Human Rights of Women
As we celebrate Women's Day tomorrow, we should ask ourselves what more should we do to ensure that the empowerment and emancipation of women becomes a daily reality?
We should resolve to accelerate our progress towards gender equality, both in the public and private sectors, and in society as a whole.
We should use this day to ask ourselves what more we must do to end all forms of abuse and violence against women and children. We must work together to help push back the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment that characterise the lives of millions of women in this country.
On this day, our country commemorates the historic struggles and sacrifices of South African women, black and white, who proudly stood shoulder to shoulder against the twin evils of racism and sexism.
All of us have a duty to ensure that we bring to an end the marginalisation of women in the economic sector. No government in South Africa could ever claim to represent the will of the people if it failed to address the emancipation of women in all its elements.
Our rural areas are characteris ed by high levels of poverty, limited economic and employment opportunities, undeveloped infrastructure and limited services . For decades, our rural communities were denied adequate education, and our youth were forced to abandon their homes and seek jobs in the cities.
Our people were forced to become cheap migrant labourers on the mines and in the factories. Our women in the rural areas have had to walk long distances to fetch water and collect fire wood, having to eke out their living on barren land, from which they had been removed.
Yet, they have remained pillars of strength in the community, and we must pay tribute to their fortitude and resilience.
The liberation of our country cannot be complete when a huge section of our nation is still disempowered, lives in poverty and lacks access to indispensable resources.
We cannot claim to be free from oppression when we read daily in the media harrowing accounts about the abuse of women and children.
The struggle for gender equality is a struggle for human freedom. The liberation of our country will remain incomplete until the total and unconditional liberation of women is achieved.
Fellow South Africans, as we celebrate this day, we are aware that much still needs to be done to eradicate the legacy of gender discrimination, inequality and poverty. As women bear the brunt of poverty, it is just and fair that the bulk of our programmes be targeted towards them. We have to ensure that they also enjoy the fruits of freedom.
I wish all the women of our country a happy Women's Day, and new victories in the struggle to achieve emancipation, empowerment, equality and eradication of poverty.