Mr Speaker, hon members and fellow South Africans, allow me on behalf of Cope to join other political parties in saluting all women of the world in recognition of International Women's Day. In dealing with the topic before us, let me pledge solidarity with and highlight the plight of specific groups of women, who directly or indirectly are affected by lack of access to education and training. By saying this, I by no means seek to exclude those other women who deserve equal attention.
I salute women from ematyotyombeni [informal settlements]. I salute women whose homes are the streets. I know that the Minister of Human Settlements is hard at work trying to fix this. I salute women who are looking after our homes, whom we call maids; I salute women of mineworkers who remain at home hoping for that uneven and unpredictable trickle of money from the bank; I salute the widows of miners who suffered untimely deaths because of exposure; I salute women with no access to information, and I salute women without choice. What can we, even as women, tell you about your plight without us feeling guilty? How much of your lives do we as women genuinely know about? How many of you are aware of International Women's Day? What does that do to change your lives? This is the guilt I genuinely express.
Yesterday, Mr Speaker, you said that if one wished to raise an issue, you either raised your hand and not your voice. Mr Speaker, allow me today to raise both hand and voice, as I point out sharply the issue of a group of young women, or shall I call them a group of young girls, caught up in the ritual "ukuthwala" [abduction or child brides.]
These are only children, children who are not allowed to grow up like normal girls. As girls, we used to dream about what we would be when we grew up. We used to dream about what cars we would drive one day. We used to dream about our wedding days. These are normal dreams of young girls allowed to grow up normally in a normal society. But these girls who get abducted are not allowed, sometimes even by their parents, to determine what their future can be. They cannot determine, even in the face of a constitution such as ours, who they want to marry and when they want to marry.
Decisions to marry them prematurely - or is it really marriage - are decisions made for them through this ritual. Who is served by this decision of abduction? It's men. Why? Because they want to. Why? Because they can. A few weeks ago I watched on television with horror an expos on the plight of these young girls. It was unbelievable listening to men justifying this act as tradition. A 60-year-old man taking a 15-year-old girl as his bride - and you call that tradition. It never was tradition; it is never tradition. [Applause.] It was and it still is a deplorable practice. Even then such a practice was never condoned. Tradition never harms its children; it is practice that does. [Applause.]
Hayini boomama, hayini ngentsana zethu, thina singoomama saziwa ngenimba. Ngoku ke asinakho ukuthula. [No, women, no! We cannot let this happen to our children. Women are well known for their compassion. Therefore, we cannot afford to be silent.]
Women were never quiet in 1910 when they waged an anti-pass campaign in the Free State. They never kept quiet in 1956 when they marched on the Union Buildings. Let us march, this time around, in defence of our children. Keeping quiet is colluding with this practice.
Sithi kurhulumente, kumama uXingwana, nakumama uMotshega, kuSihlalo owongamele iGqugula labaseTyhini apha ePalamente nakwiKomiti ejongene neMicimbi yabaseTyhini,-uLutsha, aBantwana kunye naBantu abaKhubazekileyo, mayiqwalaselwe nzulu le meko kunokuba kusenzeka. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[We are saying to the government, to Mrs Xingwana, Mrs Motshega, the Chairperson of the Women's Caucus in Parliament and the committee responsible for the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, you must pay even more attention than you are doing.]
Let us rally round our little flowers and protect them. It can never be, it must never be that our children are raised this way. Thank you. [Applause.]