedom, we need to ensure that we reach an ever-increasing mass of women, especially in the rural areas. Educating and raising awareness about government programmes and services is one of our primary mandates. It is therefore vital that we find creative ways to ensure that all citizens, especially women, in our country are fully aware of the various laws and services that are critical to them.

We are also constantly reviewing and refining all our pieces of legislation, and are in the process of changing some, so that they respond to the needs of our people.

I must apologise …

Maqabane, ngiyaxolisa. [I apologise, Comrade.]

… to the women of this country that we still have on our Statute Book outdated and discriminatory pieces of legislation, such as the Black Administration Act and the Succession Act. These are the kinds of laws that formed the core of the legislation of oppression.

Niyakukhumbula makhosikazi ukuba kudala sathetha ngazo ezi zinto. Sathetha ngazo naseMalibongwe kanti noMaxeke waqalisa ukukhuluma ngezinto ezicishe zifane nalezi nokuthathwa komhlaba uthathwa ebantwini. (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[Women, you will remember that we have been talking about these things. We talked about them also in Malibongwe, and also Maxeke started to talk about related issues and the seizure of land from the people.]

The reason I spoke of the origins of policy-making is precisely because … …ngifuna ukunikhuthaza. Makhosikazi, ake nisondeleni. [… I would like to encourage you. Women, may you come closer.]

We are considering innovative ways of engaging the masses of our women. We will use our imbizos and the women’s fora; community-based NGOs can also help in mobilising women, and at the indabas we will review and say how far we have come.

Ukuze sithole ukuthi ngempela ngempela, seliqhubeke kangakanani iqoqo lezobulungiswa. Sizokhuluma thina siyiqoqo lezobulungiswa ukuthi sinibona kanjani nokuthi yini esingayenza ukuze sinivikele futhi siqhubeke nokuninikeza amalungelo anifanele. Uma sengiphetha ngifuna… (Translation of Zulu paragraphs follows.)

[We will establish how far the justice cluster has gone. We will discuss certain things as the justice cluster regarding how we view you as well as what can we do to protect you and to ensure that we continue giving the rights you are entitled to. In conclusion I would like …

I therefore want to acknowledge and salute the powerful women’s formations that are working hard in our communities for the advancement of women.

Mina ngithatha uhlangothi oluthile. Ngifuna ukuhalalisela i-ANC Women’s League ngoba iyo phela ephambili futhi ekhuthalele ukulwela amalungelo omama. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of Zulu paragraph follows.)

[I would like to support a particular side. I wish to congratulate the ANC Women’s League on being at the forefront for women’s rights. [Applause.]]

I also want to salute individuals that are dedicated, especially to fighting the scourge of abuse and sexual violence against women. Of course, with violence I include rape. I also want to recognise the efforts of men’s groups that are campaigning to raise awareness that the problem is a societal one and needs all of us. I think this is critical. It is a matter that we have discussed in the ANC.

The issue of violence against women, rape and everything, is not a women’s concern; it is a societal concern. But I also plead that we acknowledge that what exacerbates, what makes the situation worse, is precisely the conditions of want and poverty in which our people find themselves. So I would like to urge all of us, men and women, to work together in the fight against violence directed at women.

In conclusion, lest we become complacent amidst the victories of the not-so- distant past, I would emphasise the continued need for participation of women in the reformation, interpretation and enactment of law.

Ngiyazi ukuthi nina makhosikazi aninamali yokuza lapha ePhalamende kanti futhi aninaso nesikhathi sokuthi nisibhalele. Sengicela ukuthi nike nikhulume nisho ukuthi singahlangana kanjani ngoba iqiniso ukuthi, maqondana nale mithetho, abantu abahamba phambili mayelana noguquko kuba abantu abafundile abangoprofesa abazihlalele laphaya. Lapha ngakwezomthetho, ngabameli abakwazi ukukhuluma kodwa abantu bona abanalo ithuba lokuthi bakhulume. Mina ngiyanikhumbuza bakithi ukuthi lolu hlelo ngolwethu makhosikazi. Masisukume!

Nginethemba lokuthi i-ANC Women’s League izonisiza ukuze silethe ulwazi emakhosikazini futhi siyenze ibe lula phela nale nto yale mithetho. Imithetho iyethusa ngoba ibhalwe ngalokhu nalokhuya nabo-inter alia. Ikhuluma kanjalo. Kodwa thina sifuna ukubhala imithetho esizokwazi ukuthi siyifunde sonke. [Kwaphela isikhathi.] Malibongwe!

AMALUNGU AHLONIPHEKILE: Igama lamakhosikazi!

UNGQONGQOSHE WEZOBULUNGISWA NEZOKUTHUTHUKISWA KOMTHETHOSISEKELO: Malibongwe! [Ihlombe.] (Translation of Zulu paragraphs follows.)

[I know that you women don’t have money to come to Parliament or time to write to us. I would like to have your suggestion as to how are we going to meet because the reality in so far as this legislation is concerned is that people who are at the forefront of transformation are learned people, professors who are not in such situations. On the legal side the lawyers are able to voice their views, but people don’t have a chance to voice their views. I therefore remind you that this is a women’s programme. Let’s stand up!

I hope that the ANC Women’s League will assist us to give information to women and make these laws understandable. These laws are intimidating because many things are there, for example. It is written in this manner. We want to write laws that we are able to read. [Time expired.] Let it be Praised!

HON MEMBERS: The name of women!

THE MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Let it be Praised! [Applause.]]

Mr B J MNYANDU: Mr Chairperson, hon members, distinguished guests, allow me to take this opportunity to join the rest of the speakers that stood hear today to pay tribute to women for resisting the injustice meted out to them by the former government. Today we are saying to them that their struggle was not in vain.

I would like to pay tribute particularly to the following - I know that the list is endless - honourable women, such as Princess Magogo, Mrs Helen Suzman, Mrs Veronica Sobukwe and others. We note with appreciation how, with courage, they had to face atrocities, such as when they marched in the face of bullets in 1956 to protect their dignity as women.

We also note with appreciation that in 1976 they had to bear the brunt of all the atrocities meted out to their daughters and sons as they struggled for social justice in this country. We recognise the distance already travelled since 1994, with women taking their rightful place in a country that for so many years created chauvinistic institutions that conducted an onslaught against them.

As we celebrate today we take note of the institutions that brought about the oppression of women. We take note that such chauvinistic institutions had a tendency to define women in terms of their physical manifestations in a collective way, so that they could then undermine their dignity by using those kinds of characteristics. In that way women were forced to give up their own individual identity in favour of their collective characteristics, all designed by our chauvinistic authorities.

Women were coerced into third-class citizenship, simply because they happened to be women. In that way they were condemned for their biological characteristics, as if they had chosen to be women. They were thus castigated for sins they had never committed, simply because they were women.

We note that in every situation of deprivation, be it children arrested and thrown into custody or husbands housed like beasts in compounds on the mines, women were the first casualties and victims. Therefore, as we celebrate the triumph of rationality over irrationality, and as we celebrate the dawn of enlightenment in our history, we should not forget those women who are still arrested in the paradigm of chauvinism. We should not forget those women who are still suffering because of poverty and HIV/Aids.

The biggest challenge in our celebration today is making sure that women’s liberation is founded on the right paradigm. This paradigm should see women’s participation in our democracy today not so much as a privilege, but as a right. Where women’s participation is regarded as a privilege, you can rest assured that it won’t last forever. As a privilege it will only last for as long as the male species wants it to. But when it is regarded as a right it will last forever, for it shall have been built on the right epistemological premise that says that women are individuals with unique identities; that women are nobody’s natural slaves; that the relationships they create with men or other women are contracts of free will and autonomy between people. I am talking about a right that is founded on the liberal definition of a relationship between an individual and the state - separation of state and government - and only bound together by reason and morality.

A foundation such as the one I have characterised above allows us to worry less about which individuals we associate with and the political organisations they join. We take these individuals as autonomous equals who are free to make their own choices and who would not be punished overtly or covertly for the choices they make. This epistemological model, as agreed to in our Bill of Rights, becomes a guarantee for the total emancipation of women in particular, and humanity at large. I thank you. [Applause.]

Dr S E M PHEKO: Mr Chairman …

The CHAIRPERSON OF COMMITTEES: The hon Pheko seems to have the wrong speech. We will continue … We will have to give him a minute to come back to the podium.

Dr S E M PHEKO: Mr Chairman, my apologies for the mix-up. After 10 years of democracy it is clear to the PAC of Azania that we have to do much more for the majority of women of this nation. Everything that matters to women is up for sale: water, land, health care, education, electricity, housing and HIV/Aids medicines.

The exclusion of the majority of women from the economy has become more profound over the past 10 years, as the country embraces capitalist globalisation. For women this has meant dire poverty, greater wage inequalities, fewer job opportunities, and more evictions from land and harassment by sheriffs, as was witnessed recently in Protea Glen and Diepsloot.

The foreign investor has become more important than women in this country. The brutal indictment has come from the United Nations Human Development Report of 2003, which stated that a fundamental policy shift had to take place if meaningful development that benefits the majority of the population were to take place.

Over the past 10 years the present government has bowed to the demigods of market forces. Its massive programme of structural adjustments through Gear, privatisation and liberalisation has only increased the hideous disparities between the rich and the poor.

More than a million people have lost the right to work. The majority are women. The corporatisation of basic services, electricity, water and housing has meant that women-headed households, in their millions, have experienced water and electricity disconnections, and evictions from their land and homes.

Women need security of tenure, women need to enjoy security of body. The levels of violence against women can no longer be matters of rhetorical speeches. Our starting point must be that women are equal to men and we must remove the superstition that women are inferior.

When women and their children are evicted, when women sell their bodies to provide for their families, when women on farms are not paid a living wage, when women are denied HIV medicines, it is a reflection that we do not appreciate, value and celebrate the complementary differences between men and women. We cannot, therefore, with a clean conscience, boast of women celebrating the decade of freedom and total participation.

We speak of moral regeneration in this country. How is this going to be achieved side by side with promoting prostitution and calling its practitioners sex workers? Our daughters want to be medical doctors and aspire to other noble professions. Prostitution is degrading them. Let us move away from this culture of sex workers to the national dignity of our women through affordable education.

A nation’s progress is measured by the treatment and status of its women. The next 10 years must be for and about women. The Pan-Africanist Women’s Organisation is right when it says: “Train the women, train the nation.” Thank you.

Ms M R MORUTOA: Chairperson, hon Deputy Speaker, hon Deputy Minister and hon members of Parliament, I greet everyone sitting in the gallery. My speech will be partly celebrating the achievements by women in the decade of freedom, and how we walked together as women on the path to total emancipation. I would like to thank the President for consistently taking a girl-child to work every year, listening to their opinions and implementing these.

I proudly celebrate the effective leadership of the president of the ANC Women’s League when South African women intervened successfully in the Amina Lawal issue in Nigeria.

Igama lamakhosikazi malibongwe! [Praise the name of women!]

We should celebrate the fact that social welfare and development has come with a programme of grants for children, which provides cash-flow to women. Almost every household has access to water, sanitation and electricity. This is very important to our South African women, especially those in the rural areas. This programme alleviates poverty.

The number of women in professional posts has increased tremendously. The President has recently made us aware of the fact that in South Africa we now have 28 female judges out of an overall number of 210. He says that this is definitely not enough. Women have acquired many skills in the engineering and technology fields. It is quite realisable that there are a number of women in the aviation business. We have women pilots. How wonderful it is to sit in an aeroplane that is piloted by a woman. It just glides in the air.

Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi! [Praise the name of women![Applause.]

I am highlighting these achievements to remind us of the fact that women were previously restricted to teaching at primary schools and nursing. What is interesting now is that women have a choice about what happens to their bodies and their lives. With the implementation of the choice of terminating pregnancy within 12 weeks, maternal deaths from unsafe abortions were reduced by 2,5% between 1998 and 2001.

When we celebrate the decade of women’s freedom we should take cognisance of the fact that it is because of the South African Constitution, which provides an overarching framework for the promotion of gender equality. The Bill of Rights guarantees equal treatment for all South Africans.

