This fight is still on today

The month of August has become synonymous with women. Exactly 57 years ago this month, on the 9th of August 1956 20 000 women marched united on the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest to the dehumanising Apartheid regime’s pass books. Pass books ensured that the majority of South African were prevented from moving freely within their own country. Daring and courageous women like Helen Joseph, Lilian Ngoyi and Albertina Sisulu, planned and led this dramatic protest. The women came from every colour, political background, creed and corner of South Africa. The march showed the then National Party Prime Minister JG Strijdom could not break our women but only united them more in their resolve to fight the evil system of Apartheid. Today I have the honour and privilege of being in the same room of a new generation of women who have the same courage and resolve to fight the other evils that confront us today in the modern-day South Africa. The reality is that we (and that is all of us; women and men) need to remain committed to the emancipation of women throughout South Africa. Gone are the days when gender and indeed social issues are looked at separately from other issues. All challenges are integrally interlinked and equally pressing. The new DA-led Gauteng provincial government next year will be an open and responsive government. A DA-led government will deal with women and children’s health, domestic violence and rape, youth and family development and unemployment side by side. Here are the facts; because of domestic violence a woman in South Africa is murdered by her partner every 8 hours. 1000 women a year. The DA has not forgotten you, a DA-led government will respond to this. Rape and sexual violence are gripping our nation, and have reached crisis levels. A woman in South Africa is raped every 10 minutes. More than 50,000 rapes a year. The DA has not forgotten you, a DA-led government in Gauteng will respond to this. In fact the DA is not waiting to get into government, as it will here in Gauteng next year, we have already done much work in this regard. For years, the DA has called for the specialised courts to address sexual offences to be revived. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe did just that and heeded our call and the Specialised Sexual Offences Court will finally be resuscitated. In the same statement, however, he told us the courts will be supported by a budget of only R20m. But R20m is not enough to tackle this scourge with the urgency it deserves. R20m mocks the suffering of the thousands of women, men and children who are victimised by the perpetrators of these crimes every day, more so since the same department allocated R45m to specialised courts for the 2010 World Cup alone. The DA commits that we will continue to work hard in Parliament to put pressure on the government to address this lack of commitment. We will work for change. Our mindset must change as all South Africans are interlinked; the wealthiest person can only reach his or her full potential when the poorest and downtrodden black woman is empowered. It makes as much economic sense as much as it makes moral sense. The ANC has let down the women of this province badly. And by letting down the women, the potential of every man and child has also been held back. Today, just as in August 1956 at the Union Buildings, we must never forget the 60 minutes silence and remind ourselves of how much more there is still to be done today, to give women equality and respect. All South Africans have a role to play. We have a responsibility to honour the sacrifices of our women over the years. Let us never forget. We can remember by continuing this fight. This will we will do together.

What’s this unity everyone’s talking about?

Often in discussions with people of the Portuguese community, I hear about how “un-united” the community is. I’m constantly told that we need “unity” and that we need to be “united”. However, no one can explain to me exactly what this “unity” is. What would it mean for the community to be united? To date, I’ve not received a proper, coherent and understandable response. The closest in the creation of the united Portuguese club or association. All existing clubs and organisation would all collapse into one united organisation. Besides the fact that in reality this would never happen, exactly how would the community be united if such a united club were formed? If hypothetically, all organisations, clubs and associations were to be united to form a “mega-club” it would unite all organisations, clubs and associations into one umbrella mega-origination. Full stop. Nothing else. It wouldn’t translate into the mystical unity everyone refers to. Knowing the Portuguese community as I do, such a mega-club would quickly show cracks of disunity and breakaways would quickly follow. It appears not be apparent to many members of our community that the diversity of opinions, ideas and outlook is a good thing. Who says that unity is a good or positive thing in the first place? The presumption is that it is! I dare to disagree and say that “unity”; something that can’t actually be defined in the first place, is illusive and basically a cryptic idea. If unity is defined as that I have to agree with someone else even when I don’t agree with him or her, then I don’t want that unity. If unity means that we should all express our “Portugality” (“Portugalidade”) in only one way, expression or style, then I’m not interested in that “unity” as we are simply too diverse, vibrant, interesting and awesome as a community. Each of us are individuals with singular personal expressions. This perceived unity can, in my opinion, take only one form; where each one of us takes personal responsibility. We need to be the best person and, in our case, also the best South African we can be. Being the best, loyal, honest, hardworking, faithful, compassionate, caring and kindest person we can be is our contribution to the unity that matters most, that of the unity and understanding amongst all men and women; irrespective of how diverse or different we each are.

The economy must come first, not emotion

In 2009 the United Kingdom (UK) introduced visa requirements for South Africans entering their country. This in itself is not a big story until one scratches a little deeper. Firstly, South Africa has had a special relationship with the UK; we have a historic bond and we are a former colony of the “British Empire”. Until 1961 our head of state was the Queen herself and today we are a member of the Commonwealth. Culturally we, and I mean all South Africans, black and white, are actually quite “English”. The way we speak is not too far removed from that of “Queen’s English”, our lifestyle, outlook and even culture has been heavily influenced by the English. Our school system, the way we conduct business and even our political system all originate from the UK. So for the UK to “suddenly” insist that South Africans must be in possession of visas when entering their country is much more “dramatic” or “personal” than any other country. When this imposition was made it was for a good and solid reason; the systems of the Department of Home Affairs were no longer considered secure enough. Too many illegal people had entered the United Kingdom via South Africa and the UK considered us too risky. Simply put; the government had dropped the ball on this one. Quite some time has now passed, the Minister of Home Affairs told me in Parliament that systems were now secure and that there are no longer reasons for the UK to demand visas from us. Minister Pandor told us that her department was in discussions with UK authorities on this matter. It appears that these discussions appear to be going nowhere as now Home Affairs are threatening to reciprocate and insist on UK citizen’s possessing visas when entering South Africa. On the face of it, if indeed our systems are indeed secure and safe again and the UK is not lifting this criteria on us, then we too should make similar demands; after all they are not our “colonial masters” and who do they think they are in any case!? The emotional attitude however is not helpful and will hurt South Africa more than it would ever hurt the Queen and her subjects. The largest number of tourists to South Africa come from the UK. If Britons start looking at other holiday and, even business, destinations it is South Africa and our economy that would suffer. Britons, or anyone else, are not obliged to visit our shores. They can go anywhere; the rest of the world is our competition. We need to make it as easy and attractive for UK citizens to visit us. Doing anything to complicate or frustrate these tourists or business people from coming to South Africa could potentially mean the loss of jobs in the tourism industry, the hospitality, transport and services industry, to mention only a few examples. We need to be level-headed and to think about our economy, and frankly, ourselves, without getting emotional. In the meantime, we need to ensure that Home Affairs ensures that their systems are safe and secure. If we are confident of this it is our job to show the UK that this is the case and to work towards dropping the visa requirements imposition by the UK.