Address by Mr Ronnie Kasrils, MP

Minister for Intelligence Services

Women’s Day Celebrations

Musanda

12 August 2005

The Triumph of Courage

Lebogang Mashile[1], who forms part of a new and vibrant generation of young South African women poets, reminds us that:

Somewhere in the annals of time

There is a record

Of the instant

When the imprint was left

On your life’s shoes

…Where fear takes leave

And we are left

With the triumph of courage

It is this triumph of courage that we celebrate on National Women’s Day. We honour the imprints left by countless brave women in their struggles for peace, equality and justice that have left us with an enduring legacy, which forms the very foundation of the gains that we can confidently claim today.

We celebrate the triumphs of women across the centuries like Empress Theodora of the Byzantine Empire who, in the 6^th Century, was a strong advocate for women’s rights and created a law that enabled women to own property[2]. We recall the bravery of women in the suffragette movement in the late 19^th Century who linked their struggle for the vote to that of the abolition of slavery and the attainment of workers rights. We salute the heroic actions of Latin American women in the 20^th Century who, while campaigning for their rights, fought against military dictatorship under the banner of ‘Democracy in the country and at home!’[3]

We also celebrate the triumphs of courageous women in our own country. We trace their journey of struggle through the years against all forms of injustice and gender discrimination, which claims the historic march of 20 000 women to the Union Buildings in 1956, as a milestone.

This event was the culmination of years of protest, stretching back to the first organised demonstrations of oppressed black women, which took place in the Free State in 1913, where they ‘threw off their shawls and took the law into their own hands’[4].It laid the seeds for further resistance in the decades that followed that literally shook every city, town and village throughout the land.

The significance of their courageous efforts in shaping our history cannot be underestimated. The importance of this contribution was aptly captured by former ANC President and Nobel Laureate, Chief Albert Luthuli who said ‘when women begin to take an active part in the struggle, as they are doing now, no power on earth can stop us from achieving freedom in our lifetime’.[5]

Sadly so many champions of gender emancipation like Chief Luthuli, together with many of the women who sacrificed so much to bring us where we are today, were not able to witness freedom in their lifetime. Their huge imprints, however, remain ever present.

Their assertion of women’s rights and their critical role in the fight against oppression side by side with men, as articulated in the 1954 Women’s Charter, were incorporated into the Freedom Charter, whose 50^th Anniversary we mark this year. The Charter - which sets out a vision of a future non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society, was a beacon for millions of South Africans uniting in a common struggle for dignity, equality and social justice – in turn found expression in our founding Constitution.

Borrowing from a phrase in the Charter, our Constitution boldly declares that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it’ – both black and white, both men and women. It is this spirit, which recognises that no society can truly belong to all who live in it unless women are empowered and attain equality in every sphere of their lives, which is embodied in all its provisions.

And it is this spirit that has been embraced by South African women in our democracy - drawing on the proud heritage they inherited from these earlier struggles – which has ensured that they are not simply passive recipients of the rights which flow from our Constitution, but are actively engaged in nation-building efforts aimed at translating these provisions into a daily reality for all our people, so that our country does indeed belong to all who live in it.

In doing so, they have heeded the call of Dora Tamana, a veteran leader of women’s organisation in the apartheid years who said ‘You who have no work, speak. You who have no homes speak. You who have no schools speak. You who have to run like chickens from the vultures, speak…We must free ourselves’.[6]

We have much to celebrate on National Women’s Day. There has been a substantial growth in the numbers of women who occupy key strategic positions of influence in public life. This extends to Parliament, the Public Service and Cabinet, where today we can boast of a woman Deputy President for the very first time in the history of our country, who was in fact a key figure in the Natal Organisation of Women (NOW) in the 1980s and has always placed gender concerns at the heart of her work. Halala Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka Halala! She joins with 4 women premiers out of 9, 12 women Ministers out of 28, 10 Deputy Ministers out of 21, a woman Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and a woman Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP.

Since 1994 more than 50 gender related laws have been passed[7] and these women, together with those in parliament, NGOs as well as those at the grassroots, have made their voices heard. They have played a major role in the development of an enabling legislative and policy framework to protect women’s rights and promote gender empowerment. They have translated these frameworks into concrete programmes of action which have resulted in real gains for women on the ground.

These efforts have been supported by an extensive National Gender Machinery for the advancement of women, composed of various structures, both inside and outside government, which have been established to promote and monitor the achievement of substantive equality. A critical aspect of their role is to ensure that gender considerations are fully integrated into all areas of work.

These efforts have been reinforced by the support and involvement of men, exemplified in the leadership shown by our President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, who understand that the task of women’s emancipation is not the duty of women alone, but that men too have a special responsibility to work jointly with women in securing their rights and freedoms.

These efforts have been augmented by the advances made by women on our Continent. We are encouraged by Tanzania’s Gertrude Mongella’s appointment as the first President of the Pan African Parliament. We are proud of Kenyan Wangari Maathai’s distinction as the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. We are inspired by Rwanda’s example of 49% women participation in their Parliament, which rates as the highest in the world[8].

These efforts have been strengthened by South Africa’s ratification of a number of international instruments which bind us to the achievement of time-bound goals and commitments, which we are required to report on. This places us at the forefront of the global struggle to fundamentally transform the lives of women and in so doing create a better world.

In particular, we wish to make specific mention of the Beijing Platform of Action, adopted in 1995, which compelled the world to acknowledge explicitly the centrality of gender equality to the development of every nation. At its ten year review, which was held in New York earlier this year, delegates confirmed that while tangible progress had been made for women on many fronts, significant challenges remain.