South Africa has committed to gender equality through the ratification of a number of international conventions, including the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, or Cedaw, and the Beijing Platform of Action. Other African conventions that South Africa is a part of are the Platform of Action, the Convention on the Advancement of Women, SADC, etc.

The concept of national gender machinery was fought for during a protracted struggle waged by the ANC Women’s League, initiating the formation of the Federation of South African Women. This federation managed to launch the Women’s Charter in 1994. This charter set the precedent for women to struggle for their emancipation. After 1994 the national gender machinery was established in the form of the Office on the Status of Women and the Commission on Gender Equality.

A committee that monitors the implementation of legislation that is meant to improve the lives of women was also set up in Parliament, namely the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Women. This committee has provided space for women members of Parliament to communicate with women’s organisations, and also provides a platform to place gender issues on the national agenda. This committee has been part of the workshop hosted by Parliament’s public education office. Some of the conferences were on enhancing the participation of women in law- making.

These projects provided scope for making submissions on how women experience the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, the Maintenance Act, and customary law with respect to issues of inheritance and succession. The committee has prioritised socially vulnerable groups that are rendered voiceless because of their socioeconomic status. The main target group of this committee therefore is poor women, particularly rural women.

Lo mthetho wokukhusela amakhosikazi ekuphathweni rhabaxa kwawo emakhayeni awo, iDomestic Violence Act ngolukaJoji ulwimi, uphucule iimpilo zabafazi. Lo mthetho wongeza iinxaxheba zokukhusela abafazi xa uwuthelekisa nomthetho owawukho ngaphambili owawubizwa ngokuba yi-Prevention of Family Violence Act ka-1993. Ukuphathwa rhabaxa kwamakhosikazi ngabayeni bawo emakhaya kubonakalisa ubuhedeni yaye kubuyisela impucuko yabantu besifazana emva. Thina ke kodwa apha eMzantsi Afrika sithi: Unotshe! Asokuze yenzeke loo nto kusaphethe i-ANC. Abantu abaninzi emaphondweni bayavuma ukuba lo mthetho wenze umahluko omkhulu ekuthinteleni ekuhlukunyezweni kwamakhosikazi. (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[The Act that is protecting women against abuse in their homes, known as the Domestic Violence Act in English, has improved the lives of women. This Act makes an effort to protect women, when you compare it with the old Act called the Prevention of Family Violence Act of 1993. The abuse of women by their husbands in their homes proves evil and is taking the civilisation of women backwards. But we say here in South Africa: never! That is not going to happen for as long as the ANC is still governing. Most people in the provinces acknowledge that this Act has made a big difference in preventing the abuse of women.]

Batjhotjhisi ba re, le bona ba bona phapang e kgolo ho molao wa ho sireletsa bomme le bana tlhokofatsong ya lapeng. Molao wa phepo ya bana le ona o tsheheditswe ho nolofatsa bophelo ba bomme ka ho hlokomedisa bontate hore ho bohlokwa, ebile ke tokelo ya bana ho hodiswa ke batswadi hantle. (Translation of Sotho paragraph follows.)

[Prosecutors say they also see a big difference in the law that protects women and children against domestic violence. The children’s feeding scheme is also supported to ease women’s lives by making men aware that it is important, and it is also the children’s right to be brought up properly by parents.]

Madam Speaker, we can proudly speak about a number of changes that have been made to the South African parliamentary procedures that have a direct effect on women. These changes include the following. The parliamentary recess has been aligned with school holidays. There has been an increase in basic infrastructure facilities for women, including women with disabilities. Gender-sensitive language is being used in legislation.

Parliamentary sessions now commence and end earlier than before 1994, to allow members of Parliament to spend more quality time with their families. We have female representatives in key positions and women currently feature prominently in politics in South Africa. Female presiding officers lead both Houses of Parliament - in the National Assembly the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are women, and the Chairperson of the NCOP is also female.

Women also hold positions in the Ministries of Education, Justice and Constitutional Development, Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, Minerals and Energy, the Public Service and Administration, Agriculture and Land Affairs, Communication, Housing and Health.

Female representation among Deputy Ministers is also encouraging, with women Deputy Ministers of, amongst others, Health, Safety and Security, Correctional Services, Social Development, and Provincial and Local Government. In addition, female chairpersons head key committees in Parliament. These include the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Women, the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Children, Youth and Disabled Persons, and the Portfolio Committees on Justice and Constitutional Development, Labour, Public Enterprises, Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and Social Development.

Government can consciously assist women to enter the tourism industry. Trade and Industry should train women to own management companies now that South Africa has won the 2010 bid. Women should be assisted to access seed money or starter packs, to start their own manufacturing companies.

When we deal with challenges facing women, the following are critical: to make women aware of their rights in terms of all Acts passed by Parliament to improve the lives of women; women members of Parliament should call imbizos in their constituencies to interact with women on the ground; and we need increased jurisdiction for the regional courts when dealing with domestic violence. [Time expired.] [Applause.]

Miss S RAJBALLY: Malibongwe! Thank you, Chairperson. Hon Deputy Speaker and our Ministers, I take this opportunity to thank all the men that have come to the podium today to participate in the debate on women. I want to extend my special thanks to our Chief, Dr Buthelezi, for sharing his recent painful experience with us. Our thoughts and feelings are with him.

Our first democratic election brought us constitutional supremacy in the form of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which liberated our people and allowed legislation for an equal people. This was done so that we could attain our freedom and equal rights for all, especially our women. I am proud to stand here in our second era of democratic governance as a female representing our people, and am even more proud of the fact that 30% of our MPs are women. We have 134 women in the National Assembly and 19 in the National Council of Provinces. We also proudly boast 18 ladies in ministerial and deputy ministerial positions in our executive. Viva women, viva!

Since our entrance into democracy, South African women have been liberated through legislation and hence many women have taken the initiative to mobilise themselves into attaining prestigious positions in the community and the economy. The MF salutes you and all those responsible for paving the way to gender equity and equality. Even though government has transformed policies and legislation to make way for gender equity and equality, challenges still exist.

It is encouraging to note that all our departments are making a concerted effort to ensure that gender equity and equality are attained, that land reform policies protecting women from unfair eviction are in place, that education is compulsory for our children, that adult education and skills training are in place for both sexes and that the health department have taken initiatives involving women and HIV/Aids, and that the provision of proper nutrition has been very successful.

Also, the legislation on abortion has given women the freedom of choice and has stopped illegal abortions. Furthermore, free health care for pregnant women has assisted in ensuring healthier pregnancies and healthier babies. The increase in social and child support grants has also been of great assistance.

These are but a few of the achievements attained over the past ten years. Women have a major role to play in society. The MF is confident that with the consistent empowerment of all women, we can reduce and combat HIV and Aids. The media has a big role to play in empowering women. Magazines, newspapers, radio talk shows and TV influence the pattern of thought of society and we urge that gender equity and equality be a top priority on these agendas. Females should not be stereotyped as domestic beauty queens, but be seen as human beings with the freedom and power to choose and be their best.

We are challenged by issues such as poverty, illiteracy, health and unemployment, especially in rural areas. The MF, together with government, NGOs and those concerned, calls on all women to mobilise for their liberation, to make use of their rights and to take a stand. Women have the power to challenge inequality, to stop the violence and to contribute to a better Africa. Together, we can strengthen our nation and liberate women globally, as we have done in Amina Lawal’s case. There are many women who still need our help. Our government and Constitution have given you rights and opportunities. It is your challenge to take it or not.

Be inspired by the fact that we are much more than mothers and daughters; we too are nation-builders. You have the freedom to be exactly who you want to be. I challenge all women to liberate themselves, so that we may attain total emancipation.

At this point I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate all our South African women, especially contenders at the Olympic Games hosted in Athens. We also take this opportunity to thank the host of this auspicious event and congratulate all those who have been successful in the various events. The women of the world have displayed strong competition. Malibongwe!

Mr B E PULE: Thank you, Mr Chair. The UCDP joins hands with all people in the world in celebrating and acknowledging the commitment, achievements and aspirations of women in their endeavours to emancipate themselves completely.

In 1956 when women marched to the Union Buildings in protest against the pass laws, it demonstrated that women, like men, are also created in the image of God, and hence are created with a sense of vision, a sense of mission, a sense of destiny, and with a sense of commitment.

The past decade of democracy has seen women rise above the expectations of their counterparts in various spheres of employment. We need not go far from this august House to see the performance of women in various fields. The UCDP would like to caution some men that if they still subscribe to the philosophy that women belong to the background, they have deliberately allowed themselves to be outstripped by the tempo of developments, and will therefore cause themselves unnecessary stress.

Nevertheless, women are still victims of discrimination, oppression, and suppression. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Women still continue to remain on the periphery of economic emancipation. South Africa’s business market is still very much male dominated. Throughout the country male-owned enterprises outnumber those run by women more than two to one.

The gender breakdown according to industrial sectors shows that these women- run enterprises are in the trade sectors. This represents mostly shops and shebeens, and clothing manufacturing. Community, social and personal services are the next most important categories of enterprise in which women participate. There are very low percentages of women involved in the following sectors: Agriculture has 13%, building and construction has about 5%, transport and storage has about 4%, insurance has 18%, basic metal industries and machinery has 5%, and mining and quarrying has about 9%.

We in the UCDP have reason to honour women, because it is through the financial contribution of our women’s league that the party has been able to register for both the 1999 and 2004 general elections.

Motlotlegi Mmusakgotla, ka segaetsho re tlotla bomme. Ke ka moo re nang le puo e e reng mmangwana o tshwara thipa ka fa bogaleng. Ga gotwe rre ke ena a e tshwarang. Go bonala borre re le magatlapa, dithipa di tshwarwa ke bomme ka fa bogaleng.

Gape mo puong ya rona ya Setswana ra re mmamotho o amuwa a sule. Seno se supa gore mme le fa ebile a sa tlhole a tshela, o sala a re amusitse kagiso, kgothatso, tsholofelo, maitseo le botho – mmamotho a amuwa a sule.

Gape ka segaetsho re na le puo e e reng mosadi tshwene o jewa matsogo. Ga re lebelele gore mme o ntse jang: re solofela fela ditiro mo go ena. Ga re itse fa go na le mme yo o maswe: re itse botlhe ba le bantle, re ka ja monate wa diatla tsa bona. Ka go rialo ra re a bomme ba lefatshe lotlhe ba tshele ka bosakhutleng. Ke a leboga. [Legofi.] (Translation of Tswana paragraphs follows.)

[Madam Speaker, in our culture we respect women. It is for this reason that there is a saying that mothers are always protective of their children. It is not said that the father is the one who holds them. It looks as if we men are cowards, as if knives are held by women by their sharp blades.

There is another Tswana saying to the effect that only good things are said about a person when he is dead. This indicates that even though this woman is no longer alive, she taught us peace, comfort, hope, good manners and humanity - as it is said, good things are said about a person when he is dead.

There is also a Setswana saying that the responsibility of a woman is to fend for her family. We are not interested in her looks; we only expect good work from her. We do not know of any woman who is bad; we know that all women are beautiful, but we appreciate their work. In that way we are saying that all women of the world should live forever. Thank you.] [Applause.]]

Mrs Z A KOTA: Chairperson, Deputy Speaker, Ministers and hon members, it is a great honour for me to participate in this important debate celebrating a decade of freedom.

Mandibulise koomama, ndithi: Malibongwe! [Let me greet the mothers, I say: Let it be praised!]

HON MEMBERS: Igama lamakhosikazi! [The name of women!]

Allow me, Chairperson, to send condolences to the Tabata family at NY 21, who lost both the mother and daughter-in-law in a car accident in Aberdeen on their way to a funeral in the Eastern Cape. We wish those in hospital a speedy recovery, and may they draw strength from this message of solidarity.

Sithi akuhlanga lungehlanga, thuthuzelekani. Makube njalo nakwamanye amakhaya agutyungelwe lilifu elimnyama kule nyanga yamakhosikazi. Sithi: Makudede ubumnyama, kuvele ukukhanya! (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[We send our deepest condolences, be strong. Let it be so in all other homes that have been befallen by bereavements during this women’s month. We say: Let the darkness vanish, and let light prevail!]

Today, as we celebrate our achievements and consolidate the gains of this young democracy, we are required to look over the past 10 years in our country to measure the progress we have made to date and to map the way forward for the next decade. We do so by looking at the role of women in housing and the impact of housing delivery on the lives of women.

