Sihlalo, mandiqale nam ngokuthi kusapho lakwaSisulu, "akuhlanga lungehlanga. Masimyekeni umama aphumle, ugqatso ulufezile, umzamo omhle uwuzamile." Lala ngoxolo Mama, uze usikhonzela apho uya khona. (Translation of isiXhosa paragraph follows.)
[Ms B C BLAAI: Chairperson, let me start by saying to the Sisulu family, "let the pain be palliated. Let Mama rest in peace, she has done her best, she has done her good endeavours." Rest in peace Mama, don't forget about us where you are going.]
Hon Chairperson, hon members, hon Minister, this department was established two and half years ago. However, it is still fumbling and its mandate remains a pie in the sky. While the department is struggling to gather momentum, gender inequality in our country is widening by the day. In the ranks of mothers, maternal and child mortality rates are on the rise. For the majority of disabled people there are no disability grants to access and such people are living in dire poverty.
Degrading "corrective rape" is still being inflicted routinely on women in our country. What extraordinary measures have this government taken to deal decisively with this problem? Are those who are brutally abusing women in this way feeling the weight of government? Women who are sex workers continue to suffer violence because such work is still criminalised.
Regarding child mortality, pneumonia has been cited as a leading cause of death among children below the age of five. An expert says in this day and age, this should not be happening. Children are more susceptible to pneumonia and consequent death because of overcrowding, pollution and lack of medical care. As a start, government should be strongly encouraging mothers to breastfeed their babies for the first six months. Parents should also be educated about the risks of passive smoking to babies. However, it is the vaccination of a baby that will yield the greatest benefit in the shortest space of time. We therefore ask, what extraordinary measures has this department taken in this regard?
With regard to the role of education for empowerment, I now wish to look at reproductive and maternal education. In his autobiography, Tata Nelson Mandela saw education as the greatest engine of personal development. We also know that maternal education is one of the strongest predictors of child survival. Having a mother with some secondary education more than halves the risk of child mortality in many countries. This is because education empowers mothers to seek antenatal care, demand skilled birth attendance, utilise health services and acquire knowledge about treatment for childhood illnesses. Educated women provide better nutrition and education to their children. In addition, they also have fewer children and lower rates of maternal mortality than those women with little or no education. Therefore, it pays a nation to ensure that its girls are well educated.
Educating women also leads to greater labour-force participation on their part. A favourite proverb of Mao Zedong was "women hold up half the sky". Today, in communist China, educated women are powering the Chinese economic miracle. When are we going to be able to say the same about South African women?
Cope believes inequalities in access to opportunities for good-quality education are reinforcing disparities in this country. Education, especially of girls and women, is one of the most powerful weapons for cutting the toll of fatalities in children under five and lowering the risks faced by women in pregnancy. Better-educated women are also better informed about the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids.
According to the 2001 Census, women with disabilities bear the brunt of discrimination and exclusion. They do so more acutely than men and tend to have a higher rate of disability than men. The percentage of disabled people was the highest among those who had no education and lowest among those with higher levels of education. This contributed to the fact that disabled persons are often excluded from educational opportunities due to the lack of access and on account of poverty.
Several studies have shown that as the proportion of women representatives in a country's parliament increases, corruption falls. It is worth noting that in our country the opposite is happening. Last year it was reported that a former Minister, who fortunately is no longer in the office, used thousands of rands of the taxpayer's money to entertain her political friends during a party she hosted for her unionist friends. [Interjections.]
Also, as if that was not bad enough, this year we read about a delegation of 49 government officials who flew business class to New York on a two- week trip paid by taxpayers, ostensibly to attend the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Meanwhile the government debt is set to rise to R1,4 trillion.
In conclusion, Cope would like to express its concern with the allocation of R10,8 million to the monitoring ...