These challenges are not unfamiliar to us as South Africans. While our freedom has brought much improvement to the lives of millions of women, the fact is that many still remain at the margins of our society.

So what does all this mean for us? As the Intelligence Services we do not exist in isolation from the broader society and the achievements which we claim as a country resonate within our own structures as do the challenges.

In respect of the achievements, we too have much to celebrate. In doing so, you will recall that last year we committed ourselves to use National Women’s Day as a platform to pay tribute to those women in intelligence whose triumphs shaped our advances. And so today we carve their names with pride!

We recall the courageous actions of early women intelligence officers in our own country, in the wars against foreign occupation. We honour the vital role played by women in defence of the African Kingdoms, who not only hid fugitives and weapons but were well-known for gathering and passing on intelligence to their leaders and the warriors in the field[9]. We also praise the contribution of women in the South African War like Sarah Raal, who after making a daring escape from a British concentration camp, became an active member of a Boer Commando as a scout[10].

And given that this year marks the 10^th Anniversary of our establishment under a democratic dispensation, we commend women at all levels like our former Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, former NIA Deputy Director-General, Girly Majola-Pikoli, Sandy Africa, Kgomotso Jolobe, Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin, Rosaline Mohlabi, Jennita Kandalail and Busi Stofile, who, with many others, have played a leading role in promoting gender equity.

We would, of course, be remiss if we did not also acknowledge the role played by men like our former Minister, Joe Nhlanhla, Dennis Dlomo, Solly Ngwenze, and Dicky Deysel who have consistently involved themselves in activities that advance women’s participation in a traditionally male-dominated working environment. We ask them and the others named to please stand and receive our acknowledgement.

Women today can indeed claim their rightful place in the Intelligence Services. Successes have been as a result of a conscious effort to create an enabling and empowering environment so that women are able to play a meaningful role in the intelligence community as well as fulfill their true potential.

The statement of commitment, which we signed last year on National Women’s Day, serves as a concrete illustration of this and, as from 2006, we will call on the Heads of the Services annually to report on progress in meeting the objectives set out therein.

Despite our triumphs; the challenges remain. While participation in the numbers of women has certainly increased, we have not gone far enough, particularly in areas of management and core business. I am therefore also announcing today that I intend to call on the Intelligence Services Council to conduct a thorough review of the efficacy of our policies as well as the mechanisms in place to monitor their implementation. I will also expect them to make recommendations on ways in which we can overcome any obstacles so as to improve our performance.

Another area of concern is that of co-ordination of our efforts. Despite the fact that we are one intelligence community, we still operate largely in silos in isolation from one another. We must institutionalise co-ordination on gender matters across the community in order to effectively deal with the challenges confronting us as well as to maximise our gains. Let us learn from the struggles of women who have demonstrated that their power to bring about real change lies in their unity of purpose as an organised collective. In this regard, I am particularly encouraged by the proposal to set up a security cluster gender forum, which flowed from the historic workshop held in September last year. We must now ensure that this happens.

We must also begin to develop a gender perspective in our intelligence products, which reflects on the security-related trends that impact on the specific developmental needs and concerns of women. We must also ensure that gender is seen as a critical element of our National Security Framework. I wish to commend the efforts which have been undertaken by NICOC in this regard.

This perspective is important because, as intelligence officers, we are required to work in the national interest by identifying those threats and opportunities, which are critical to maintaining our country’s national security and well-being. And in today’s complex global environment, underdevelopment and the absence of human rights constitute the gravest threats to our collective security. They are often at the root of much of the conflict and instability which are a dominant feature of our world.

While these threats impact on all people, study after study has shown that women experience them both uniquely and disproportionately. As the delegates at the ten year review of the Beijing Platform of Action pointed out ‘…it is a women’s face we see when we speak of poverty, of HIV and Aids, of violent conflict and social upheaval, of trafficking in human beings. Violence against women, already horrific in times of peace, intensifies during armed conflict with sexual violence now routinely used as a weapon of war. And women are everywhere disproportionately concentrated in poorly paid, unsafe and insecure jobs, struggling to lift themselves and their families out of poverty’.[11]

Yet experience has also taught us that there is no better tool for building the security of a nation and indeed the world than the empowerment of women. Through women’s empowerment we can raise economic productivity; we can reduce infant and maternal mortality, we can improve nutrition and promote health, and we can increase the chances of education for the next generation. Experience has also shown that the likely success of our endeavours, to prevent conflict or achieve reconciliation after the conflict has ended, will be vastly enhanced if we empower women by involving them in all stages of our peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction processes.

Therefore if we are to fulfill our national security mandate as an intelligence community more effectively, we need to begin to look at the impact of those threats which compromise the rights of women to live in dignity, in freedom from want and freedom from fear. And in our efforts to deal with these threats, we also need to identify opportunities which promote the involvement of women, so as to improve our chances of preventing the threats or in limiting their destructive effects.

National Women’s Day is clearly a time to celebrate the strides we have made and to honour those who led the way so we could be free. Our celebrations would remain hollow and our tributes meaningless, however, if we did not use this opportunity to reflect on how far we still have to go.

In conclusion, let us therefore use this opportunity to rededicate ourselves to accelerate the progress made, to expand its reach and recommit ourselves to ensuring determined implementation and greater accountability – Malibongwe Igama lamaKhosikazi!