Chairperson, I regard this debate as extremely important and I take the issue of violence against women as something to be viewed extremely seriously. Therefore I regard hon Bhoola's attempt to trivialise this debate, and giving him five minutes or perhaps two minutes of fame in this House, as highly despicable.
As South African women we rejoice in the fact that one of us, the well- known South African actress, Charlize Theron, has been chosen as a UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on ending violence against women as something to be celebrated. I am especially proud because Charlize Theron comes from my constituency, Benoni in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng.
But there is something which does not make us proud. It is the fact that Charlize comes from a background of violence and abuse. This is something that is an everyday occurrence for far too many women in South Africa.
A recent UN Population Fund Report puts the life expectancy of a typical South African woman at just 49,6 years - our life expectancy has been cut by six years over the past 10 years. It is now down to the levels of women living in war-torn and poverty-stricken countries such as Somalia and Ethiopia.
Women live longer in Namibia than we do here. They live longer in Ghana, and to our never-ending shame, women live a full decade longer in war-torn Iraq than they do here in sunny South Africa.
These statistics are largely due to South Africa having one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world with 21,8% of all women aged between 15 and 49 being HIV-positive - the fourth highest rate globally.
I find it somewhat ironic that the Minister responsible for allowing the HIV/Aids pandemic to spread almost unchecked has now been sidelined to the Office of the Presidency. Let us hope that she is not there long enough to further compromise the women, children and the disabled who fall within her portfolio.
The previous Minister in the Presidency certainly did nothing to advance the cause of women; in fact, I would go so far as to say he did so little that he practically undermined the women's movement in this country. One only has to look at our poor record in reporting to the UN Committee on the Status of Women. The initial South African country report for the period 1994 to 1997 was submitted to the CEDAW committee in 1998, but somehow, under former Minister Pahad's watch, no report has been submitted since then.
We are now consolidating our second, third and fourth country reports on the implementation of the CEDAW convention for the past 10 years into one. Despite our much acclaimed Office on the Status of Women and Gender machinery, section V 4.2 of the same report also points out that South Africa has amongst the world's highest levels of sexual and domestic violence, and that the HIV/Aids epidemic disproportionately affects women's lives both in terms of rates of infection and the burden of care and support they carry for those with Aids-related illnesses.
The Deputy Minister of Social Development, Dr Jean Swanson-Jacobs, has previously said, "There is a clear link between violence against women and HIV/Aids infection." She added that socioeconomic factors, unequal gender and sexual relations, unprotected sex, and alcohol and drug abuse are among the factors that have increased the negative impact of HIV/Aids.
We applaud efforts of organisations, such as Sonke Gender Justice, which conducts surveys and tries to implement legislation and increase support amongst men to prevent violence against women. We need organisations such as these, men and women like Charlize Theron, to keep on reminding us that violence in any form - but particularly against women and children - is not acceptable. [Applause.]