Mr Chairperson, I just want to start off by acknowledging Minister Xingwana and Deputy Minister Sotyu. I must say that I really miss you and that portfolio. To all the MECs from other provinces I would like to say welcome to Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Hon members, ladies and gentlemen, 2 594 women were murdered last year in our country. This is up from 2 457 the previous year. On average, 175 sexual crimes were committed against women and children every single day last year. More than 150 000 cases of assault against women were reported in 2010. More than 24 000 children fell victim to assault last year.
While these are all frightening statistics, we have actually seen a very slight decrease in the number of cases against women and children. Yet, as we acknowledge that, we need to say that these figures are still alarmingly high and a clear message must go out about violence against women and children. As a country we need to do something very constructive about it.
Today, I want to say to the children of Lavender Hill and Hanover Park, and to a lot of children in our poorer communities - and it is so apt, hon Minister, that the theme for this year is "From peace in the home to peace in the world" - that we will focus specifically on the role of small arms in domestic violence. Unfortunately, we have seen the scourge of gang violence in the Western Cape. We have seen mainly our poorer areas being affected by this. If this had been in one of our rich areas, such as Constantia, I promise you it would have been resolved immediately. But no, these are people in our poorer areas.
Hon Deputy Minister of Police, I am really passionate about this and I am not pointing fingers at you - you know that we have a good relationship. But I really want to urge you to ask Minister Mthethwa to look at bringing back the specialised units such as the family violence unit that we had. We need to get the gang and antidrug units back. I really want to ask that we look at that possibility. Ek smeek [I am begging], to use Afrikaans. We are begging the Minister to look at that because I think our commissioner is not even paying attention to it.
As we support the 16 Days of Activism, we also need to look at practical and tangible ways to prevent violence against the women and children of our province and our country. It is important to note that all departments have a role to play in this process. In terms of my department, the department of social development in the province, we have a mandate and we have contributed - and will continue to contribute - to this debate in a fruitful and practical way.
I want to start off by saying what we are doing practically. We have just embarked on a youth programme. We call the first programme the "two till six programme", that is, two o'clock to six o'clock in the afternoon. It's a programme that we are doing with the department of cultural affairs and sport to give incentives to our children and to attract them so that they will get involved in our after-school programme from two o'clock to six o'clock. We hope to prevent them from going home alone and getting pregnant - sometimes this happens to girls as young as 15 or 14. We want to keep our children constructively busy and prevent teenage pregnancy, which is another scourge we have seen in this province, which is the only one I can speak for specifically.
My department's contribution in this regard will be to provide the afternoon meal for those young children. All of us were at school. When two o'clock or half past two came, we would be very hungry and had to run home. So, we give food to these children to encourage them to stay after school and take part in activities. We want to keep them in programmes that will help them in sports and cultural activities. They will also learn soft skills that will help them to know who they are and why they must not beat a woman. They will learn that it is not normal to beat a woman and it is something one mustn't do. We need to get these skills into our schools because we have also seen violence against women and girls at schools, among boys and girls. We really need to reduce that constructively.
We will continue to promote initiatives that teach the youth that there are other alternatives to violence, such as the Chrysalis Academy and the youth safety ambassadors in the province. When I became MEC for community safety, I started the youth safety camp. It is a wonderful camp for getting our youngsters involved in crime prevention and becoming part of the youth ambassadors instead of being in a gang. The next camp is on the 14th, 15th and 16th and it will look at personal safety, environmental safety and community safety skills. There is also a focus on soft skills, which will teach responsibility and pride in their achievements. Through this initiative we hope to create community safety ambassadors to assist the police and to teach the youth about alternatives to crime.
Similarly, we have the Chrysalis Academy, which aims to develop and build youth who are at risk of violence. These are mainly young people who failed or fell out of the school system from Grade 10 onwards and are just lying around at home. They are very good candidates for becoming gangsters. We catch them before they become gangsters and bring them to the academy and make them run up that mountain - I promise you it's a steep mountain - at 4 o'clock in the morning. You will see how great those guys turn out. The graduation of the first course for this year will be on 3 December and I want to invite anyone here today to come and show their support for such programmes for young people that offer alternatives to becoming gangsters.
There is also a programme for preventing early pregnancy. I have said this many times but I cannot stress it enough: When a school girl falls pregnant and has to leave school to take care of her baby, she not only cuts off her own opportunities but also condemns her child to a life of poverty and, probably, state dependence. We recently saw a spate of early pregnancies on the West Coast and in the central Karoo area. In the light of this phenomenon we have strengthened ties with the Department of Education and Department of Health to bolster our preventive campaigns and remove the stigma associated with young girls who go to clinics for contraception only to be asked by nursing sisters, "What are you doing here?" You may have your own moral stance on this, but when these girls come to clinics and are given contraceptives, they don't fall pregnant and become a burden on the state at the age of 14 or 15. By the way, the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act allows for an early termination of pregnancy from the age of 10, without having to tell the parents. All I am saying is, let us deal properly with our young people when they get to school.
I also want to talk about making alternatives available to prevent the dumping of babies. In this province we have seen an increase in the phenomenon of baby dumping. Even if it is five or six, that is five or six too many children who are dumped into bins, and many of them don't survive. I am deeply concerned about this phenomenon. It also includes children being abandoned by parents. A parent comes to a house and leaves her child there, saying she will be coming back just now, but then does not return for years. This is another form of abandoning children with friends or family.
Together with our nongovernmental partners, we have a number of measures in place to promote the care and protection of children. These include public awareness and education exercises aimed at behavioural changes and promoting a community response to child protection. We are aware that we need community support.
I want to talk about this thing of awareness. When are we going to proceed to action and stop just making people aware? We are always "making people aware". Let us make examples of young people who dump their babies through the law and the police system. [Interjections.] Let them be punished severely for doing it, so that others can see the example and realise that they must not dump their babies but rather hand them over to the department of social development. We will take the child and give it up for adoption. Don't dump or kill the baby in that sense.
In addition, my department funds organisations that specialise in child protection services, including parenting programmes and programmes that target men and boys as role models. No one spoke about role models today. Where are our men? Where am I? I must ask that of myself! Let me also be a role model to my son and to other children, so that we set the example that women are equal to us. We must treat them as equal beings, not as subordinates or slaves, and certainly not as sex slaves.
I heard a motion here earlier tonight about Mavericks and that big billboard of theirs. I want to warn the hon member who brought the motion that Members of Parliament will be the first to complain. They go there because it's around the corner from Parliament. [Interjections.] I am saying this because I have seen a few of you there, I must say. [Laughter.]
Recent research has shown that women in poor communities often suffer from mental health problems, including depression. This sometimes goes undetected at the clinics where they give birth and even more so when babies are not born at a hospital or clinic. This is a very interesting phenomenon that we have found in the research. We have found that sometimes our nursing and medical staff don't detect that. We are talking to our department ...