This decade presents us with an opportunity to reflect on the road we have travelled as South African women in fighting for our emancipation. The struggle for the involvement of women - fighting triple oppression - has proud roots in our society. Women were oppressed on the basis of race, class and gender. Today we have a Constitution that states that there should be no discrimination on the basis of race or gender.

Our challenge, therefore, as women, is to participate in the fight to close the gap between the first and second economies. Our history was made by ordinary women. They were involved in shaping their destiny, fighting side by side with their men. The historic march in Bloemfontein in 1913 and the march to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 are clear evidence of those struggles. It is for that reason that we salute and pay tribute to Lillian Ngoyi, Mam’uSilinga, Mam’uJibiliza, Mam’uHolo, Rita Ndzanga and many others.

Today I want to salute the Ndzanga family for their contribution to the struggle. I remember when I went for military training 18 years ago in Angola, the recording officer at Pango was Comrade Bennet, the son of Mama Rita Ndzanga. It is that cadre of leadership in uMkhonto weSizwe that inspired us to celebrate this day in those camps in Angola, honouring the role played by South African women in the struggle. It is in the memory of those gallant fighters that we continue to pick up their fallen spears.

Chairperson, it is important to remember that the housing backlog goes back decades in our country. Evidence of this exists in the shanty towns occupied by Africans in the main everywhere.

Amatyotyombe alapha kuhola u-N2, njengokuba niwabona … [The informal settlements along the N2 freeway, as you see them …]

… are clear evidence of that fact.

People still remember forced removals in many parts of South Africa, such as in Unibel, Crossroads, KTC and Nyanga Bush in the Western Cape.

Nabaya ooMavis phaya phezulu, babehlala ematyotyombeni. [There is Mavis, and others seated up there, who were staying at the informal settlement.]

Women fought for shelter and were prepared to lay down their lives during the time of these struggles. All peace-loving South Africans joined these struggles under the banner of the UDF.

With the dawn of democracy, since 1994 to date, the ANC-led government has transferred R50 billion to the poor through subsidised housing, with new houses accommodating 6 million people. In addition, it has transferred title deeds for almost half a million houses that people occupied in the townships. It is important to note that nearly half of these approved housing subsidies were granted to women. For the first time women became property owners. They could use these assets as collateral. Through housing, people have access to electricity, running water, sanitation and all social amenities.

The national Department of Housing has been championing the important role that women can and do play in housing development in South Africa. Women on the ground and opportunities that are being used and created for women to improve their living conditions have informed this approach. The role of women in housing, however, appears to be biased towards involving women in the physical construction of houses, while there is a broad scope of professions in housing in which women can play and are playing a role.

It is important that women are not just perceived as recipients of housing, but rather as active participants in the housing process. As part of the conciliation process, women beneficiaries are targeted to provide input on issues such as levels of service, design of houses as well as location of facilities by addressing the concerns of women in respect of human settlements, so that human settlements do become spaces that are safe and sustainable. Women should also be implementers of housing projects.

The People’s Housing Process offers beneficiaries an opportunity to take decisions on the type of house to be built, as well as the size of that house. The People’s Housing Process recognises the role women, especially black women, have played and continue to play in building and maintaining their housing and developing their communities. The majority of community institutions that are set up in the PHP process are women’s organisations. These women are involved in the planning, financial arrangement, as well as construction of their houses.

Umsebenzi owenziwa ngamakhosikazi eVictoria Mxenge, eMalibongwe Park, eMacassar, eAtlantis nakwezinye iindawo, ngumzekelo omhle kakhulu. Oomama bagcina imali bazakhele izindlu ezinkulu ngokwabo. Iyatsho ke ne-Homeless People’s Federation ukuba oomama ngabona bantu banegalelo apha ekwakheni izindlu. Ibalulekile into yokuba siyijonge into ethethwe yi-Minmec kwizindululo zayo, ezithi: (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[The work done by women at Victoria Mxenge, Malibongwe Park, Macassar, Atlantis and many other places is a good example. Women saved money and built houses on their own. The Homeless People’ s Federation also states that women are the ones who contributed the most to the building of houses. It is imperative that we should look at what has been stated by the Minmec in its principles, which states the following.]

Ten percent of provincial department budget allocations should be utilised for housing projects that are undertaken by female developers or contractors. However, as the Portfolio Committee on Housing we do know that only one province, the Western Cape, has implemented this resolution. Other provinces must follow suit.

It has been proved that a greater number of women are involved in social housing, which means that social housing initiatives are also female- driven. However, men are always in the forefront on social housing issues, especially when it comes to speeches. Men deliver these speeches on behalf of some companies. However, there are still challenges facing women as we move towards the next decade of freedom. These are: limited access to opportunities; limited access to education and training; limited access to finance and land.

Somlomo, ndakuba andilungisi ukuba andimncomi uMphathiswa wezeziNdlu, uQabane uLindiwe Sisulu, ngomsebenzi omhle awenzayo wokwakha izindlu. Ndinethemba lokuba le-social housing iza kuba namandla ngakumbi ngoba oomama abakhulisa abantwana bebodwa bathanda ukuhlala kwizindlu ezirentwayo njengoko ezi ndawo zineendawo zokudlala abantwana kwaye zikhuselekile. Mandimncome kakhulu nangembizo ebibanjewe phaya e-OR Tambo Hall, eKhayelitsha, ecacise ngokuphandle ukuba abantu bazimisele ukuzakhele izindlu ngokwabo yaye bezimisele nokulondoloza bongeze kuncedo abanika lona urhulumente. Bavuyile kakhulu bemnqwenelela impumelelo uMphathiswa.

Mandibulele kumakhosikazi ngokuphuma ngobuninzi ngomhla we-9 kuAgasti. Kuyacaca ukuba oomama bayafuna ukuya phambili besebenzisana norhulumente. Siyavuya boomama ukuba nizimisele ukusebenzisana nemibutho ngemibutho. Lithuba elihle eli kwimbali yoMzantsi Afrika. Kufuneka sizimisele ukusebenza ngeengalo ezingenamikhinkqi sibheke phambili, ukuze kugwetywe indlala.

Ii-learnership neNkqubo yeMisebenzi kaRhulumente ifuna intsebenziswano yethu singoomama kunye nemibutho yasekuhlaleni. Uza kuyifumana njani impilo engcono mama xa uhleli ekoneni. Sondela uze emibuthweni, wenze elakho igalelo ekuphuculeni impilo yakho.

Mandibabulela kakhulu koomama abazidinileyo namhlanje baza kumamela le ngxoxo-mpikiswano ngoba lelinye igalelo elibaxhobisayo eli, bamamele xa iPalamente ishukuxa imiba echaphazela iimpilo zabo. Bangathi ngoko babuyele emakhaya nasekuhlaleni naloo mava, baxelele oomama ukuba ikho inguqu likwakho nekamva xa uzibandakanya nemibutho yoluntu. Ngokwenjenjalo ungumama uyaphila, unakho ukubonisa nabantwana bakho ukuba ikamva eliqaqambileyo likamva lomama nabantwana bebambisene kwimibutho yabantu yasekuhlaleni.

Uyandivuyisa lo rhulumente we-ANC ngoba kuyaqala ukuba kube kho ipalamente enjengale, enika ithuba lokuba singoomama kweli Kapa size kumamela ezi ngxoxo-mpikiswano. Kwiipalamente zangaphambili sasigwayimba siphelele phaya ngaphandle, singenathuba lakungena ngaphakathi ukuze sikwazi ukuzithethela yaye simamele nakubantu bethu. [Kwaqhwatywa.]

Sithi Phambili kumaqobokazana aphethe le Palamente, uSomlomo noSekela- Somlomo, ngoba ngabo abenze ukuba namhlanje oomama babe bayakwazi ukungena ePalamente baze kumamela iingxo-mpikiswano. Sithi amaqobokazana angalal’endleleni yazini kunyembelekile. Enkosi. [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of Xhosa paragraphs follows.)

[Hon Speaker, I would not be doing justice if I did not commend the hon Minister of Housing, Comrade Lindiwe Sisulu, for the wonderful job she is doing of building houses. I hope that this social housing will gain more strength, especially with regard to women who bring up children on their own and who like to stay in houses that are rented, because those areas have parks for children and they are secure. Let me commend her all the more for the imbizo which was held at the OR Tambo Hall at Khayelitsha, at which it was clearly stated that people are serious about building houses on their own, and they are also serious about saving and adding to the service the government is offering them. They were very happy and they wish the Minister success.

Let me thank the women for coming out in large numbers on 9 August. It is clear that women do want to go forward and co-operate with the government. We as mothers are happy that you are serious in co-operating with different organisations. This is a good time for South African history. We should be serious in working with dedication and moving forward, so that we can do away with poverty.

The learnerships and the government’s Public Works Programme need our co- operation as women, and that of the community-based organisations. How are you going to get it, woman, when you are taking a back seat? Come close to the organisations, and make your own contribution to improving your life.

Let me thank the women who made a sacrifice today in coming to listen to this debate, because this is another empowering contribution, to listen when Parliament is extensively discussing issues affecting their lives. May they then go back to their homes and communities with that experience, and tell other women that there is a change and a future if they join hands with the community-based organisations. By doing that as women they will feel alive, and they can even show their children that there is a bright future, the future of women and children joining hands together in community-based organisations.

This ANC-led government makes me happy, because this is the first time that we have had such a women’s Parliament, that gives us an opportunity as women in Cape Town to listen to these debates. Under previous governments we used to boycott and end up outside; we did not have the opportunity to come inside, to speak for ourselves and listen to our people. [Applause.]

We say, forward! We say this to the ladies who are in charge of this Parliament, the hon Madam Speaker and the hon Madam Deputy Speaker, because they made it possible for women to enter Parliament and to listen to the debates. We say that when working and dedicated women sleep in the road, that spells danger. Thank you. [Applause.]]

Mev D VAN DER WALT: Mnr die Voorsitter en agb lede, op 9 Augustus het Suid- Afrika nasionale Vrouedag gevier - ’n belangrike dag elke jaar op die kalender waarop ons erkenning gee aan vroue vir hul onderskeie prestasies, bydraes, toegewydheid en aspirasies om hul gemeenskappe, hul eie omstandighede en ons land te help bou aan ’n beter Suid-Afrika vir almal.

Met vroue se viering van ’n dekade van vryheid op die pad na totale emansipasie is dit nodig om ook erkenning te gee aan die Afrikanervrou, haar geskiedenis en haar toekoms. Die Anglo-Boereoorlog het die lewenswyse van die Afrikanervrou radikaal verander. Weens die rol wat sy vertolk het, is sy as die pilaar van die nasie beskou. Sy sou haar man herinner aan sy verpligting teenoor sy vaderland en hom inspireer deur haar dapperheid en haar geestelike steun. Sy was vrou, moeder en selfs skoenmaker en veedrywer. Op die platteland moes sy ook na boerderybedrywighede omsien. Sy het ’n unieke deursettingsvermoë gehad.

Afrikanervroue het reeds tóé oral ’n hand na behoeftiges uitgesteek om verligting te bring te midde van die geweldige nood en lyding, en het met opheffing gehelp. Vermelding moet gemaak word van ’n vergadering wat op 10 November 1900 in die Paarl gehou is. Hierdie vergadering word as die eerste vrouekongres in Suid-Afrika bestempel. Verskeie vroueorganisasies wat vandag nog betrokke is by maatskaplike dienste en opheffingswerk het in dié tydperk ontstaan.

Erkenning moet definitief ook gegee word aan dié Afrikanervroue wat in 1930 suksesvol geveg het om stemreg vir vroue te bekom. Deur die jare daarna het al hoe meer Afrikanervroue onderrig- en beroepsgeleenthede benut om hulself te vestig in die beroepswêreld, hetsy in die professionele, akademiese, sake of informele sektor. In die laat tagtigerjare is verskeie Afrikaanse sakevroueklubs, asook die Nasionale Raad vir Sakevroue, op die been gebring. Dié organisasie is ook destyds by die Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut ingelyf.

Talentvolle Afrikanervroue het ook naam gemaak in die vermaaklikheidsbedryf, en in die skoonheidswêreld is toe selfs ’n Mej Wêreldtitel huis toe gebring.

