In meeting the targets of the Millennium Development Goals, the empowerment of women in the field of training and employment becomes critical. President Oliver Reginald Tambo, declaring 1984 the Year of Women, had the following to say about the emancipation of women:
It will be our special task this year to organise and mobilise our womenfolk into a powerful, united and active force for revolutionary change. This task falls on women and men alike - all of us together as comrades in the struggle. We wish to stress the need at the present hour for the emergence of a political scene with a women's movement that is politically and organisationally united.
Our struggle needs and demands this potentially mighty force. Our struggle will be less than powerful and our national and social emancipation can never be complete if we continue to treat women of our country as dependent minors and objects of one form of exploitation or another. Certainly no longer should it be that a woman's place be in the kitchen. In our beleaguered country that woman's place is in the battlefront of our struggles.
Fellow South Africans, marching alongside the women of our country, we shall conquer the stereotypes of male chauvinism in our society, for we believe in equality. It is our task, through responsibilities and concrete programmes, that as Parliament, government and business, in the mines, on the sea and in society in general, women are given tasks they deserve as equally as their male counterparts, ourselves. Our traditional leaders, largely male, are urged to play their role in empowering the women of our country through opportunities like land ownership and businesses associated with this.
The threat of climate change demands of all of us to close ranks -women and men, black and white, rich and poor. Droughts and floods hit the vulnerable and the poor the hardest for they have very little means, if any, to fend for themselves. Rural women are the most immediate victims of these disasters.
Through empowerment and being accorded responsibilities, the women of our land will have the ability to stand tall and be counted among the many in society who are independently rising to the challenges imposed by apartheid colonialism.
The white liberal women in some nongovernmental organisations must stop being the voice of rural women. They have a responsibility to empower and accord them with opportunities to rise to the challenges of exploitation and stereotypes of male patriarchy in our society.
As part of driving empowerment, training in a variety of skills becomes urgent towards real mainstreaming of gender equity, both in government and business and society in general. Equally important is accessibility and affordability in finance for our farming womenfolk in the rural areas. Procurement from rural women involved in farming, among other activities, by correctional service centres, schools, hospitals and other centres of government will certainly go a long way towards growing rural women's businesses.
In conclusion, listening to the hon member Lamoela, no amount of patronising shall empower our rural women. They have a voice and the power and energy to articulate their own plight when given the opportunity to be empowered. What can you expect from a liberal, by the way? [Interjections.]
Here is a tip for 2014 for the hon Steyn: Watch the space when some DA members shall openly be declaring their ANC affiliation, come 2014. [Laughter.] [Applause.] Once again, you teach a woman, you empower a nation. Malibongwe! [Praise to the women!] Wathint'abafazi! Wathint'imbokodo! [You strike a woman, you strike a rock.] I love you all. [Laughter.] [Applause.]