AUGUST 9, 1991
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Today, we mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Struggle of Women of South Africa. In so doing, we honour all women who have courageously challenged the oppression of the apartheid system and have dared dream of a new society based on democracy, social justice and equality for all.
The struggle of the women of South Africa has been protracted. Thirty-five years ago, many women, in demand for their rights, defied the forces of oppression and state enforcement agents to challenge the pass laws emplaced by the apartheid regime.
Their demonstration, undertaken against all odds, was an expression of their courage and determination not to remain subservient to injustice and to racially motivated legislation. Over the last decade, this struggle has continued. Girls have grown to become women but have faced and continue to suffer from the same oppression which their mothers had known. Indeed, as women, as blacks and as workers, they have been subjected to an inferior status, to the status of a minor in their own country.
The women of South Africa deserve our salute and respect. They selflessly bore the brunt of apartheid. They have led many successful struggles against forced removals. They have headed households in the absence of their husbands who were in prison, in exile or under restrictions. They became an integral part of the labour force. And they have carried out their fight in the face of draconian measures and laws that took no cognizance of their dignity and their courage. But in all, the oppressed women of South Africa found fortitude in the hope for a better tomorrow. It is hardly imaginable that the history of a new South Africa could ever be written without a prominent role and place being accorded to the women of South Africa. And although not victimised materially by apartheid, many white women also joined the struggle and through protest and other actions have been contributing to the creation of a new South Africa.
This year's commemoration is taking place at a significant juncture in the overall struggle to eradicate apartheid. As you are aware, in spite of recent political developments in South Africa; in spite of our collective hope for the emergence of a non-racial South Africa, inequalities and deprivation continue to be endured by women under apartheid.
Today, thirty-five years after the initial women's protest against the pass laws, we behold a new circumstance in South Africa. Though not yet a full realisation of the eradication of apartheid, it is an era in which South African women can look back and rightly say: yes, we have come a long way. But we have much longer to go. Equality of women in public and private life in South Africa is not yet at hand.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The future of South Africa looks hopeful but the road to reach it is covered with difficulties. What has been so far achieved in South Africa has not been attained in isolation. Not by South Africans alone, and not by the international community alone. It is the combination of the internal struggle and external pressure that has allowed the possibility of a new South Africa as envisaged in the United Nations Declaration.
The fundamental objective of the anti-apartheid struggle has always been to eradicate apartheid laws and replace them with a new constitution in a unitary, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. That goal is yet far from being achieved. In spite of the many positive steps that have been taken, negotiations for a new constitution are yet to start, nor is there yet an agreement on transitional arrangements or on the mechanisms for the drawing up of a new constitution.
In addition to the outstanding issues of the release of the remaining political prisoners and the return of the political exiles without restriction, the recent disclosures of covert funding of Inkatha by the authorities are clouding the prospects for speedy negotiations at this stage. The Special Committee was not surprised by the recent revelations. All along it has pointed out that it appeared that the authorities were following a strategy of weakening the ANC. On 8th May this year, we called this policy "dangerous and self-destructive".
These revelations, as well as the continuing violence, which are not unrelated to the covert activities, show that the process of political change in South Africa is at a fragile stage that requires a very cautious approach by the international community.
It is, therefore, regrettable that at this juncture of the struggle, a number of States have decided to lift certain important sanctions imposed on South Africa. We hold firmly to the view that to lift sanctions now, as some have done, is premature. True, key apartheid laws have been repealed, but the repeal of those laws does not repeal the legacies of the obnoxious system of apartheid. Most important of all, the majority of the people of South Africa still cannot vote. The negotiations on a new constitution have not yet started and President de Klerk has not agreed to the proposed interim government to take charge of the transition towards a new South Africa.
The Special Committee has consistently stressed the necessity to maintain pressure on South Africa until a new constitution is adopted in that country. It agrees with the OAU, which in its Abuja statement of June 1991, said, and I quote:
"We further reaffirm the decisive importance of sanctions in moving South Africa forward towards a non-racial democracy and are convinced that it will be necessary to continue to use this form of pressure until the system of apartheid has been ended".
As the process of change unfolds, the Special Committee will be reviewing the issue of the necessary pressure that would be applied through the various stages of the process. We shall also articulate and pursue a programme of assistance to the victims of apartheid.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We reaffirm our solidarity with South Africans and particularly, their women whom we honour today. And we stand with South African women who say:
"The commitment of the women of my community is my commitment - to stand side by side with our menfolk and our children in this long struggle to liberate ourselves and to bring about peace and justice for all in a country we love so deeply".