Tog, ondanks kwalifikasies en ondervinding, was dit hoofsaaklik ons manlike eweknieë wat meestal die direksie- en senior bestuursposisies beklee het. Met die aanbreek van die nuwe demokrasie in 1994 is dit erken dat vroue histories die tweede grootste benadeelde groep in Suid-Afrika is. Wette is intussen in plek gestel om dié ongelykhede uit te wis. Vandag word die konsep van geslagsgelykheid wêreldwyd aanvaar.

Die Handves van Regte, soos vervat in die Grondwet van Suid-Afrika, is ook baie duidelik hieroor. Tog kan mens nie help om te vra nie: Het vroue, ook Afrikanervroue, werklik dieselfde regte as mans? Word dit in die werkplek gereflekteer, en kry vroue dieselfde finansiële geleenthede as mans? Hoewel vordering in die afgelope dekade gemaak is, is daar nog baie maatskaplike en finansiële kwessies wat gehanteer moet word om vroue in dié opsig werklik aan mans gelyk te stel. ’n Vraag wat dikwels gevra word, en dringend aandag behoort te kry, is: Vir hoe lank gaan kwessies rakende rasgelykheid nog aanhou om geslagsgelykheid te oorheers?

’n Bron van groot kommer vir die Afrikanervrou is die kwessie van moedertaalonderrig. Ook hier beskerm die Handves van Regte ons, maar te gereeld word dit deur die ANC-regering op ’n onbillike wyse geïgnoreer.

Soos die regte van alle ander vroue van Suid-Afrika moet die Afrikanervrou se regte ook beskerm word. Ons aanvallers, verkragters en moordenaars moet deur strenger wetgewing afgeskrik word en deur ’n effektiewer regstelsel gestraf word. In ’n land met so ’n hoë misdaadsyfer is strenger vonnisse nodig. Meer as ooit is die Afrikanervrou betrokke by uitreikaksies in haar breë gemeenskap, en speel sy ’n onmisbare rol in die bemagtiging en opheffing van voorheen benadeelde Suid-Afrikaners.

Afrikanervroue neem deel op alle terreine en verskeie prestasies is opgeteken – ook buite die sakewêreld. Tans verteenwoordig van hulle Suid- Afrika by die Olimpiese Spele. Verlede maand het die kroon vir Mevrou Verenigde Nasies Internasionaal na Suid-Afrika gekom, en onlangs is ’n Oscar van Hollywood na ons land gebring.

Ten slotte haal ek graag prof Christina Landman graag aan, en dit is spesiaal vir al die vroue wat vandag hier sit: (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows)

[Mrs D VAN DER WALT: Chairperson and hon members, South Africa celebrated National Women’s Day on 9 August - an important day on the annual calendar on which we give recognition to women for their various achievements, their contributions, their dedication and their aspirations to uplift their communities, their own circumstances and to help build a better South Africa for all.

With the celebration by women of a decade of freedom en route to total emancipation, it is necessary that we also acknowledge the Afrikaner woman, her history and her future. The Anglo-Boer War radically changed the lifestyle of the Afrikaner woman. Because of the role that she played, she was regarded as the pillar of the nation. She would remind her husband of his obligation towards his fatherland and inspire him through her own bravery and spiritual support. She was wife, mother, and even shoemaker and cattle-driver. In the rural areas she also had to take charge of farming activities. She possessed a unique quality of perseverance.

Afrikaner women had already, at that stage, extended a hand to the needy in order to bring relief in the midst of severe distress and pain, and assisted with the upliftment process. Mention should to be made of a meeting held in Paarl on 10 November 1900. This meeting would go down as the first women’s congress in South Africa. The various women’s organisations that are today still involved in social welfare services and upliftment programmes, originated during that period.

Acknowledgement should definitely also be given to the Afrikaner women who fought successfully to secure voting rights for women in 1930. The years that followed saw the Afrikaner woman increasingly take advantage of teaching and career opportunities to establish themselves in the professional world, be it in the professional, academic, business or informal sector. In the late eighties various Afrikaans business women’s clubs, as well a national council for business women, were established. This organisation was later incorporated into the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut.

Talented Afrikaner women also made a name for themselves in the entertainment industry, and in the world of beauty pageants, even a Miss World title was brought home.

Nevertheless, in spite of qualifications and experience, it was mainly our male counterparts who occupied most of the directorships and senior management positions. With the advent of the new democracy in 1994, it was acknowledged that women were historically the second largest disadvantaged group in South Africa. Laws have subsequently been put in place to eradicate these imbalances. Today the concept of gender equality is universally accepted.

The Bill of Rights, as contained in the Constitution of South Africa, is very clear about this. However, one can’t help but pose the question: Do women, including Afrikaner women, really have the same rights as men? Is this reflected in the workplace, and do women get the same financial opportunities as men? Although progress has been made in the last decade, there are still many social and financial issues that have to be addressed in order to really place women on a par with men in this regard. A question that is often posed and which needs urgent attention is: For how long will issues regarding racial equality still continue to dominate gender equality?

A major source of concern for the Afrikaner woman is the matter of mother- tongue instruction at schools. Once again we are protected in this area by the Bill of Rights, but all too often, the ANC government unfairly ignores this matter.

As in the case of all other women in South Africa, the Afrikaner woman’s rights should also be protected. Tougher laws to deter our assailants, rapists and murderers and a more effective justice system to punish these perpetrators, should be implemented. In a country with such a high crime rate, more severe sentences are required. The Afrikaner woman is now, more than ever, involved in outreach programmes in her broader community and plays an indispensable role in empowering and uplifting previously disadvantaged South Africans.

Afrikaner women participate in all spheres and have accomplished much - also outside the business world. At present some of them are representing South Africa at the Olympic Games. Last month South Africa won the crown of Mrs United Nations International, and recently an Oscar was brought from Hollywood to our country.

In conclusion, I would like to quote Prof Christina Landman, and this is for all the women sitting here today:]

Sometimes I think there should be a TRC for the women of South Africa that will give women a public voice on their sufferings and conquests. In the process women will learn words from one another on how to name their sorrows and victories. It will give ears to the public to hear their voices and those who stole women’s self-esteem from them will be given a chance to apply for amnesty.

I thank you. [Applause.]

Nk P N MNANDI: Sihlalo woshlalo, Sekela Somlomo, boNgqongqoshe nabakhona la endlini, bahlonishwa, maqabane nezihlobo, okokuqala engicela ukukwenza ukuba ngibingelele kubo bonke abaholi be-ANC Women’s League abakhona la kule Ndlu. Okwesibili ngicela ukuthi ngiphinde ngibonge komama abasiholileyo nathi kwaze kwaba lapha. Labo ngomama abanjengomama uNjobe, umama uGcina nomama uBertha nabanye. Sifike sibancane basikhulisa ngebele labo.

Le nyanga kaMandulo yinyanga ebaluleke kabi kithina singomama baseNingizimu Afrika. Okokuqala, mangibonge uHulumeni oholwa uKhongolose owenzile ukuthi umhla ka-9 ku-Agasti ube yiholide. [Ihlombe.]

Izinhlelo zamazwe amaningi omhlaba zikhombisile ukuthi izinhlelo eziningi zokuthuthukisa abantu besifazane kwezomnotho ziyaye zithathe umkhakha wezenhlalakahle kumbe izinhlelo zokwenza abantu besifazane bahlale njalo bekhangeza. Azikubheki ukuzimela gelekeqe kwabantu besifazane ngokwezomnotho. Abaningi baba ngabasebenzi kumbe babe ngabadayisi emgwaqeni noma babe namabhizinisi amancane amfimfayo, afaka nje kuphela okuya ngezansi kwekhala. Make ngibuyele emuva kancane. Ngaphansi kukaHulumeni wobandlululo abantu besifazane kuleli zwe babeyinebetholo. Kwakungekho zinhlelo kumbe imithetho eyayishaywa kuleNdlu ukuqinisekisa ukuthi omama bayatomula emnothweni waleli zwe, ngisho nabesifazane abamhlophe imbala abazange babhekelelwe, babeyizicashalala nje zamadoda.

Kule nyanga kaMandulo namhlanje singomama baseNingizimu Afrika, sijabulela izwe lethu. Kulo nyaka nakule nyanga sihalalisa uHulumeni wabantu obuyise isithunzi sethu wenza kwaba mnandi ukuba ngumama. Halala Khongolose, Halala!

Okokuqala, mangithulele uKhongolose isigqoko ngalo mthetho oshaywe kule Ndlu ngo-2003 obizwa ngokuthi ukhukhulelangoqo wokuthuthukisa osozimboni abamnyama. NgolukaJoji kuthiwa yi-broad based black empowerment. Lo mthetho uthi mazande izimboni zabantu abamnyama kthi izimboni zakithi ziphathwe ngumphakathi, abasebenzi, okopeletsheni, njalo njalo. Ngamanye amazwi, umnotho awuphathwe ngokuhlanganyela, banciphe ogimbela kwesakhe. Abantu abamnyama mabathuthukiswe emakhonweni ahlukene. Izimali azifakwe kulezi zimboni eziphethwe ngabantu abamnyama ngokuhlanganyela. Lo mthetho uhlose ukuqeda nya leli gebe elikhona kulo mnotho waleli zwe ohlukene kabili. Izifundiswa-ke zona zithi ``This law aims to merge the two economies in South Africa.’’ [Lo mthetho uqonde ukuhlanganisa iminotho emibili yaseNingizimu Afrika.]

Abantu besifazane sebeqalile ukuhlomula futhi basazohlomula kakhulu kulo mthetho. Namhlanje somlomo siza nazo, wena yiza nendlebe. Ngeyethu le nyanga ngakho siyagiya siyaqephuza. Okokuqala, mangibopnge kuNgqongqoshe uMaMlambo nekomidi lomNyango weziMbiwa naMandla. Basebenzile ngokuthuthukisa abantu besifazane kulo mkhakha. Phela ngesikhathi sobandlululo lo mkhakha ubungu-alibhadwa kubantu besifazane. Sibonga ukusungulwa kweSawima. NgolukaJoji kuthiwa yi-South African Women in Mining Association. Namhlanje abantu besifazane bomdabu sebenakho ukuthola amalungelo okumba amagugu ngaphansi komhlaba. Bayakwazi ukuba ngabanikazi bezimayini. Ngonyaka ka-2003 kube nezinkampani ezingama-50 ezibhaliswe ngokusemthethweni zomama.

ENdwedwe kwaZulu-Natali kunomama abamba ikhawolini, lena esetshenziswa ezingqwembeni zezincwadi, ecwebezelayo, esetshenziswa nasezitinini ezifakwa phansi ezindlini. Laphaya eNewcastle, Osizweni, kwaZulu-Natali, omama bamba ubumba olubomvu lokwakha izitini. Namhlanje banenkampani esebenza ihlangene noCorobrik. Laphaya eBaberton kube nobugebengu obuningi bokwebiwa kwegolide. Abantu bebesebenzisa imekhyuri ekugezeni leli golide. Le mekhyuri eyingozi enkulu ezingozini zabo. IMintec ifike yenza izinhlelo zokuthi abantu balimbe leli golide ngokusemthetweni, kwaqedwa nya ukusetshenziswa kwemekhyuri. ELimpopo naseMpumalanga abantu baye babuyiselwa umhlaba wabo waseMotubatse okutholakale kuwona izimayini ezinhlanu zeplatinamu. Lezi zimayini zizovulwa khona maduzane, abantu baseMotubatse besifazane bazolhlomula kakhulu kulezi zimayini. Nanku omunye umthetho oshayiwe bakwethu. Ngumthetho othi ngeke kube saba khona izimbiwa zakuleli ezizothunyelwa kwamanye amazwe ziluhlaza cwe. Ngalo mthetho sekwande abantu besifazane abapholisha amadayimane, ngisho nabakha izinhlobonhlobo zobucwebe. Izinto ziguqukile eNingizimu Afrika madoda. Namhlanje abantu besifazane baphakathi emgodini, emathunjini omhlaba, bagibela izingolovane. Ukungena nje kukagesi ezindaweni zabantu abantulayo kwenze omkhulu umehluko ezimpilweni zabantu besifazane. Sebeyakwazi ukwenza izifundo zokubhala ezikoleni ebusuku.

