Hon Chairperson; hon Ministers; hon Deputy Ministers; hon Members of Parliament; the Chairperson of the Commission on Gender Equality and entourage; the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities; the women from the rural areas who are visiting Parliament today; ladies and gentlemen, the ANC's aspirations for an equal society are unparalleled in history. The Freedom Charter envisages a society in which everyone will live in security, peace and comfort.
In fact, the very founding principles of the ANC's struggle are entrenched in the national democratic revolution. This is a commitment to the genuine equality of all people. Key to this is the elimination of all forms of discrimination among the country's citizens. Before 1994, patriarchy was the order of the day and, since then, it is still a struggle. It is still practised, even though it is not as rife as it used to be. During the patriarchy era, women were oppressed. Women could not make decisions; decisions were made on their behalf by their husbands. Ours as women was to practise a submissive role, whereby if you were a submissive "makoti" [bride] or a submissive woman, you would be regarded as a respectful woman. This is not what the ANC believes in. It believes that everybody has the right to choose. As a result ... [Interjections.] Yes, it believes that women have the right to choose, and stereotyped roles cannot be accepted.
Let me point out and say that this period we are embracing, this time for Budget Votes, is not the time to moan, but the time to celebrate our Budget Vote No 8: Women, Children and People with Disabilities. And this must be done by telling the world what our ANC government has done to empower the lives of women and promote gender equality.
I will start here in Parliament, though the chairperson and the Minister have already highlighted that the number of women in Cabinet is at its highest level. There is a high number of women Deputy Ministers and Ministers. Women are actually in positions in the Department of Defence and Military Veterans, in the Department of International Relations and Co- operation, where we have the hon Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, in Home Affairs, where we have the hon Naledi Pandor, and then we have Nomaindia Mfeketo as the Deputy Speaker. We also have the hon Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the Chair of the African Union. I admire her vision in terms of the improvement and changing of the Pan-African Parliament. When she does this, she says she is going to do it with the involvement of women.
The ANC has done so much for women. If we state facts and not propaganda, we know that women have houses - most of them live in houses - and women have electricity. We just go to the wall and press. In Sesotho we say ...
... re penya tshitshidi ebe mollo o ba teng. [We just press on the wall and the light comes on.]
Children go to school, and we have grants for both children and women. Really, the lives of women have changed. Even though there are still challenges, for example women who still go far away to fetch water, at least you can see that changes have been effected. This is not propaganda; these are fact.
I was watching television one day when I saw on e.tv news that open toilets still exist in the Western Cape. [Interjections.] I saw things like mobile toilets. I didn't know what that was. What are they trying to do ... [Interjections.] ... when there is still something like a mobile toilet? I don't know whether it is a mobile toilet or a safe toilet. I am saying that we are going towards elections. You will see "mehlolo" [miracles] coming in different sizes. People will do things that we won't know where they come from. People will come with things that will shock the people.