GCIS
Singer Rebecca Malope entertains the crowd at the Womens Day celebration at the Union Buildings yesterday in Pretoria, where President Jacob Zuma delivered the main address.
President Jacob Zuma has enjoined the nation to unite against the “hooligans who attack and sexually assault women and girls”.
He was making his annual Women’s Day address on the lawns of the Union Buildings in Pretoria yesterday, whenthe strains of malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi (praise be to women) rang out loud and clear across the capital, and across the country.
The enactment of the Domestic Violence Act was an important milestone, Zuma said, urging SA’s women to “use this law to protect themselves”.
He said the recently reported rape of a woman aged 94 – the same age as Nelson Mandela – represented a “sickness in our society that must be nipped in the bud”.
“Women must be free to walk anywhere, day or night, without fearing attacks. The police stand ready to deal with such criminals,” he told the crowd estimated at 20 000.
Zuma used his hour-long speech to touch on topics ranging from domestic violence and sexual assault to gender parity in the private sector.
After a somewhat brief address from Angie Motshekga, president of the ANC Women’s League and Minister of Basic Education, the president neatly manoeuvred around what he referred to “some serious difficulties in education delivery in provinces such as Limpopo and the Eastern Cape”.
There have been calls for Motshekga’s head in the wake of the textbook scandal in Limpopo, where schoolchildren have waited half a year for delivery of learning materials.
However, Zuma’s assurance that the national government had “intervened to assist in restoring quality learning and teaching” in the province rang hollow.
Beginning with a tribute to Charlotte Maxeke, founder of the Bantu Women’s League – a forerunner of the ANC Women’s League – he praised her as “a woman of substance who was a pioneer in many fields”, including science, education, and missionary and social work.
DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko spent Women’s Day in Katlehong in Gauteng with women who have started small businesses.
“I met women who have shown remarkable entrepreneurial spirit and courage… faced with few economic opportunities and under difficult circumstances,” Mazibuko said.
“We pay tribute to their hard work and dedication, and we hope many more will be able to emulate their example.”
In the Western Cape, Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille honoured Krotoa van Meerhoff – a wife and mother who served as interpreter for the first Dutch settlers at the Cape – by renaming a square in the city centre after the late Khoisan descendant.
“Krotoa’s life was not a long one. But the work she achieved in that brief life represents all that we are trying to achieve in our great city,” De Lille said.
Speaking at a Women’s Day gathering in eNtumeni near Eshowe yesterday, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize said the issues facing women were the same, irrespective of race or political affiliation.
“Our young men need to be taught how to care for women. The recent shocking cases of rape of children and the elderly are something we cannot allow to continue,” said Mkhize.
He said women must be clear about the society they wanted, so that when others came to help, their goal was clear. Women were urged to take the lead and be vocal about the ills facing society. One of the main issues that needed to be urgently addressed was women’s participation in the economy, he said. Unemployment figures showed that women were the worst off when it came to jobs – they were also the biggest beneficiaries of government welfare grants.
In eMfekayi, outside Mtubatuba in Zululand, IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi urged women to raise their voices against what was not right in the country.
Buthelezi said women’s right to voice their opinion was enshrined in the constitution.
“Yet many voices of many women remain stifled. Every year, hundreds of women |remain silent about abuse they have suffered at the hands of someone they trusted.
“Many keep silent about being raped. Silent about being beaten. Silent about being made to work without pay, without respect and without an exit,” said Buthelezi.