Bakwethu, okwenziwe yilo mnyango kumnandi nasenhliziyweni. Kwehla kamnandi wena owabona amafutha ehla ezindevini zika-Aroni. [Ihlombe.] Nezimboni ezingaphansi kukaHulumeni zilibambile iqhaza ekuthuthukiseni abantu besifazane ngakwezomnotho. U-Escom uye wayivula indlela kubantu besifazane abaqhamuka emiphakathini entulayo, abanamabhizinisi kanye nakubantu besifazane abathuthukiswa ngokwezamakhono. U-Escom uyakholelwa ekutheni impilo engcono kubantu incike kakhulu ekutheni bathuthuke ngokomnotho. U- Escom unohlelo lokuthuthukisa abantu besifazane abahlala ezindaweni zasemakhaya, emkhakheni wobuchwepheshe nasezifundweni zezibalo zesayensi kanye nezobunzululwazi. Sikhuluma nje kunabantu besifazane abangama-900 abaphothule izifundo zabo, bathola iziqu ze-MSC kwezokuphatha, kwezezimboni nasebunjiniyeleni. Bonke basebenza kwa-Escom kumanje.

U-Escom njalo ngonyaka ukhipha imifundaze enikezwa abantu besifazane abamnyama nabafunda izifundo zobunjiniyela. Kusukela ngo-2002 u-Escom uye wakwenza inqubo yakhe ukuthi uma bedinga abakhiqizi umsebenzi lowo unikwe izimboni eziphethwe ngabantu abamnyama besifazane, aphinde futhi abaqeqeshe emikhakheni eyahlukene.

Kuyacaca ukuthi kuningi uHulumeni nezimboni zakhe akwenzayo ukuthuthukisa izimpilo zabantu besifazane bakithi. Kodwa sikhuluma nje namhlanje ngokuthuthukiswa kwabantu besifazane kwezomnotho, lo mnotho esikhuluma ngawo wakuleli usezandleni zobani na. Usaphethwe yibo ongxiwankulu ngaphansi kwezimboni eziphethwe eceleni. Abanye babo bayezwa uma uHulumeni eyihlahla indlela, abanye lolu daba balubona kalufifi. Abanye basabambelele ekutheni bona bangogimbela kwesabo.

Kusekhona ukuxhashazwa okuningi kwabantu besifazane ezimbonini zangasese. Uma uya ezimbonini ezidayisa ngokudla lapho iningi lethu lithenga khona ukudla, uthola ukuthi baningi abasebenzi besifazane bayitoho, abanawo amalungelo kanti abakwazi nokujoyina izinyunyana. Kuyakhanya bha ukuthi uHulumeni oholwa nguKhongolose ufuna omame bakuleli bawuthathe ube sezandleni zabo umnotho wale lizwe, bangabi okhangezile, ngoba uKhongolose uyaholelwa ekutheni impilo engcono komama yimpilo engcono emndenini ngamunye. Impilo engcono emndenini ngamunye, yimpilo engcono emphakathini wonkana. Impilo engcono emphakathini wonkana yimpilo engcono esizweni sonke. Umnotho kumama, wumnotho wesizwe. [Ihlombe.] (Translation of Zulu speech follows.)

[Mrs P N MNANDI: Chair of Chairs, Deputy Speaker, Ministers present in this House, hon members, comrades and relatives, firstly, I would like to greet all the leaders of ANC Women’s League who are present in this House. Secondly, I would like to thank the women who have led us up to now. Those are women like Madam Njobe, Madam Gcina, Madam Bertha and others. We came here very young but we grew because they breast-fed us.

This month of August is the most important month to us as women of South Africa. Firstly, let me thank the government led by the ANC who made it possible for this day of 9 August to become a public holiday. [Applause.]

Programmes of many countries have indicated that many programmes of economic empowerment for women take the route of welfare or programmes that make women to be always dependent. They do not consider total independence for women in the economy. Most of them become ordinary workers, hawkers or own small businesses, providing enough only for food. May I go back a little bit. During the apartheid government women were nonentities in this country. There were no programmes or laws made in this House to see to it that women had a proper share in the economy of this country. Even the white women were not protected; they were subservient to men.

Today, in this month of August, we as women of South Africa are happy for our country. This year and this month we congratulate the democratic government that brought back our dignity and made motherhood enjoyable. Halala, [congratulations,] ANC, Halala!

Firstly, may I admire the ANC for the rule made in this House in 2003 regarding something called black empowerment. In English its full name is broad based black empowerment. This law says, let there be more companies for the black people. The communities, employees, corporations, etc, must manage these companies. In other words, the economy should be shared and there must be a decrease of those individuals who want to monopolise the economy.

Black people must be trained in different skills. Funds must be given to those companies run by black people working together. This law aims to close the gap we have in this country’s economy that is divided into two. The learned say this law aims to merge the two economies in South Africa.

Women have started to benefit and they are still going to benefit more under this law. Today, Madam Speaker, we are telling you, lend us your ear. This is our month, and so we are dancing. Firstly, may I thank the hon Minister Mamlambo and the committee on minerals and energy. They have done a good job by empowering women in this department. During the apartheid era this department was a no-go area to women. We are thankful for the initiative of Sawima. In English its full name is the South African Women in Mining Association. Today black women have rights to dig for valuables underground. They are able to own mines. In the year 2003 there were 50 companies that were legally registered in the name of women.

In Endwedwe, KwaZulu–Natal, there are women digging a mineral called ikhawolini. Used in book covers, it is shiny. It is also used in floor tiles. In KwaZulu-Natal, Newcastle, Osizweni, women dig for red clay used to make bricks. Today they have their own company and they are working together with Corobrik. In Barberton there was a high rate of gold smuggling. People were using mercury to wash gold. This mercury is a high risk in their lives. Then Mintec came up with programmes for digging this gold legally, and thus the usage of mercury was completely stopped. In Limpopo and Mpumalanga there was land restitution at Motubatse, where five platinum mines were discovered. These mines will be opened very soon; the women of Motubatse will benefit a lot from these mines. People, here is another law that has been passed. The law says there will be no more minerals from this country that will be exported without being processed. Through this law there has been an increase in the number of females who polish diamonds and those who design different kinds of jewellery. Things have changed in South Africa. Today women are inside the mines, underground, driving the mine trains. The installation of electricity in areas for poor communities has made a great difference in women’s lives. They are now able to do literacy studies at night schools.

People, what this department did brought tremendous happiness. It is very good. [Applause.] Even the companies under the government are playing a crucial role in empowering women economically. Eskom paved the way for women from poor communities, those who own businesses and women who are empowered through skills. Eskom believes that a better life for people is in line with economic empowerment. Eskom has a programme for empowering women living in rural areas, in technology and studies like science, mathematics and philosophy. As we are talking there are 900 women who have completed their studies, and have graduated with an M S in management, mining and engineering. Now they are all working at Eskom.

Every year Eskom gives bursaries to black women who are studying engineering. As from 2002 Eskom made it their procedure that if they need manufacturers the tenders will be given to companies run by black women, and that they will further train them in different fields. It is clear that the government and its companies are doing a lot to empower the lives of our women. However, today, as we are talking about empowerment in the economy, in whose hands is the economy that we are talking about? It is still in the hands of whites in private companies. Some understand that the Government is paving the way; others still have an unclear understanding of this matter. Others still regard themselves as being envied.

There is still a lot of abuse of women in private companies. If you go to supermarkets where the majority of us shop, you find that many women work as casuals, they do not have rights and they cannot even join unions. It is very clear that the ANC government wants the women of this country to take the economy of this country into their hands. They must not be beggars because the ANC believes that a better life for women is a better life for each family. A better life for a family is a better life for the community at large. A better life for the community at large is a better life for the whole country. An economy for women is an economy for the country. [Applause.]]

Ms C S BOTHA: Chairperson, I wanted to say that we have to look no further than this House to see more than a hundred reasons why we are celebrating women’s emancipation. I am afraid you will have to use your imagination a bit, looking at these empty benches.

The opportunities which democracy and the end of apartheid brought to us are nowhere more visibly illustrated than by the phenomenal progress made in female representation in Parliament, and indeed in all spheres of government. This is no less remarkable an achievement for the men of South Africa, who have had to make a radical paradigm shift to accommodate these changes.

The emancipation of women is after all intimately part of the larger context of gender, society and democracy. Nor can we forget that we have come to these positions through the votes, political participation and sacrifices of millions of women whose lives have not been changed. Our celebration must therefore constantly be viewed against the backdrop of those women who live with faith, hope and little else.

I think the title of this debate is particularly apposite. Our ten years of freedom is but the beginning of our emancipation. It reminds me of President Kennedy at the Berlin Wall when he said, “Ich bin ein Berliner”, illustrating the indivisibility of freedom. And yet as dramatically as the fall of the wall was an end to an era, more importantly, it was simply the beginning of another of life’s unending challenges.

The groundwork which brought us together here was not created overnight, but decade by decade women moved ahead in an incremental fashion. Post-1945 women could only vote in 31 countries, yet at that time the United Nations legally established gender equality as a fundamental human right for the first time in history. This was followed by decades of slow but undeniable advancement, marked by the Mexico World Conference in 1975, the creation of Unifem, the adoption of Cedaw in 1979, the acceptance in Nairobi in 1985 of the forward-looking strategies for the advancement of women; and next year will mark 10 years since the Beijing Platform was accepted in 1995.

When the Women’s National Coalition drew up its widely researched women’s charter for effective equality in 1994, much of what has become commonplace today was simply a wish list then. Little did we know then that our participation in the negotiations would become a model for other countries in Africa and that we would be playing a leading role in the governance of Africa; or that we would be sharing our experiences with the women of the Congo, Burundi and other African countries; or that we would become the subject of Masters theses at many universities of the world.

Having gained international recognition, I believe we must return to our roots, go back to the women whom we initially asked what they wanted from the new South Africa, and measure in a transparent and structured fashion whether we have delivered on their expectations. When we meet, perhaps as the multiparty women’s caucus, let us set aside our glad rags, don our working clothes, review our charter and plan ahead for the next 10 years. Thank you. [Applause.]

The MINISTER OF WATER AFFAIRS AND FORESTRY: Chairperson, it is very unfortunate that a debate as important and as dignified as this one is being turned into a racial debate by the hon Van der Walt, while our Constitution rests on two fundamental principles, nonracialism and nonsexism, which make all South Africans equal before the law. [Interjections.]

Mr P J GROENEWALD: Do you understand Afrikaans?

The MINISTER OF FORESTRY AND WATER AFFAIRS: It is unfortunate to hear her taking a racial approach, portraying Afrikaner women as victims who need special treatment and who need special attention, forgetting that apartheid left our women without husbands. Apartheid left our women maimed and with psychological scars - and some of those women are in this House. [Applause.]

I think all women are subjected to social atrocities, whether black or white, and they are entitled to the same protection and the same privileges, regardless of race or creed.

HON MEMBERS: That is what she said!

The MINISTER OF FORESTRY AND WATER AFFAIRS: That is not what she said! [Interjections.]

The significance of this debate today is that it is a celebration of the successful first 10 years of the ANC-led democratic rule in South Africa. [Applause.] As we recount the achievements of the past 10 years we salute the women of this country for their countless contributions to the country’s development and wellbeing, for their achievements in business and sport, and for the quiet behind-the-scenes role they play every day as workers, wives and mothers.

Ngakumbi lawo makhosikazi ayehleli ezimisele ukuyibamba ngobukhali bayo imela esilwela inkululeko. Kule nyanga yamakhosikazi yomnyaka weshumi sixhamla inkululeko, kumele ukuba sikhangele umgama else siwuhambile singurhulumente wedemokhrasi kwiinkalo zonke ezichaphazela ubomi babantu belizwe lethu. Nanjengoko ezi nkalo zobomi zazityhefwe yinkqubo ye- apartheid eankile yayo yayilucalucalulo ngokwebala, nto leyo ethetha ukuba abantu ababeligcudwana lobandlululo babenamalungelo abhetele kunabantwana bomthonyama.

