Women’s Day Address
Monday 9 August 2021 marks South Africa’s Women’s Day holiday. While much has been done since the advent of South Africa’s democracy to improve the lives of women and to bring equality to all people in South Africa, more needs to be done to realise this seemingly obvious and yet deceptively difficult ideal.
The South African Cabinet declared in March 2021 that this was the “Year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke”. This year marks the 150th anniversary of struggle icon and human rights campaigner Charlotte Maxeke. She and other selfless women of her generation fought against oppression at a time when such defiance was met with unrelenting force.
She was a trailblazer who was the first black woman to graduate and obtain a BSc Degree in Southern Africa in 1901. She was also the first woman to participate in the Kings Court under King Sabata Dalindyebo of AbaThembu and they started a school under this Royal Family and for all her efforts, she was given a name Nogazo as a salutation of honour.
History books attest that she was the only woman that attended the first African National Congress (ANC) conference in 1912 as well as the first President of Bantu Women’s League in 1918, which later became ANC Women’s League. She helped organise the anti-pass movement in Bloemfontein in 1913 and spearheaded the fight for social justice. As we celebrate our freedom, we dare not forget those who sacrificed everything for us to be free. Through their sacrifices, we now live in a country which recognises women as equal citizens, with equal rights and responsibilities.
As South Africa and the world still struggle against the common Covid-19 enemy, we are called to exhibit the same strength, faith and fortitude shown by Maxeke in particular and by countless millions of women who battle against countless odds every day. It is by exhibiting the inner-strength and determination displayed by women, daily, across the Continent and the Globe that humanity as a whole will achieve final and lasting victory over this virus.
Although we have made remarkable progress since 1994, the spectre of inequality, poverty and unemployment remains one of the most glaring impediments to South Africa’s goal of national unity and social cohesion. Indeed, inequality, poverty and unemployment describe the state in which millions of women across Africa find themselves. It is incumbent upon us to ensure that these 3 challenges are once and for all eradicated in their entirety.
Last year was a significant year as we commemorated the 20th anniversary of the adoption of Resolution 1325, the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action and the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, amongst others. It is also the review year for “silencing the guns” on the African Continent. By and large women are the primary victims of violence in both conflict and post conflict situations. Yet still more women across the globe face deprivation, fear, abuse and discrimination. As human beings, as a Country and as a world, we cannot step down from the fight for the full emancipation of women so that they might realise the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom, as enshrined in the South African Bill of Rights.
I would like to, on this our Nation’s Women’s Day, wish all women the best and to call on all people to ensure that none get left behind by always exhibiting the character and strength of those women, like Charlotte Maxeke, who have gone before.
I thank you
H.E. Ambassador Mthembi-Mahanyele
Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the Swiss Confederation and accredited to the Principality of Liechtenstein
