House Chair, my colleague the hon Dion George focused on the ways in which people are faulted by the system to overcome their respective circumstances and enter an open-opportunity society for all, in which anyone can become what she or he aspires to be. My focus will be on the devastating effect that the lack of socioeconomic freedom or simply the lack of any freedom has on women in South Africa.
We have a Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution that is supposed to ensure equality amongst men and women, to protect their freedom of speech, association and safety, amongst other things. In 2004, the National Council of Provinces unanimously accepted the motion against President Thabo Mbeki for his refusal to deal with the serious crime of rape in our country. Fast forward to 2012 and you have President Zuma saying that things should be done in an African way, according to an African culture. We say: Let us look at the way things stand in South Africa from a South African way and view the harsh realities women face, head-on and without blinkers.
If you look at it from this angle, you will see that South African women find themselves in a society in which criminal abuses against them are embedded in a culture of impunity. Open any newspaper on any given day and you will read about the gruesome rape of a grandmother, a baby, or the horrific gang rape, mutilation and murder of a teenager.
A Medical Council study shows that every eight hours a woman is killed by her intimate partner. According to the World Health Organisation, 60 000 South African women and children a month are victims of domestic violence, which amounts to the highest rate in the world. This is a scandal. The Medical Research Council estimates that South Africa's femicide rate is five times higher than the global average. South African sex crimes statistics are 65 000 a year, which is a mere fraction of the real figure of around 650 000. All specialist nongovernmental organisations agree that just 10% of rapes are reported, of which only a fraction of cases lead to successful prosecution.
My colleague the hon Dianne Kohler-Barnard has since 2006 raised the issue of compensation for the victims of violent crime and has searched for and found a way in which the state could assist victims of violent crime and also their families. The ANC rejected this. The SA Law Reform Commission approved an extensive report on this subject which was simply ignored.
In essence, before we start to debate the socioeconomic factors which keep women enslaved in a patriarchal and chauvinist society, the real issue of us being equal to men should be addressed. According to Claire Hawkridge, the situation for traditional women is even worse. In many traditional courts, women are not allowed to represent themselves or even speak during proceedings. This in itself is a terrible state of affairs.
The time has come for like-minded South Africans, women, men and children, to stand up and demand the freedom that is rightfully theirs, the freedom for which 69 people sacrificed their lives in Sharpeville on 21 March 1960. Wathint' abafazi wathint' imbokodo. If you strike women, you strike a rock. [Applause.]