Isihloko sam ke namhlanje siza kugxininisa kumcimbi wamanzi nomhlaba ezisesazulwini sobutyebi kweli lizwe lethu nakwilizwekazi leAfrika. Kambe ke phambi kokuba ndingene kulo mba, ndingathanda ukulanda imvelaphi enkokelele kwiimeko zentlupheko ezihlula ubutyebi belizwe lethu bube ntlantlu-mbini, le nto uMongameli athi yi-first ne-second economy. Ndivumeleni ke ndiwuzobe ngesilungu lo mfanekiso. (Translation of Xhosa paragraphs follows.)

[This is especially true of those women who were prepared to take a knife by its sharp point in fighting for freedom. In this month of women, celebrating ten years of democracy, we are supposed to look at our progress as the government of democracy in all spheres that concern the lives of the people of our country. These spheres of life were poisoned by the programme of apartheid with its anchor of racism. This means that the minority of racists had better rights than African people.

My main topic will focus on the issue of water and land, which is central to wealth in our country and on the African continent. Before I can talk about this issue I would like to talk about the background that led to the conditions of suffering that divide the wealth of our country into what are referred to by the President as the first and second economies. Allow me to paint this picture in English.]

The 1913 Land Act, as we all know, dispossessed the indigenous people of their major capital asset, the land, and the present government is dealing with the consequences of this situation to date. Realising the importance of water to ensure productivity of the land, the colonial powers instituted the Water Conservation Act in 1936, which gave water rights to land owners. Those rights were known as riparian rights. These rights effectively meant that while the people were tilling the land for the enrichment of the minority colonists, they had to get permission to use water for their own consumption; and obviously they would not be getting much from the harvest they toiled for, the produce of the land, which originally belonged to them.

The frustration of losing agricultural land can be understood in the following, expressed by Tsitsi Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean woman writer, who says about land dispossession:

Wizards who were well versed in treachery and black magic came from the south and forced the people from the land on donkey, on foot, on horse or on ox cart. The people looked for a place to live, but the wizards were avaricious and grasping. [Applause.] There was less and less land for the people. At last the people came upon the grey, sandy soil of the homestead, so stony and barren that the wizard would not use it.

Bawuthatha ngokunyoluka umhlaba bashiya owona ungatsitsi nto. [They took this land with greed and left the arid land.]

President Mkaba, expressing the same frustration only yesterday at the SADC summit meeting in Mauritius, said:

  Let the outside world understand that to us Africans land is much more
  than a means of production. We are spiritually anchored in the lands
  of our ancestors.

The situation I have described above was a double-edged sword for women who suffered both class and gender discrimination. Indeed, they suffered the consequences of the poverty of blackness on one hand, and the weight of womanhood on the other.

The legacy that the ANC government found as a consequence of these discriminatory laws, mainly the Land Act of 1913 and the Water Conservation Act of 1936, impoverished women the most, hence they are the majority of those who are affected by asset capital poverty. On the other hand, lack of access to clean water, which is a major tool for protecting human capital, subjected women to social asset poverty. In a nutshell, this was the situation when the ANC took over governance in this country in 1994.

At the time of taking over government, the ANC had been ready to govern. In 1955 the Freedom Charter already outlined a broad policy framework, which was the basis for taking our country forward, and at the core of the Freedom Charter is the element of nonsexism and nonracialism.

The Reconstruction and Development Programme that followed provided some practical steps towards achieving a nonsexist and nonracial South Africa through the principle of nation-building and building the economy through redistribution. As the ANC, we declared that 30% of agricultural land would be given back to previously disadvantaged communities. This was a double benefit for the black women of this country, as it addressed their discrimination along class and gender lines.

These principles were later integrated into the Constitution and over the past 10 years they were translated into a legislative framework that is deliberately biased towards women and their rights. Today we have the Land Restitution Act and all other laws that create an enabling environment. Of about 800 pieces of legislation passed since the birth of democracy in 1994, the National Water Act and the Land Restitution Act are some of those that have been instrumental in facilitating gender mainstreaming in our socioeconomic development programmes, especially in the rural areas.

We have programmes for female farmers, among them a project which Minister Didiza is launching today in Ngadini, which is benefiting about 12 families, the majority of which are headed by women. These families are getting 124 hectares of land.

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry also has a resource-poor farmers’ support programme from which women can benefit. This programme will help to ensure that women have access to water for their crops.

One of the most important features in the achievements of the first decade of democracy is that we have supplied water to about 10 million people in our country, and this is a fact known the world over. The beneficiaries have mainly been women and girls who both have to walk long distances to carry water. It is also women who care for children and the aged who fall ill as a result of using impure water. We have also ensured that even the poorest members of our society have access to basic services through the provision of basic water and electricity.

I want to mention one woman who understands fully the interrelatedness of water and soil for poverty alleviation, Matshepo Khumbane. She trains women in efficient water use, crop production and business management. Matshepo’s integrated approach to the utilisation of land for poverty alleviation and wealth creation is a good and practical model for the realisation of government’s integrated approach to socioeconomic development.

In the area of forestry, which has previously been dominated by male and pale people, about 60% of the beneficiaries of the outgrowers scheme in Northern KwaZulu-Natal have been women. As we celebrate 10 years of women’s contribution to democracy, we also take this opportunity to identify the gaps and challenges that will fit into our future programmes of service delivery, understood in the context of the targets of the current financial year as reflected in the state of the nation address by the President this year; as well as our own 2014 vision as South Africans and our contribution to the millennium development goals.

Somlomo, naxa sele umde umgama esiwuhambileyo ukuphucula intlalo yabantu nokuvula amathuba, ndifuna ukukhumbuza le Ndlu ukuba sisenoxanduva singoomama, singootata, singuRhulumente, singamalungu ale Ndlu yoWiso- Mthetho, lokuqinisekisa ukuba okokuqala, uluntu, ngakumbi oomama, luyazifumana iinkcukacha ngeenkonzo zikaRhulumente. Kufuneka siye emaphandleni sibanike ulwazi. Siyaqhubeka ke ngeemfundiso nangamalungelo oomama ingakumbi kumakhosikazi asesemaphandleni kwaye sibakhuthaza kananjalo ukuba bawalwele amalungelo abo ngalo lonke ixesha. Masiwakhuthaze amakhosikazi asebenzisane ukuze siyilwe iphele gqibelele indlala. Oomama mabancede bankqonkqoze kwiminyango kaRhulumente ukuze bafumane uncedo kwiingxaki abanazo. Lo Rhulumente ngowabo, uvotelwe ngabo. [Kwaqhwatywa.] Konke oku kuza kuqinisekisa ukuba indlala siza kuyigweba yaye siqinisekisa ukuba amakhosikazi jikelele ayaxhamla kubutyebi beli lizwe. (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[Madam Speaker, even though we have come a long way in improving the lives of people and creating opportunities, I want to remind this House that we still have a responsibility as women, as men, as the government and as members of the National Assembly, of ensuring, firstly, that people and especially women get details about Government services in particular. We need to go to the rural areas and give them information. We will continue the education about women’s rights, especially women in the rural areas, and we encourage them to fight for their rights all the time. We must encourage women to work together so that we fight poverty and uproot it. Women must please visit Government offices so that they can get help with problems they have. This Government is theirs, it was voted in by them. [Applause.] All this will ensure that poverty is going to end, and also that women in general will benefit from the economy of this country.]

I would like to urge women to put into use the words of the President during his address at the national women’s event at Witbank when he said: “Do not be afraid to stand up against the strongest for the right thing.”

Amakhosikazi anamandla okuguqula nayiphina imeko yaye anawo namalungelo aze nale nkululeko. [Women have the power to change any situation and they have the rights brought about by this freedom.]

In conclusion, I wish to read the following poem drawn from the words of women at a women’s resource access programme workshop in India:

Land is might, land is right; Land is water, land is shelter; Land is dignity, land is honour; Land is our mother. Let us promise each other That it will not be for barter. Let us unite to save it from exploiters. Women need forests, Women need water, Access to education and to power, Freedom from bondage, Freedom from hunger. Let us bring them their honour. Land to women is actually revolution As it saves children from malnutrition And it makes families function.

Phambili nedabi lokulwa indlala echaphazela amakhosikazi, phambili! Phambili nokulima umhlaba! Masibambane, sincedisane, sixhasane, siye enkululekweni egqibeleleyo yamakhosikazi. Ndiyabulela. [Uwelewele.] [Kwaqhwatywa.] (Translation of Xhosa paragraph follows.)

[Forward with the struggle of fighting poverty that affects women, forward! Forward with farming the land! We must unite, help each other, support each other, and move towards sound democracy on the part of women. Thank you. [Interjections.][Applause.]]

Debate concluded.

The House adjourned at 17:45. ____

            ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS




                        MONDAY, 28 JUNE 2004

TABLINGS

National Assembly

1. The Speaker

 Letter from the Minister of Arts and Culture to the Speaker of the
 National Assembly, in terms of section 65(2)(a) of the Public Finance
 Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999), explaining the delay in the
 tabling of the Annual Report of the National Library of South Africa
 for 2002-2003:

     Dear Madam Speaker

     In terms of section 65(1)(a) of the above-mentioned Act the annual
     report and financial statements, and the audit reports on those
     statements, of The National Library of South Africa have not been
     tabled due to logistical reasons.

     The Annual Report, Financial Statements and the Audit Report of
     the National Library of South Africa for 2002-2003 were only
     finalised at the end of February 2004 and will be tabled at the
     first available opportunity.

     Yours sincerely

     Signed
     DR Z P JORDAN
     MINISTER: ARTS AND CULTURE

COMMITTEE REPORTS

National Assembly

CREDA INSERT REPORT - Insert No 1 from “ATC0628e”

CREDA INSERT REPORT - Insert No 2 from “ATC0628e”

                        TUESDAY, 29 JUNE 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Translations of Bills submitted

 (1)    The Minister of Finance


     (i)     Wysigingswetsontwerp op Belastingwette [W 8 - 2004]
          (National Assembly - sec 77)

     This is the official translation into Afrikaans of the Taxation
     Laws Amendment Bill [B 8 - 2004] (National Assembly - sec 77).

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Speaker and the Chairperson

 Submission of the Financial and Fiscal Commission on the Division of
 Revenue Bill for 2005-2006, tabled in terms of section 9 of the
 Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Act, 1997 (Act No 97 of 1997).

1. The Minister of Correctional Services

 Report of the Judicial Inspectorate on Prisons and Prisoners for 2003-
 2004 [RP 72-2004].

COMMITTEE REPORTS

National Assembly

1. Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Science and Technology on Budget Vote 18 - Science and Technology, dated 23 June 2004:

   The Ad Hoc Committee on Science and Technology, having considered Budget Vote 18 - Science and Technology, reports that it has concluded its deliberations thereon.

                    WEDNESDAY, 30 JUNE 2004
   

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Bills passed by Houses - to be submitted to President for assent

 (1)    Bills passed by National Council of Provinces on 30 June 2004:


     (i)     Appropriation Bill [B 3 - 2004] (National Assembly - sec
          77)

     (ii)    Taxation Laws Amendment Bill [B 8 - 2004] (National
          Assembly - sec 77)

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister for Safety and Security

 Draft Directions by the National Commissioner of the South African
 Police Service, in terms of section 34(3)(c) of the Prevention and
 Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004 (Act No 12 of 2004).

1. The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry

 Government Notice No 732 published in Government Gazette No 26295 dated
 30 April 2004: Request for written comments are invited from the public
 on the Draft Water Services Amendment Bill and Explanatory Memorandum.


                        THURSDAY, 1 JULY 2004

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry

 (a)    Government Notice No 663 published in Government Gazette No
     26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires in
     open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
     maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
     burns Vhembe District Municipality (formerly Soutpansberg areas),
     in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).

 (b)    Government Notice No 664 published in Government Gazette No
     26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires in
     open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
     maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
     burns Mopane District Municipality (formerly Letaba and
     Pietersburg Districts), in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No
     122 of 1984).

 (c)    Government Notice No 665 published in Government Gazette No
     26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires in
     open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
     maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
     burns: Districts of (a) Ermelo, Eerstehoek, Carolina and Waterval-
     Boven, (b) Piet Retief and Wakkerstroom, in terms of the Forest
     Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).

