Hon Speaker, goeiedag [good day], molweni nonke [I greet you all], Dumelang [I greet you all], today we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first International Women's Day and review the political and social achievements of women. One hundred years ago, only two countries allowed women to vote.
Some of the reasons given by the Equal Suffrage Association of North Carolina for women having the vote were: Those who obey the laws should help to choose those who make the laws; laws affect women as much as men; laws affecting children should include the women's point of view as well as the man's, because public-spirited women make public-spirited sons.
The General Assembly of the United Nations cited two reasons for observing Women's Day: Securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms require the active participation, equality and the development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security. This is also an opportunity for us as women to network and mobilise for meaningful change. That is why I'm delighted to have so many DA activists in the gallery. Malibongwe! [Let it be praised!] [Applause.]
Can you see how many we have on our list? Look at the changes. We are still struggling to build a society that is fair in which there is diversity, tolerance, justice and equality between men and women. We have a constitution that guarantees human rights and dignity. Yet our society is beset by heinous crimes like rape at the rate of 150 women per day.
Numerous lesbians have been raped by self-righteous straight men applying what they claim to be corrective rape to cure them. Why does it take more than five years for the trial of nine men accused of murdering a lesbian woman, Zoliswa Nkonyana, to take place? Even now, another postponement has been granted by the court in Khayelitsha.
South African law does not recognise hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation. Should this not be reconsidered? For every 25 men accused of rape, 24 walk free. Why are so many serial rapists given bail? The implementation of our justice system needs to be reviewed. The chronic shortage of social workers, prosecutors and magistrates needs to be addressed so that justice can be seen to be done.
All of the topics of the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held recently at the United Nations, should be on our Minister's agenda. These are the economic and educational empowerment of women; getting women into the "green" fields: into nontraditional jobs like construction; providing financial literacy programmes for women; keeping girls at school; and enabling mothers to provide education for their own children.
They also focused on trafficking and prostitution; access to reproductive health rights and medical services to reduce maternal mortality; the specific needs of LGBTI - lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender - people, especially corrective or curative rape; and the needs of the marginalised like disabled women and women living in rural areas.
More attention needs to be paid to HIV and Aids, the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, working with stigma and disclosure; and to comprehensive sexuality education, starting at school, to reduce the number of unwanted and teen pregnancies. More information about birth control should be given to prevent the abandonment and murder of innocent, unwanted babies - a blight on our human rights record. The way women are presented as commodities or sex objects in the media needs to be reviewed. The feminisation of poverty needs to be overcome. Hunger is a huge problem. Giving women better access to land, technology and agricultural resources is crucial to fighting famine.
In conclusion, I quote Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile and the first Executive Director of UN Women: "Women's strength, women's industry, women's wisdom are humankind's greatest untapped resource." Women have achieved much, but there are still gaps. Let us, South Africans, resolve to tap into the wisdom and strength of our women, to band together to heal the nation of its social ills, to secure harmony and a human rights culture for all. Malibongwe! [Let it be praised!] [Applause.]