ADDRESS BY PREMIER
Programme Director
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
This year marks the eleventh year of the worldwide campaign against violence against women.
The 16 days of Activism campaign against Gender violence creates a platform for all of us who are concerned about domestic violence to create an awareness around this evil.
We gather in this fashion to raise awareness around gender -based violence as a human rights abuse. Also to ensure that survivors of violence are offered protection from those who can't keep their hands to themselves. But more importantly to work towards the total eradication of those who believe that the only way they can proof their manhood is by assaulting defenceless women and children.
Let me ask you therefore to pause for a moment and think about all those women, girlchildren and other victims who died from being assaulted and sexually abused in homes or on the streets. And those who are victims of exploitation, hunger and disease.
It kills those on whom our society relies to provide income through agriculture, through mining, in the factories, those who run our schools and our hospitals, and those who govern our towns and provinces.
It worsens the poverty pervasive in our society when parents who are breadwinners die. Programme directors, by allowing it to spread, we face the danger that half of our youth will not reach adulthood.
Their education will be wasted. The economy will shrink. There will be a large number of sick people whom the healthy will not be able to maintain.
Our dreams as a people will be shattered. For too long we have closed our eyes as a nation, hoping the truth was not so real.
Many of us have grieved for orphans left with no one to fend for them. We have experienced AIDS in the groans of wasting lives. We have carried it in small and big coffins to many graveyards. At times we did not know that we were burying AIDS victims. At other time we knew, but chose to remain silent.
Believe me when I say that one of our greatest challenges is how we deal with the HIV/Aids scourge. In partnership with all sectors of society , we must continue to give absolute priority to violence against women and children.
The power to defeat the spread of this evil lies in our joining hands as youth, as women and men, as business people, as workers, as religious people, as parents and teachers, as farmers and farm workers, as the unemployed and the professionals, as the rich and the poor - in fact, all of us. But we can and MUST do something about it. In fact we have started to and continue to do something about it.
This gathering here today is proof that we are doing something about it. The fact that we would be meeting in similar fashion on Friday at Marapyane Staduim, and on Sunday at Matibidi Community grounds, demonstrates our pledge to blow the whistle and break the silence.
The millions of people in employment are a captive audience for campaigns against the abuse of women and children. Given the fact that these employees are family members, parents and community leaders, collectively the business sector has access to the majority of the South African population.
And as government we employ close to a million people and will thus be affected by domestic violence like any other large employer.
Each government department must therefore develop a better understanding on how exactly domestic violence is impacting on its line function. Communities have tremendous powers, resources, and ability to find appropriate solutions to their problems. Community based organisations therefore enjoy a high degree of credibility and can mobilise large numbers of people.
Non-governmental organisations are usually formed to address a particular problem. Their operational principles are flexible and usually appropriate to the task at hand.
Campaigns against women and child abuse are likely to succeed if they enjoy a high degree of community involvement and support.
Community-based and Non-governmental organisations are key partners of government in the fight against violence against women and children and in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
These types of organisations are well placed to raise the awareness of gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in communities before the harsh realities of the epidemic become more evident. Similarly the entertainment industry, arts, culture and sports target mainly the young section of society.
Sporting personalities like Doctor Khumalo are powerful role models with the ability to influence attitudes of societies. The arts and entertainment sector are in an ideal position to spread our anti-women abuse messages. I believe, therefore, that it is important for all of us to educate each other about the evils of women and child abuse.
Everyday every night - wherever we are - we shall let our families, friends and peers know that they can save themselves and save the nation, by changing the way we live and how we love.
We shall use every opportunity openly to discuss the issue of violence against women and children and the danger AIDS poses. As Partners Against women and children abuse, as ambassadors of the AIDS campaign, we must together pledge to care.
And so today we join hands in the Partnership, fully aware that our unity is our strength. The simple but practical action that we take today is tomorrow's insurance for our nation.
There is no other moment but the present, to take action.
And to take it now.
I thank you.