Hon Chairperson, before I start my speech, I would like to acknowledge the contribution made by our late president, Comrade O R Tambo, when he said South Africa will not be free if women are not free. This was the statement that encouraged the ANC to move and support women.
It is a great pleasure for me to be given the opportunity to talk about what South Africa is going to be presenting to the coming 124th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Panama. The focus of my presentation is going to be on the current situation of women parliamentarians in the National Assembly and the legislatures, highlighting the achievements we have made in promoting women representation and the challenges and proposed areas of assistance from the IPU. It is underpinned by the belief that democracy should be based on the participation and perceptions of both men and women in decision-making.
The organisation aims to achieve a gender partnership in political life by facilitating women's access to and influence in Parliament. Its overall goal is to achieve representative and accountable parliaments through increased and enhanced participation of women and more gender-sensitive parliamentary institutions.
Institutionally, the IPU promotes its gender equality and women's rights programmes through the Co-ordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians and the gender group. Its key focus areas include conducting research and producing information on women in politics, and providing support to women to access and transform parliaments, and to enhance gender mainstreaming in parliaments.
Our presentation at the IPU assembly will have to provide a progress report on how the South African Parliament and the provincial legislatures are doing in meeting the main goals, as identified within the IPU programme. Its programme is based on Millennium Development Goal 3, which is to promote gender equality and empower women. These are consistent with the principles of equality as enshrined in our Constitution, which prohibits racial, gender and other forms of discrimination.
As a country, we are proud of our achievements so far in promoting gender equality, and of all the efforts being made towards the ultimate realisation of the nonsexist society that we are striving for. The recent country report on the Millennium Development Goals 2010 by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, shows positive signs that the country has made progress in this regard.
What is of relevance to Parliament is that recent statistics indicate that parity in political life is being achieved. According to the UNDP, Statistics SA reports that more than 40% of the 400 seats in Parliament are held by women. The report shows that a similar trend in the increase in the number of women has been recorded in the provincial legislatures. In totality, there has been an increase of women representation in the provincial legislatures since 1994 from 25,4% to 42,4%. Globally, South Africa is rated number three in the world among countries with the most number of women Members of Parliament. Therefore in terms of gender parity the country is closer to achieving the 50% target with regard to representation in political life.
Progress has also been made in the following areas: the establishment of the Ministry for Women, Children and People with Disabilities; establishment of the office on the status of women in all provinces; establishment of a Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women; existence and mainstreaming of the Commission for Gender Equality; establishment of the parliamentary Multi-Party gender caucus; and South African women parliamentarians actively participated in the United Nations programme that promotes gender equality and seeks assistance in the achievement of the Millennium Goal Development.
South African women MPs are working in most structures to promote and encourage all political parties to achieve 50-50 representation regarding gender parity, and the South African Parliament has women participating in all its committees of Parliament or legislatures. In spite of these achievements, there is recognition that the end of the road to achieving gender parity and a nonsexist society is still a long way off.
With regard to parliaments, there are still challenges that the IPU can assist with going forward. The most pressing challenge is that of extending education and monitoring mechanisms to the grass-roots level of society. This requires financial and other technical resources. As the South African delegation, we will therefore make a plea for assistance from the IPU in this regard.
I would like to conclude my speech by making a very humble plea to all the opposition parties to bring us 50% in the local government and 50% in the next elections. I thank you. [Applause.]