 (d)    Government Notice No 666 published in Government Gazette No
     26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires in
     open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
     maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
     burns: Districts of Nelspruit, White River, Pilgrim's Rest,
     Lydenburg, Belfast, Waterval-Boven, Carolina and Barberton, in
     terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).

 (e)    Government Notice No 667 published in Government Gazette No
     26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires in
     open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
     maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
     burns: KwaZulu-Natal, in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122
     of 1984).


                        THURSDAY, 8 JULY 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Introduction of Bills

 (1)    The Minister of Minerals and Energy


     (i)     Energy Regulator Bill [B 9 - 2004] (National Assembly -
          sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior notice of its
          introduction published in Government Gazette No 25994 of 6
          February 2004.]

     Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Minerals
     and Energy of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the
     Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint
     Rule 160, on 9 July 2004.

     In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
     the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
     within three parliamentary working days.

1. Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159

 (1)    Energy Regulator Bill, 2004, submitted by the Minister of
     Minerals and Energy on 2 July 2004. Referred to the Portfolio
     Committee on Minerals and Energy and the Select Committee on
     Economic and Foreign Affairs.


 (2)    Sterilisation Amendment Bill, 2004, submitted by the Minister of
     Health on 28 June 2004. Referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Health and the Select Committee on Social Services.

National Assembly

1. Members of Rules Committee

 African National Congress

     Appointed: Baloyi, Mr M R
     Appointed: Bhengu, Mr F (Alt)
     Appointed: Jeffery, Mr J H
     Discharged: Oosthuizen, Mr G C
     Appointed: Sithole, Mr D J (Alt)

1. Referrals to committees of papers tabled

 The following papers have been tabled and are now referred to the
 relevant committees as mentioned below:


 (1)    The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Water Affairs and Forestry and the Portfolio Committee on
     Environmental Affairs and Tourism:


     (a)     Government Notice No 663 published in Government Gazette
          No 26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires
          in open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
          maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
          burns Vhembe District Municipality (formerly Soutpansberg
          areas), in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).

     (b)     Government Notice No 664 published in Government Gazette
          No 26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires
          in open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
          maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
          burns Mopane District Municipality (formerly Letaba and
          Pietersburg Districts), in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act
          No 122 of 1984).

     (c)     Government Notice No 665 published in Government Gazette
          No 26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires
          in open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
          maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
          burns: Districts of (a) Ermelo, Eerstehoek, Carolina and
          Waterval-Boven, (b) Piet Retief and Wakkerstroom, in terms of
          the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).

     (d)     Government Notice No 666 published in Government Gazette
          No 26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires
          in open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
          maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
          burns: Districts of Nelspruit, White River, Pilgrim's Rest,
          Lydenburg, Belfast, Waterval-Boven, Carolina and Barberton, in
          terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No 122 of 1984).

     (e)     Government Notice No 667 published in Government Gazette
          No 26407 dated 28 May 2004: Prohibition on the making of fires
          in open air, the destruction by burning slash and clearing or
          maintenance of firebelts by burning and the execution of block-
          burns: KwaZulu-Natal, in terms of the Forest Act, 1984 (Act No
          122 of 1984).


                        FRIDAY, 16 JULY 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Introduction of Bills

 (1)    The Minister of Trade and Industry


     (i)     Companies Amendment Bill [B 10 - 2004] (National Assembly
          - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior notice of its
          introduction published in Government Gazette No 26506 of 25
          June 2004.]

     Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and
     Industry of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the
     Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint
     Rule 160, on 15 July 2004.


 (2)    The Minister of Home Affairs


     (i)     Immigration Amendment Bill [B 11 - 2004] (National
          Assembly - sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior
          notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No
          26507 of 24 June 2004.]

     Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Home
     Affairs of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint
     Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule
     160, on 15 July 2004.

 In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of the
 Bills may be submitted to the JTM within three parliamentary working
 days.

1. Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159

 (1)    Companies Amendment Bill, 2004, submitted by the Minister of
     Trade and Industry on 8 June 2004. Referred to the Portfolio
     Committee on Trade and Industry and the Select Committee on
     Economic and Foreign Affairs.

National Assembly

1. Appointment of Whips of the National Assembly

 African National Congress

     Baloyi, Mr M R
     Bapela, Mr K O
     Fihla, Mr N B
     Frolick, Mr C T
     Gumede, Mr D M
     Jacobus, Ms L
     Kannemeyer, Mr B W
     Kondlo, Ms N C
     Lekgoro, Mr M M S
     Louw, Mr S K
     Maloyi, Mr P D N
     Malumise, Ms M M
     Manie, Mr M S
     Masutha, Mr T M
     Maunye, Mrs M M
     Mentor, Ms M P
     Mnandi, Ms P N
     Mngomezulu, Mr G P
     Mofokeng, Mr T R
     Moloto, Mr K A
     Montsitsi, Mr S D
     Motubatse-Hounkpatin, Ms S D
     Mthethwa, Mr E N
     Mzondeki, Mr M J G
     Ngaleka, Ms E
     Olifant, Mr D A A
     Oliphant, Mr G G
     Sefularo, Mr M
     Sekgobela, Ms P S
     Sosibo, Ms J E
     Tshwete, Ms P
     Van der Heever, Mr R P Z

     With effect from 17 June 2004

 Democratic Alliance

     Ellis, Mr M J
     Kalyan, Ms S V
     Lee, Mr T D
     Maluleke, Mr D K

     With effect from 23 April 2004

     Doman, Mr W P
     Schmidt, Mr H C

     With effect from 24 May 2004

 Inkatha Freedom Party

     Mpontsane, Mr A M
     Seaton, Ms S A
     Van den Merwe, Mr J H

     With effect from 4 May 2004

 United Democratic Movement

     Madikiza, Mr G T

     With effect from 23 April 2004

 Independent Democrats

     Harding, Mr A

     With effect from 5 May 2004

 New National Party

     Greyling, Mr C H F

     With effect from 4 May 2004

 African Christian Democratic Party

     Green, Mr L M

     With effect from 3 May 2004

 Freedom Front Plus, United Christian Democratic Party, Pan Africanist
 Congress of Azania, Minority Front and Azanian Peoples' Organisation

     Mfundisi, Mr I S
     Mulder, Dr C P

     With effect from 5 May 2004

1. Referrals to committees of papers tabled

 The following papers have been tabled and are now referred to the
 relevant committees as mentioned below:


 (1)    The following papers are referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Finance:


     (a)     Report of the Executive Officer of the Financial Services
          Board on the Road Accident Fund - 10th Report for 2002-2003.

     (b)     Report and Financial Statements of Sasria Limited for
          2003.

     (c)     Government Notice No 445 published in Government Gazette
          No 26219 dated 31 March 2004: Supplementary adjustments to
          local government allocations for 2003-2004 in terms of the
          Division of Revenue Act, 2003 (Act No 7 of 2003).

     (d)     Government Notice No 446 published in Government Gazette
          No 26220 dated 1 April 2004: Local Government allocations for
          2004-2005 in terms of the Division of Revenue Act, 2004 (Act
          No 5 of 2004).

     (e)     Government Notice No 444 published in Government Gazette
          No 26230 dated 1 April 2004: Allocations made to the provinces
          in terms of section 7 of the Division of Revenue Act, 2004
          (Act No 5 of 2004).


 (2)    The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Finance and the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and
     Administration:

     Government Notice No 423 published in Government Gazette No 26203
     dated 31 March 2004: Amendment of the Rules of the Government
     Employees Pension Fund in terms of the Government Employees
     Pension Law, 1996 (Act No 21 of 1996).


 (3)    The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Arts and Culture and to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
     for consideration:

     Letter from the Minister of Arts and Culture to the Speaker of the
     National Assembly, in terms of section 65(2)(a) of the Public
     Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999), explaining the
     delay in the tabling of the Annual Report of the National Library
     of South Africa for 2002-2003.


 (4)    The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Finance and to the Joint Budget Committee for consideration:

     Submission of the Financial and Fiscal Commission on the Division
     of Revenue Bill for 2005-2006, tabled in terms of section 9 of the
     Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations Act, 1997 (Act No 97 of 1997).


 (5)    The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Correctional Services:

     Report of the Judicial Inspectorate on Prisons and Prisoners for
     2003-2004 [RP 72-2004].


 (6)    The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Safety and Security:

     Draft Directions by the National Commissioner of the South African
     Police Service, in terms of section 34(3)(c) of the Prevention and
     Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004 (Act No 12 of 2004).


 (7)    The following paper is referred to the Portfolio Committee on
     Water Affairs and Forestry:

     Government Notice No 732 published in Government Gazette No 26295
     dated 30 April 2004: Request for written comments are invited from
     the public on the Draft Water Services Amendment Bill and
     Explanatory Memorandum.

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister of Communications

 (a)    Decisions of the 1999 Beijing Congress - Universal Postal Union
     (Final Text of the Acts signed at Beijing), tabled in terms of
     section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996.

b) Explanatory Memorandum to the Decisions of the 1999 Beijing Congress
   - Universal Postal Union.



                       THURSDAY, 29 JULY 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Assent by President in respect of Bills

 (1)    Postal Services Amendment Bill [B 40 - 2003] - Act No 33 of 2003
     (assented to and signed by President on 9 July 2004).


 (2)    National Health Bill [B 32D - 2003] - Act No 61 of 2003
     (assented to and signed by President on 18 July 2004).


 (3)    National Environmental Management Second Amendment Bill [B 56B -
     2003] - Act No 8 of 2004 (assented to and signed by President on 9
     July 2004).

     NOTE: The name of the Act is the National Environmental Management
     Amendment Act, 2004.


 (4)    Communal Land Rights Bill [B 67D - 2003] - Act No 11 of 2004
     (assented to and signed by President on 14 July 2004).


 (5)    Appropriation Bill [B 3 - 2004] - Act No 15 of 2004 (assented to
     and signed by President on 22 July 2004).


 (6)    Taxation Laws Amendment Bill [B 8 - 2004] - Act No 16 of 2004
     (assented to and signed by President on 22 July 2004).

1. Draft Bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159

 (1)    International Arbitration Bill, 2004, submitted by the Minister
     for Justice and Constitutional Development on 10 June 2004.
     Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional
     Development and the Select Committee on Security and
     Constitutional Affairs.

National Assembly

1. Membership of Assembly

 The vacancy which occurred owing to Mr M M Masala vacating his seat in
 the National Assembly with effect from 29 June 2004, has been filled by
 the nomination of Mr P A C Hendrickse with effect from 21 July 2004.

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister of Finance

 (a)    Appointment of a Chairperson and Members to the Financial and
     Fiscal Commission (FFC), in terms of section 221(1) of the
     Constitution, 1996 (Act No 108 of 1996), section 5 of the
     Financial and Fiscal Commission Act, 1997 (Act No 99 of 1997), and
     section 5 of the Organised Local Government Act, 1997 (Act No 52
     of 1997).

 (b)    Government Notice No R788 published in Government Gazette No
     26521 dated 30 June 2004: Exemption in terms of section 74 of the
     Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (Act No 38 of 2001).

 (c)    Government Notice No 722 published in Government Gazette No
     26510 dated 25 June 2004: Commencement dates of certain sections
     of the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003
     (Act No 56 of 2003).

 (d)    Government Notice No 1261 published in Government Gazette No
     26513 dated 28 June 2004: Draft Treasury Regulations published for
     public comment in terms of section 78 of the Public Finance
     Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999).

 (e)    Government Notice No 773 published in Government Gazette No
     26511 dated 1 July 2004: Delays and exemptions in terms of section
     177 of the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act,
     2003 (Act No 56 of 2003).

 (f)    Government Notice No R749 published in Government Gazette No
     26487 dated 21 June 2004: Exemptions in terms of section 74 of the
     Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (Act No 38 of 2001).

 (g)    Proclamation No R24 published in Government Gazette No 26231
     dated 1 April 2004: Commencement of the Government Employees
     Pension Law Amendment Act, 2003 (Act No 35 of 2003).

 (h)    Government Notice No 569 published in Government Gazette No
     26324 dated 31 April 2004: Statement of the National and
     Provincial Governments' revenue, expenditure and national
     borrowing as at 31 March 2004 in terms of the Public Finance
     Management Act, 1999 (Act No 1 of 1999) and Division of Revenue
     Act, 2003 (Act No 7 of 2003).

