I agree with the hon Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries that indeed our country must express its concern and pain at the murders that we see in South Africa. We have repeated this several times in this House. But it is concern over all who are murdered in our country and not a portion of our society. All murders must be objected to and spoken against by hon members. [Applause.]
We have done something that is excellent, Madam Deputy Speaker, as the members of this House, by agreeing that indeed we should stand up and debate this matter of the rights that our people must enjoy in our country as the outcome of a constitutional democracy.
Given the centrality of human rights to the exercise of freedom, it is absolutely necessary for Parliament to dedicate time to reviewing our progress.
The Human Rights Commission, as we all know and as the hon Dandala hinted, has not been able to execute fully its mandate of promoting awareness and full knowledge of the rights each person should have access to.Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that the Human Rights Commission has done commendable work in a context that is constantly challenging.
Madam Deputy Speaker, despite many difficult obstacles, our post-apartheid democracy has made positive progress in advancing the rights and status of women in South Africa. The five key priorities of the government promise increased opportunity for even more significant advances to be made.
In the area of education, girls have equal access to boys in school and are performing at improved levels in many subjects. And many more children are in school in South Africa than in India, in percentage terms, than the reference made by the hon member. [Applause.] In higher education women are more than 50% of the student body, and while we all want to see more of them in scarce disciplines, we are proud of their progress.
Health is a sector in which women have received support from government since the advent of democracy. The historic announcement by President Mandela of access to free health services for pregnant women was a significant endorsement of the progressive ambitions of the Freedom Charter. The blight of the HIV and Aids pandemic has eroded some of our advances and women are bearing an oppressive burden in this regard. Infant mortality and women's mortality during childbirth are also challenges that we must give more attention to. The ten-point health plan announced by President Zuma in his first state of the nation address is a direct response to these and other health needs that confront women.
In the political sphere and other public institutions, our democracy has achieved worldwide praise for our notable advances. Our cabinet and legislatures are among the top ten most representative parliaments of the world.
Our desire as the ANC is to advance the achievement of a national democratic society. This implies that all the facets that constitute such a society must be securely in place, and that all the components that make it up must receive attention. The concept "national" draws us all in - race, gender, ethnicity, class, disability, sexual orientation and political affiliation.
We are all potential beneficiaries and guardians of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution. Each one of us must advance the rights of all - it is not only the duty of the ANC - each Member of Parliament, each party, every leader has a duty to advance a human-rights culture in South Africa.
One of our more intractable tasks in this regard is that of ensuring that all women, whatever their status and location, enjoy full access to the rights enshrined in our Constitution.
This task makes our priority of rural development immensely important for women. Millions of women in rural communities bear the brunt of poverty and oppression that draws its roots from a patriarchal interpretation of culture and tradition. We as Parliament need to uphold the right to culture, while firmly indicating that the right to culture and other traditional norms and mores have a companion called equality that must be respected. [Applause.]
The evidence of continuing gender inequality in the public and private sectors, in the domestic spaces we occupy, and in some of our key institutions of governance clearly indicates that a great deal more has to be done in South Africa to ensure that women practically feel safe and respected as equal citizens of our country.
Our Parliament, our legislatures, our municipalities, our courts must protect and empower women.
Much more needs to be done to ensure that the socialisation of males and of females inculcates respect for the human dignity of all.
Violence against women, rape, murder and other physical, verbal and psychological evils that women experience daily mean that we as Members of Parliament should strive to ensure that government's priority of a safer, caring society includes a concerted focus on women's safety and protection.
Our Constitution contains these protections already. We have to make them a lived reality through the laws we pass and the programmes and budgets we approve.
In fact, it is probably in the Public Service that we continue to see progressive change for women. The social sphere of our homes, our recreation places and our social clubs needs increased attention to ensure that women and girls do benefit from democracy. The private sector in our country also needs to be monitored and to do much more. [Applause.]
Any society that advocates radical democratic transformation, as we do in the ANC, takes on the important duty of ensuring increased human security for all who live in that society.
We have done a great deal in South Africa, but the pain of disappearing children, sexual abuse of babies and limited protection by our courts offend against these principles. All of these point to the need to devote much more attention to the equality of girls and women in our society. [Applause.] Men's organisations and others who have taken on these challenges should be supported and congratulated. [Applause.]
We in government must focus our programmes more effectively and directly on this task of equality and empowerment. The existence of a new Ministry and department does not absolve the government in its entirety of the responsibility to ensure equality.
The record of the past 16 years suggests that with focus and effective strategising we can build on the advances we have made. Many of the members who spoke here today have acknowledged this in their contributions. The hon R M Rasmeni has pointed out the opportunities afforded by the comprehensive rural development strategy. There is the opportunity available through Kha Ri Gude, our literacy programme, and ensuring, as Rev Dandala called for, increased access to literacy for women. Clearly much is being done and of course, with the ANC in the saddle, clearly advancing the human rights of all the people of our country, much more will be done. [Applause.]
Hon members, the reason that our people continue to have faith in this organisation is because it is the organisation that brought to the fore the possibility that these rights should be available, not to a group, not to a gender, but to all people. [Applause.] It was the ANC.
When the ANC spoke of the right to vote, it never categorised classes, ownership of property, professional status or any category it would exclude. Unlike many organisations that spoke at the time, the ANC advocated the view that the right to the franchise was one that belonged to all adult persons ... [Applause.] ... and we continue to hold that belief.
When many argued against socioeconomic rights and their inclusion in the Constitution, it was the ANC that asserted that these must and will be present and will be acted upon. Very few societies of our economic status and ability are doing what this government is doing, in terms of the houses we have provided, the access to health care and the access to education.
Be honest, be against us, certainly fight with us, but fight on the platform of acknowledgement of the truth and facts. [Applause.] The facts are: Change has come. Change has happened. Our people not only see it, not only feel it, but they experience it as well.
As hon members on this side of this House have said, clearly much more must be done. We have never said we have done it all as yet. We've always said that there is a record, there are achievements and there is progress, but the challenges, given the imprint of apartheid, remain great. They can never be solved in the time we have had. But solved they will be; addressed they will be.
We will not turn away our attention from addressing the needs of the people of our country and ensuring the implementation of the principles we have advocated in the Constitution, particularly in the vision contained in the preamble at the beginning of our Constitution, of a society that has waged a struggle, that has come through it as one, that recognises that diversity is strength, that unity in diversity is a strength, a society that will ensure that all our people enjoy human rights and feel secure and protected, a society that empowers all our people by ensuring that those opportunities that were denied are increasingly available to them. I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. [Applause.]