Chair, Deputy Chair, hon Minister, today we are here to debate the 16 Days of Activism and as hon members of this House of Parliament we should stand responsibly and firmly against violence against women. The Minister has stolen a lot of thunder from my speech and so has the hon Magadla - we obviously did research on the same websites! We all know that the campaign takes place from 25 November until 10 December. Something very interesting that I came across is that in South Africa women started with the Women's Charter adopted at the founding conference of the Federation of SA Women in Johannesburg on 17 April 1954. In the preamble it says:
We, the women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working women and housewives, African, Indians, European and Coloured, hereby declare our aim ...
So, it included all of us. It goes on to refer to a single society. Women do not form a society separate from men. There is only one society and it is made up of both men and women. Most importantly, the charter then refers to the test of civilisation, and I now quote:
The level of civilisation which any society has reached can be measured by the degree of freedom that its members enjoy. The status of women is a test of civilisation. Measured by that standard, South Africa must be considered low on the scale of civilised nations.
That was in 1954. How mature is South African society today - and the nation - after 55 years since the charter was written? Are we on a level where we respect one another in a civilised society in a civilised nation if there is violent crime all over the place? My friend, hon Jac Bekker, came with me in the car this morning and we discussed this issue. He said to me there are three forms of respect, namely self-respect, respect for your neighbour and respect for your God. If there is respect, very little can go wrong.
There were lots of other charters that followed after the Women's Charter, like the Charter for Effective Equality in 1994, and then in 2003, the Women's Charter on Information Society and Development. So, we have all these charters, conventions, platforms and Acts protecting us against gender violence. But the worst form of gender violence happens at the core of our family lives, right in the heart, where love should prevail and hold the family and everything else together. It almost seems as if one steps into a different world when we enter our homes and close our doors behind us. Suddenly there is no charter, law or Act to protect us against violence, poverty and substance abuse.
I want to say thank you to all of you who are wearing the white ribbons today in support of the 16 Days campaign. In doing so we show support; we create awareness.
It's so sad that there is nobody from the press anywhere to be seen in order to encourage others to take part in the campaign and to show our concern and commitment to a violence-free South Africa. As hon Magadla said, the theme for 2009 is "Commit, Act, Demand: We can end violence against women", so as political leaders we all have a responsibility to end gender-based violence together. We can make a difference. Every action, no matter how big or small, can make a difference. To be accountable we can do four things. We can ask this House now to call for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. We also call on the United Nations to take bolder action on the UN secretary-general's UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign's Framework for Action. We are all accountable for playing a part in reducing violence.
And just like we did with Madiba Day, where we had 67 minutes of doing community work on 18 July, maybe we should now for 16 days do 16 minutes of action work a day in this campaign. We will then come and report back to the NCOP what we as leaders have done for the women and children in our communities. I thank you. [Applause.]