 (i)    Proclamation No 36 published in Government Gazette No 26522
     dated 30 June 2004: Commencement of section 46(2) of the Financial
     Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (Act No 38 of 2001).

1. The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry

 (a)    Government Notice No 824 published in Government Gazette No
     26552 dated 16 July 2004: Transformation of the Clanwilliam
     Irrigation Board, Magisterial district of Clanwilliam, Western
     Cape Province, into the Clanwilliam Water User Association, Water
     Management Area Number 17, Western Cape Province in terms of
     section 98(6) of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).

 (b)    Government Notice No 825 published in Government Gazette No
     26552 dated 16 July 2004: Establishment of the Vanderkloof Water
     User Association, Magisterial districts of Philipstown, Hopetown
     and Herbert situated in the Province of the Northern Cape and
     Fauresmith situated in the Province of the Free State, Water
     Management Area Number 13 in terms of section 92(1) of the
     National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).

 (c)    Government Notice No 826 published in Government Gazette No
     26552 dated 16 July 2004: Transformation of the Koppies Irrigation
     Board, Magisterial districts of Koppies, Heilbron, Province of the
     Free State, into the Renoster River Water User Association, Water
     Management Area Number 9, Free State Province in terms of section
     98(6) of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).

 (d)    Government Notice No 827 published in Government Gazette No
     26552 dated 16 July 2004: Establishment of the Stella Water User
     Association, Magisterial district of Vryburg, North West Province,
     Water Management Area Number 10 in terms of section 92(1) of the
     National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).

 (e)    Government Notice No 828 published in Government Gazette No
     26552 dated 16 July 2004: Establishment of the Tosca/Molopo Water
     User Association, Magisterial district of Vryburg, North West
     Province, Water Management Area Number 10 in terms of section
     92(1) of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).

 (f)    Government Notice No 829 published in Government Gazette No
     26552 dated 16 July 2004: Establishment of the Louwna/Coetzersdam
     Water User Association, Magisterial district of Vryburg, North
     West Province, Water Management Area Number 10 in terms of section
     92(1) of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No 36 of 1998).

National Assembly

1. The Speaker

 (a)    The President of the Republic submitted the following letter
     dated 2 July 2004 to the Speaker of the National Assembly
     informing Members of the Assembly of the employment of the South
     African National Defence Force:

          EMPLOYMENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE IN
          SUDAN IN FULFILLMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE
          REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA TOWARDS THE AFRICAN UNION

          This serves to inform the National Assembly that I authorised
          the employment of the South African National Defence Force
          (SANDF) personnel to Sudan as part of the African Union
          Observer Mission in Sudan.

          This employment was authorised in accordance with the
          provisions of section 201(2)(c) of the Constitution of the
          Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No 108 of 1996), read
          withsection 93 of the Defence Act, 2002 (Act No 42 of 2002).

          A total of 10 members are employed for an initial period of 21
          months. The members will be rotated after 12 months.

          The African Union will provide return air tickets and a daily
          subsistence allowance to cover meals, accommodation and
          expenses of the Military Observers. The total estimated cost
          to be borne by South Africa for the deployment of personnel to
          the mission until 31 March 2006 is R 2 044 602,00 to cover the
          standard Republic of South Africa allowances for foreign
          deployments and mid-term home visit air travel.

          The Department of Defence will accommodate the expenditure
          within its current allocation for Peace Support Operations.

          I will communicate this report to the Members of the National
          Council of Provinces and the Chairperson of the Joint Standing
          Committee on Defence, and wish to request that you bring the
          contents hereof to the notice of the National Assembly.

          Regards

          SIGNED
          T M MBEKI


 (b)    The President of the Republic submitted the following letter
     dated 21 July 2004 to the Speaker of the National Assembly
     informing Members of Assembly of the employment of the South
     African National Defence Force:

          EMPLOYMENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE IN
          FULFILLMENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC
          OF SOUTH AFRICA TOWARDS THE REPUBLIC OF BURUNDI

          This serves to inform the National Assembly that I authorised
          the employment of the South African National Defence Force
          (SANDF) personnel to the Republic of Burundi to provide
          protection services to Burundian political leaders.

          This employment was authorised in accordance with the
          provisions of section 201(2)(c) of the Constitution of the
          Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No 108 of 1996), read with
          section 93 of the Defence Act, 2002 (Act No 42 of 2002).

          A total of 475 personnel are employed until after Burundi
          general elections, but not later than 31 December 2004. The
          said elections are envisaged to take place at the end of
          October 2004.

          The total estimated cost to be borne by South Africa for the
          deployment of personnel to the mission until 31 December 2004
          is R 39 million.

          The Department of Defence will accommodate the expenditure
          within its current allocation for Peace Support Operations.

          I will communicate this report to the Members of the National
          Council of Provinces and the Chairperson of the Joint Standing
          Committee on Defence, and wish to request that you bring the
          contents hereof to the notice of the National Assembly.

          Regards

          SIGNED
          T M MBEKI


                        MONDAY, 2 AUGUST 2004

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister in The Presidency

 Report and Financial Statements of the Media Development and Diversity
 Agency (MDDA) for 2003-2004, including the Report of the Auditor-
 General on the Financial Statements for 2003-2004 [RP 108-2004].

National Assembly

1. The Speaker

 Petition submitted by the Mophate Restitution Petitioners for the
 extension of the deadline for land restitution claims.




                       THURSDAY, 5 AUGUST 2004

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister of Finance

 Annual Report of the South African Reserve Bank - Bank Supervision
 Department for 2003 [RP 20-2004].


                       TUESDAY, 10 AUGUST 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Classification of Bills by Joint Tagging Mechanism:

 (1)    The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 10 August 2004 in terms of
     Joint Rule 160(3), classified the following Bill as a section 75
     Bill:


     (i)     Energy Regulator Bill [B 9 - 2004] (National Assembly -
          sec 75)

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister for the Public Service and Administration

 Report of the work of the Interim Management Team (IMT) in the Eastern
 Cape for the period November 2002 to March 2004.

1. The Minister of Education

 Report and Financial Statements of Umalusi - Council for Quality
 Assurance in General and Further Education and Training for 2003-2004,
 including the Report of Independent Auditors on the Financial
 Statements for 2003-2004.


                      WEDNESDAY, 11 AUGUST 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Classification of Bills by Joint Tagging Mechanism:

 (1)    The Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 5 August 2004 in terms of
     Joint Rule 160(3), classified the following Bill as a section 75
     Bill:


     (i)     Immigration Amendment Bill [B 11 - 2004] (National
          Assembly - sec 75)

COMMITTEE REPORTS

National Assembly

1. Report of the Portfolio Committee on Health on the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill [B 72 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), dated 10 August 2004:

   The Portfolio Committee on Health, having considered the subject of the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill [B 72 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 76 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 72A - 2003].

   The Committee further reports that the ACDP opposed the Bill, proposed that the entire Bill be rejected and called for a review of the principal Act.

   The ACDP was concerned about the fact that the Bill states that no major financial implications for the State are expected. The ACDP contended that there must be a significant rise in costs if the service is in fact in demand, otherwise there would be no need for this amendment. The anticipated increased access to abortion would result in a significant rise in costs, which would be detrimental to the health budget, as valuable resources would be allocated to non-core objectives.

2. Report of the Portfolio Committee on Health on the Dental Technicians Amendment Bill [B 63 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), dated 10 August 2004:

   The Portfolio Committee on Health, having considered the subject of the Dental Technicians Amendment Bill [B 63 - 2003] (National Assembly - sec 76), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 76 Bill, reports the Bill without amendment.

                   THURSDAY, 12 AUGUST 2004
   

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Introduction of Bills

 (1)    The Minister of Health:

     On request of the Minister the following Bill was introduced by
     the Select Committee on Social Services in the National Council of
     Provinces on 13 August 2004:


     (i)     Sterilisation Amendment Bill [B 12 - 2004] (National
          Council of Provinces - sec 76) [Draft Bill and prior notice of
          its introduction published in Government Gazette No 26597 of
          27 July 2004.]

     Referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) on 13 August 2004
     for classification in terms of Joint Rule 160.

     In terms of Joint Rule 154 written views on the classification of
     the Bill may be submitted to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM)
     within three parliamentary working days.

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development

 (a)    Protocol on Legal Affairs in the Southern African Development
     Community (SADC), in terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution,
     1996 (Act No 108 of 1996).

 (b)    Explanatory Memorandum on the Protocol on Legal Affairs in the
     Southern African Development Community (SADC).

 (c)    Protocol of the Court of Justice of the African Union, in terms
     of section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996 (Act No 108 of 1996).

 (d)    Explanatory Memorandum on the Protocol of the Court of Justice
     of the African Union.

 (e)    Treaty between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
     and the Government of the Republic of India on Extradition, in
     terms of section 231(2) of the Constitution, 1996 (Act No 108 of
     1996).

 (f)    Treaty between the Government of the Republic of South Africa
     and the Government of the Republic of India on Mutual Legal
     Assistance in Criminal Matters, in terms of section 231(2) of the
     Constitution, 1996 (Act No 108 of 1996).

 (g)    Explanatory Memorandum on Treaty between the Government of the
     Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Republic of
     India on Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal
     Matters.

 (h)    Explanatory Memorandum on the Designation of the United Kingdom,
     in terms of section 2(2)(a) of the Cross-Border Insolvency Act,
     2000 (Act No 42 of 2000).

 (i)    Report regarding the provisional suspension of Magistrate S E
     Tebe without remuneration pending an investigation into his
     fitness to hold office, in terms of section 13(4A)(b) of the
     Magistrates Act, 1993 (Act No 90 of 1993).

                       FRIDAY, 13 AUGUST 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Assent by President in respect of Bills

 (1)    National Gambling Bill [B 48D - 2003] - Act No 7 of 2004
     (assented to and signed by President on 6 August 2004).

TABLINGS

National Assembly

1. The Speaker

 Letter, containing the names of recommended candidates, received from
 Justice A Chaskalson, Chief Justice of South Africa and Chairperson of
 the panel constituted in terms of section 6 of the Electoral Commission
 Act, 1996 (Act No 51 of 1996) to select candidates to be recommended to
 the committee of the National Assembly charged with nominating
 Electoral Commissioners.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

National Assembly

1. Report of the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on the Immigration Amendment Bill [B 11 - 2004] (National Assembly - sec 75), dated 13 August 2004:

   The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, having considered the subject of the Immigration Amendment Bill [B 11 - 2004] (National Assembly - sec 75), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 75 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 11A - 2004].

                    MONDAY, 16 AUGUST 2004
   

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Draft bills submitted in terms of Joint Rule 159

 (1)    Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Amendment Bill, 2004,
     submitted by the Minister of Health on 10 August 2004. Referred to
     the Portfolio Committee on Health and the Select Committee on
     Social Services.

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Speaker and the Chairperson

 Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of the
 President's Fund for 2002-2003 [RP 84-2004].

COMMITTEE REPORTS

National Assembly

1. Report of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and Tourism on the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Bill [B 62B - 2003] (National Council of Provinces - sec 76), dated 12 August 2004:

   The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and Tourism, having considered the subject of the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Bill [B 62B - 2003] (National Council of Provinces - sec 76), referred to it and classified by the Joint Tagging Mechanism as a section 76 Bill, reports the Bill with amendments [B 62C - 2003].

CREDA PLEASE INSERT REPORT - insert ATC0816e.doc

                       TUESDAY, 17 AUGUST 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. Bills passed by Houses - to be submitted to President for assent

 (1)    Bills passed by National Council of Provinces on 17 August 2004:


     (i)     South African Citizenship Amendment Bill [B 55 - 2003]
          (National Assembly - sec 75)


     (ii)    Films and Publications Amendment Bill [B 61B - 2003]
          (National Assembly - sec 75)

TABLINGS

National Assembly and National Council of Provinces

1. The Minister of Finance

 Proclamation No 37 published in Government Gazette No 26543 dated 8
 July 2004: Commencement of the Special Pensions Second Amendment Act,
 2003 (Act No 30 of 2003).