Dit is ? skande! [That is a disgrace!]
The MINISTER OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: We also visited a couple, Mr and Mrs Kwinana of Khayelitsha, who are also living in a shack. They are both in wheelchairs. They have an 11-year-old son who has to take the bucket because there is no toilet in the shack, nor water or electricity. [Interjections.] The 11-year-old child has to look after these two disabled people. He takes the bucket because there is no toilet in the vicinity. The nearest toilet is in another section of Khayelitsha.
Therefore, I want to voice an appeal. I know that I went there and said we would do what we could as government. Unfortunately, I'm not the MEC for housing. We have spoken to the MEC for human settlements, Mr Bonginkosi Madikizela, but nothing has been done. The rains are coming and those people are going to be living in that shack until I don't know when. The MEC said he wanted to put them on a waiting list. It could take two years, I don't know. I'm just raising that issue and I hope that social development will send social workers there, because an 11-year-old child cannot look after parents who are completely disabled.
I want to agree with hon members who were saying we must fight together to stop the scourge of abuse and violence against women and children and people with disabilities. In many institutions, even those under government, people with disabilities are abused, especially those with intellectual disabilities. Women and girls are raped and they can't even give a statement about who raped them. I'm appealing to all the provinces and saying, let's work together. Let's look at those institutions and monitor what is going on there.
I want to agree with my MEC sitting there that we really need to fight the backlog in cases of abuse against women, children and lesbian women, who have to wait for the courts for a very long time. Finding a way of speeding up these cases is a matter that we are discussing with Minister Jeff Radebe.
We must also fight the scourge of the murder of elderly women. All of us are going to be ugly when we get old. People will then come and say you are a witch. What is funny is that it's only women who "become witches". I have not seen a man who is old and ugly being called a witch. Therefore it is gender-based violence. It is the women who look after grandchildren, orphans and so on, and they are the ones who are killed and burnt alive in those houses.
On the issue of ukuthwala, let us not glorify practices that are abusive to women. There is no Xhosa tradition called ukuthwala; there is no Zulu tradition called muti. These are satanic and evil practices that are meant to abuse women and children in this country. We must declare them as such and denounce them, reject them and ensure that in our laws and wherever we are, we fight these evil practices. I don't remember it being said in the olden days that you need to kill someone to be a great or good traditional healer. There is nothing like that. This is simple murder. We cannot glorify it and say it is a kind of traditional practice.
Regarding the police, we appreciate the work that the Minister and his department are doing. Many of our policemen are killed on duty, trying to defend our communities and women and children. They leave behind widows and young children as dependants. I want to commend the Minister for initiating support for these police members and their families by ensuring that those orphans are also given bursaries so that they can go to school. I also want to call on all of us, when we think about women and children who are suffering from abuse, also to support the families of police who have died on duty.
Finally, regarding teenage pregnancy I want to say that I support the MEC's call for antinarcotic units to come back, not only in the Western Cape but all over the country.
EmaMpondweni phaya kutshaywa intsangu, kuthengiswa neziyobisi. [In Pondoland they smoke dagga, and they sell drugs.]
All over the country, even in the rural areas, we now find drugs galore. With drugs come high levels of abuse, rape and the abuse of children. I think we need to revive these police units as soon as possible.
On teenage pregnancy, I want to say teachers who are involved must be charged. We must report them. We must work with the department of Education to charge teachers if they are responsible for impregnating children. [Interjections.]