House Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Acting Chief Whip, Minister Lulu Xingwana, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, Director-General Baduza and the support staff from the department, women and child abuse continues to be a blemish on the human rights culture enshrined in the Bill of Rights that we adopted, and on our proud history of fighting for the rights of both women and children.
Undoubtedly, as a country we have set the tone on the global stage as far as human rights are concerned. Several developing democracies are looking towards South Africa for guidance with regard to the development of their constitutions, because our Constitution is widely considered to be the most progressive Constitution in the world today.
As a nation that has been struggling and fighting for human rights as a fundamental right for so many years, we have succeeded in that struggle to a great extent. However, we are still confronted with a considerable challenge when it comes to protecting the rights of our women and children in the face of those who have taken it on themselves to trample on the rights of women and children in our communities. Women and child abuse is a human rights violation of the grossest nature, because it deprives our children and women, the builders of a future and a nation, of the fundamental right to live a free and safe life.
We have to and, indeed, we are confronting this scourge from all sectors of our society. Abuse is a harmful act forced on a more vulnerable person by someone who has the power to dominate. Abuse disrespects fundamental human rights, feelings and needs, as well as basic mental and physical safety. It is something we cannot tolerate - that those who feel they are more powerful should make others feel less safe and vulnerable.
We have defeated the horrendous system of apartheid, which made many of us vulnerable and put us under constant siege. In this day and age, after such a protracted battle against oppression, we cannot tolerate the oppression of our grandmothers, mothers and sisters, as well as our children, and allow it to continue unabated.
It is difficult to get reliable statistics on violence against women and children in South Africa. Although the number of reported cases is very high, many cases go unreported.
Many women are still unaware of their rights when reporting abuse. Even informed women traumatised by an assault are unlikely to be assertive and insist on their rights. Many women are afraid of further violence from the perpetrator should they contemplate legal action. This is compounded further by the introduction of the new Domestic Violence Act, which a lot of women have not yet grasped.
The challenge exists for the Act, including the regulations, to be made into an accessible form of legislation for the benefit and protection of women in all areas of their lives. The effective implementation of the Act also needs to be ensured, for example in the form of effective legal preventive measures like protection orders and police escorts for abused women.
The gender-based nature of domestic violence has unfortunately also seen an increase in the number of women being murdered by their intimate male partners. The lack of statistical information on this form of killing makes it very hard to measure the extent of the scourge but newspaper reports on this issue leave little to one's imagination. These killings demonstrate the culture of male violence against women and the sexism that still pervades our society.
Women have fought and succeeded in getting many basic rights, yet in the private sphere of their homes the inequality between men and women is still a battleground.
The Institute for Security Studies did a research project in 1999 and found that 90% of the women interviewed had experienced emotional abuse. Being humiliated in front of others was reported most commonly. Also, 90% expressed an experience of physical abuse - being pushed, shoved, slapped or hit were highlighted. Another 71% had experienced sexual abuse: attempts to kiss or touch, followed by forced sexual intercourse, often occurred. In addition, 58% experienced economic abuse - money taken without consent was the most common - while 42,5% of women had experienced all these forms of abuse.
Every South African has an important role to play in rooting out the scourge of gender-based violence. Violence against women and children is a complex issue. Government has enacted various pieces of legislation to provide protection for women and children.
There is a strong need to focus on what is required to educate the girl- child of her responsibilities to protect herself. Government's commitment to preventing violence against women and children, holding perpetrators accountable for their actions and ensuring that women and children who experience violence receive support is now the focus of this government and the challenges that we, as a country, are facing.
Government is also creating awareness by hosting the annual 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children as an international campaign. Although the global campaign focuses on violence against women only, South Africa should be commended for adding children to its campaign because of the high incidence of child abuse in the country. Through our various government programmes we will continue to intervene to stem the tide of women and child abuse. It will take practical and intensive programmes on our part to ensure that women and children feel safe in the land of their birth. We cannot be held to ransom by abusers and molesters.
As part of the many practical steps we are taking to curb the scourge of violence against women and children, we are establishing a -fusion centre| in the Free State. This emanates from the resolutions we took as a province during our provincial crime prevention summit, held on 11 and 12 April 2013 at the Philip Saunders resort near Bloemfontein. The thrust of this provincial crime prevention summit was to ensure that we develop a provincial crime prevention strategy, which will serve as a blueprint for all crime prevention programmes and initiatives based on the National Development Plan.
As a province, we are mindful that domestic violence among the poor majority of our people resonates to some extent with the rampant effects of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Hence we are attempting to ensure that we widen access to economic opportunities for women in particular and our people in general.
As far as children are concerned, we pride ourselves on the proper functioning of drop-in centres for children of schoolgoing age to be assisted with school and homework in instances where children come from broken families. We are constantly implementing a system of care that ensures that our children access social grants to ensure that we mitigate the effects of poverty and the extent to which they may be forced out of school. We also implement a school uniform programme to ensure that we bring dignity to children who come from less fortunate families.
Our school sports programme ensures that our children are exposed to the possible excavation of talent that may widen their social horizons and benefits. The talent of many young lads is easily spotted through their excellence in various school sports. As the Free State government, we have ensured that there are sports committees in the urban and rural nodes of our province to ensure equal access to sporting development. These committees are supported by enabled access to multipurpose sporting facilities. The benefit of this is that it is highly probable that these young minds may be shifted away from the egocentric tendencies of focusing on violence- moulding activities born in inactive minds and bodies.
These sets of interventions are reactive, an attempt to mitigate the effects of the scourge of domestic violence. The biggest challenge is dealing with the psychology of violence, especially gendered forms of violence. That is why it is important for us to look into probable causes and seek to deal with them, such as the effects of unemployment on the emotional stability and viability of our system of family, the effects of social inequality and the increasing rate of unemployment.
The emphasis should be on creating sustainable partnerships to ensure that opportunities are created for South Africans, and that our social protection policy is cushioned from the negative effects of potential economic upheaval. Ke a leboaha. [I thank you.] [Applause.]