Chairperson, I would also like to greet the women in the gallery up there and say: Malibongwe, igama lamakhosikazi! [Let it be praised! Praise the name of women!]
As my hon leaders have said, this year is very important for us because it gives us an opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved over 100 years and ask, how far have we come? What has been achieved and what are the outstanding challenges? As my colleagues have said, the theme "Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women" is fitting. I think there can be no better theme to use as you try to get a handle on the progress made regarding gender equality and women empowerment.
I just want to share the seriousness of this day worldwide by saying that US President Barack Obama officially declared the entire month of March as women's history month. The intention was to focus on the contribution of women to the history of humankind and to assess their challenges in the 21st century.
The government of South Africa has given the moral and political high ground to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. As a result, our women were represented in Beijing, where a platform for action was developed in 1995. The President of the ANC Women's League might find me lacking when I attribute this to the government of South Africa, but I think I should also mention the important role of the ruling party in all this.
Today we are affiliated to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. South Africa is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Cedaw. We have institutionalised the gender-mainstreaming machinery, with a Ministry at the head of this responsibility. We welcome our Minister. I'm sure this is the first International Women's Day when we have Minister Xingwana leading us on this topic. [Applause].
The African Union shares the same principle of 50/50 representation, as other members have said when they were debating. I must say, having attended the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held at the United Nations in New York last week, I came back with the general feeling that we have to do what hon Mokgoro has said. We have to re- energise and again show the political will to stand up on issues of gender equality and women's emancipation.
The establishment of UN Women, which has been referred to, is a very important step taken by the UN after so many years of existence and ahead of the transformation that has long been called for within the UN. The question for us as women is: How are we going to consolidate our efforts in such a way that we benefit from its existence?
I just want to add to what my colleagues have said - I think it was nicely put by the hon member from Cope - that the issues of women and girls are a worldwide concern. There are commonalities in the struggles that women have gone through across the globe. Women have struggled for their emancipation from oppression and marginalisation, meaning the social ills emanating from patriarchy. The women of South Africa, for instance, fought side by side with their male counterparts against colonisation and apartheid. That's the women of the ANC. As far back as 1913, they articulated the concerns of women, specifically the importance of mobilising women and the promotion of unity as a prerequisite for their struggles.
If time allows, I would like to emphasise, hon Minister of Basic Education and the President of the ANC Women's League, that you would be found lacking if you did not pick up on this strength of the ability to mobilise women and show that we all have a common understanding of the importance and the significance of gender issues. I mean, we wouldn't have hon members like the hon Van Lingen completely missing the point if we had mobilised successfully.
Women of South Africa have had to fight for land rights, oppose rising food prices and reject instruments of oppression and exclusion, like the apartheid pass laws. I just want to mention a few women I know very well that didn't struggle as individuals, but represented certain issues. I would like to start off with our Charlotte Maxeke, who was never frustrated or discouraged by the limitations imposed upon her by the apartheid government. She was the first South African woman to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. When you follow her history, you find that she was also an artist.
At one time - as was the case with other African women who went to other countries but, once their mission was finished, were dumped somewhere - papers reported on women artists who were singing in the US but were left stranded. One of the universities grabbed Charlotte Maxeke and she acquired a Bachelor of Science degree. What is important is that, as a committed activist, she started corresponding with her priest here at home and told him that she had an opportunity and was seeing more opportunities in the future. Out of that correspondence, she founded the Wilberforce Institute, which later became one of the leading Transvaal high schools for Africans.
In 1930, she made a powerful address at the University of Fort Hare, which is still relevant today. She said:
If you definitely and earnestly set out to lift women and children up in the social life of the Bantu, you will find the men will benefit, and thus the whole community, both white and black.
So, she strived for unity even during the worst years of our racially divided country. The University of the Free State, in introducing the Free State Charlotte Maxeke Annual Memorial Lecture series, suggested, "Her most profound legacy is her enormous contribution to women's empowerment in the home and in society at large."
That was an act of courage - for a woman to struggle and end up starting a church, the African Methodist Episcopal, AME, which today has numerous members.
I want to mention another woman, Wangari Muta Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist. In the 1970s, she founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental nongovernmental organisation focusing on the planting of trees, environmental conservation and women's rights. Her project was opposed by the Kenyan government and her demonstrations to protect the forest were often met with violent resistance, which eventually led to her imprisonment.
She said, that the government ... "thinks that by threatening me and bashing me, they can silence me, but I have an elephant's skin. And somebody must raise the voice." She was calling for democracy rather than repression. In 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.
Another giant among woman is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, popularly known as "the iron lady", the first elected female president in Africa. Her road to the top was marred by hostility from the then president, Samuel Doe. In her attempts to provide proper leadership and literacy, she endured exile, house arrest and imprisonment, but she never gave in to the system.
Today, as the president of Liberia, she is a role model to all women. We must learn from her continued determination, strength and persistence, as these elements are key to tackling the struggles of today. After taking over, she established a truth and reconciliation commission, enforced the culture of human rights, promoted the principles and values of democracy, and strengthened the rule of law. Her leadership has given confidence to investors and tourists. She took over from a dictatorship, but she has managed to quickly bring back the values of democracy.
Mary Robinson, another powerful woman, was the first commissioner to the UN and female president in Ireland. Her outstanding service to women comprised her campaigns on a wide range of liberal issues, including the rights of women to sit on juries, the then requirement that all women, upon marriage, resign from the civil service, and so on.
Rosa Parks became popular after she defied a bus driver who wanted her to go and sit at the back and vacate her seat for a white person.
I mention all these women because they point out how far women have come and that the kinds of issues that were relevant then are still relevant today, in some instances.
There are, of course, outstanding challenges, like the question of poverty. When we were at the UN, as mentioned, poverty was elevated. I think it is because next year's theme is focusing especially on rural woman. I'm not going to give those details now. Gender-based violence is another issue that remains a challenge, as is the question of women in war-torn countries.
Coming to education, it is important to say that we are coming up with the skills pipeline. I hope our women, such as those of you sitting up there, will join hands with us as we empower women through skills development. We are starting with an industrial park and making sure that people who left school many years ago as mothers and young women also benefit from that. This will also help them to encourage children. The Minister of Basic Education has so often emphasised the role of the family and the community at large in education.
A lot of money has been put into our further education and training, FET, colleges. But it is not money that is going to do the trick. It is indeed my wish and hope that as an outcome of this debate we come up with a clear proposal on how women could be fast-tracked within the skills development pipeline in order to become key players in economy-generating projects. I thank you. [Applause].