Hon Deputy Speaker, in the weeks since Anene Booysen's horrific murder, as many as 82 000 women have been raped. The statistics around gender-based violence in South Africa is hard to comprehend.
More than 64 000 rapes were reported in 2012, but it is said that 90% of rapes go unreported. Thus, a woman was raped in South Africa every minute of every day last year. Only 6 000 cases were finalised through our courts, and only 4 000 were prosecuted. So, where is the justice for the other hundreds of thousands of women whose lives have been ripped apart last year?
Justice won't come from our courts until we acknowledge that gender-based violence is a crisis, and unless deal with it as a crisis, the crisis will remain.
We laud the reintroduction of sexual offences courts. But why were they closed in the first place? Will they face the same fate as the family violence and child protection units that were reintroduced, but without the necessary resources to do their work? How many rapes does it take to prove bad planning, bad decisions and bad leadership? We are failing South Africa's women, forcing the vulnerable to face this crisis alone.
Last week, President Zuma thanked many civil society organisations for their good work done. Yet, centres like Rape Crisis struggle to keep their doors open, relying on foreign funding. Many NGOs that help the most vulnerable are struggling, yet government turns a blind eye.
The huge gap between what is said and what is done still remains. We have the legislation, we have the Constitution, but within our communities the dignity of women is undermined. Girls are sold into prostitution and our grandmothers live in fear.
For 37 years, the IFP has championed women, promoting gender equality and protecting family values. We understand the influence of families and community values on children. We believe boys should be raised to protect and value women, and girls should be raised to respect themselves.
The IFP believes we can build a society in which gender-based violence cannot happen; in which violence itself is unthinkable. Next week, the IFP Youth Brigade will take to the streets with the message on violence. That is where we must begin to resolve this crisis, by speaking out and providing leadership. We need a national debate on the values that should inform our society. Moral regeneration has become an imperative. It is time to declare war on the abuse of women and girls.
We applaud Lead SA for suggesting a pledge in our school assemblies, for we need pragmatism, not theory. We need prevention as well as intervention. Let's make nonviolence a cardinal theme in crches, schools and community centres; and let this be part of a massive, permanent public education campaign to radically shift social behaviour regarding domestic violence.
The IFP challenges government on commit part of its Budget tomorrow to this campaign to end the culture of rape in South Africa. The government has a responsibility to lead the charge with responsive state organs that are vocal agents for change.
We cannot have the Commission for Gender Equality achieving only half its targets, or a newly-established National Council Against Gender-Based Violence quietly waiting to speak. We cannot have rape treated as a joke at police stations.
Women deserve a committed and cohesive response to what is a national crisis. For the sake of our mothers, our daughters and our sisters, the violence must stop. I thank you. [Applause.]