Madam Chairperson,
All South African Ministers present here,
Our RSA Missions Representatives,
All UN Top Management,
All Representatives of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW) and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
Distinguished Delegates,
Representatives of Civil Society,
Compatriots and Comrades,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

In my capacity as both the citizen of South Africa and as the National Deputy Minister of Police, I cannot help but feel the unsaid lament here that South Africa is a case of “from hero to zero” on matters of safety and protection of women and children against rape and all violent abuse.

Just a week ago, a BBC journalist wrote: “...all is not well in the land of Nelson Mandela...brutality is lurking in the air like a great white shark in the warm summer waters of the Indian Ocean. Then, there are rapes...South Africa – a country of 52 million people, have a higher incidence of rape than even India, a country of one billion people”.

Notwithstanding, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, in the midst of this apparent gloom and doom picture of the land of Nelson Mandela, the first citizen of South Africa, our President, His Excellency Mr Jacob Zuma, has shown great leadership and a political-will to lead in-front against this gloomy picture of South Africa.

In his 2013 State of the Nation Address in Parliament two weeks ago, President Zuma instructed all law enforcement agencies to treat the latest obscene and brutal sexual violence perpetrated against women and children, with the utmost urgency and importance.

Indeed, a week later after the SONA instruction, the JCPS Cluster (comprising of Justice, Police, Corrections and Defence Departments) announced in its first quarterly media briefing, that sexual offences courts will be re-opened, to deal harshly and swiftly with perpetrators of these crimes.

Practicing what he preached in his SONA 2013 statement, President Zuma, then a day later, went on and launched an anti-rape campaign in a Mitchell’s Plein school, just outside Cape Town. The campaign, themed "say no to rape", is a joint effort between Government and Civil Society as led by Lead SA, in an effort to rally all South Africans behind the fight against women and child abuse. The President also re-emphasised that men have a role to play in the fight against rape.

Then, just a week ago, the President was the first leader to utterly condemn the alleged brutality of our police officers when a resident, Mr Mido Macia, was dragged by a police van and later died in police custody due to sustained injuries. President Zuma said: "The visuals of the incident are horrific, disturbing and unacceptable. “No human being should be treated in that manner."

The President unconditionally condemned the death. He said the police were required to operate within the confines of the law in executing their duties. He extended condolences to Macia's family and directed Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to investigate.

And, just last Thursday, the President addressed the House of Traditional Leaders in Parliament, calling these leaders to help re-build a moral fibre expected in a democratic, non-racial and no-sexist society.

The President also reminded the global world that, in the midst of all these incidences of violent crime in South Africa, people must still believe in South Africa as the land of Nelson Mandela that is stable and peace-loving nation.

And, this positive side of our country and people emphasised on by the President, has been shown when Mr Macia was allegedly brutalised by nine police officers. Yes, in 2008 was the year where we had witnessed xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals. But, in the case of Mr Macia, it was definitely pleasing and heartening to see local South Africans standing up for a Mozambican man.

Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, as I begin to tackle our theme at hand: “Hand-in-Hand with Men and Boys against Gender-Based Violence”, I wanted to show that in the midst of all our troubles in our land in South Africa, we do have a political leadership and a political will to root out this evil from our South African society.

The Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, Her Excellency, Ms Marjon V. Kamara, has also emphasised that, “to create a world where gender equality is never in question and discrimination and violence against women and girls are a thing of a past, we must demonstrate a political will and commitment”.

As South Africa, we are indeed eager and zealous to show in an honest manner, that our Government, led by President Jacob Zuma, has more than a political will and commitment to the cause of gender equality and safer society.

Particularly, the formation of the SAPS Men for Change has been a decisive effort by all our South African Police Officers to be at the frontline of a remarkable work for gender equality and against gender-based violence. This has indeed been a unique endeavour within an organisation that has been historically male-dominated and macho in character.

But, as Police Leadership, we had indeed find it heartening and definitely refreshingly progressive to learn that the South African Police Service (SAPS) Men for Change, was a network that sought to understand gender equality in order to contribute to the discussions on how men can get involved in building gender equality.

For, it is definitely not easy to understand phenomena and concepts such as gender equality and gender-based violence that have strong undertones of academia and lots of theories.

I am sure some of us from the Diaspora, are familiar with the famous debate that says, gender equality is a colonial or western idea, and a threat to our native traditions and cultural norms. But, distinguished delegates, gender equality is an ideal for humanity/ubuntu, and that gender-based violence cuts across race and class lines, it knows no boundaries.

So, South Africa believes that, to understand gender equality is to first address the normative misconceptions about gender-based violence. Not so long ago, most women organisations, feminists and indeed some Government agencies, paid an exclusive attention to the emotional needs and consciousness of women in their quests to prevent and end violence and abuse against women and girl-children, but almost no attention to the needs of men and boys.

But, to build gender equality and to prevent and end gender-based violence cannot be a women’s issue, but a human issue, which must then also involve men and boys.

The reasons for involving men, is not only because it is largely them who perpetrate gender-based violence. Men must be involved because most of them are real men who do not rape or abuse, and thus have a positive role to play in helping to stop violence against women and children, and help build gender equality. These men have mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, who would want them to be safe.

After-all, it is a fact that men are also seven times more likely to be killed by another man, therefore it is true to want to understand the larger picture of violent crime in south Africa, which involve both women and men.

This side event of Hand-in-Hand with Men and Boys against Gender-Based Violence then must surely be a kick-start platform to see men and women as more interconnected and related within a gender system. We must understand that men also experiences of disempowerment.

Women do also exert violence against men even though this kind of violence is not the same extent and does not usually have the same emotional or physical consequence as compared to that inflicted by men on women.

But the mere fact that we understand this reality is also to begin to reduce the polarisation of gender while increasing the engagement of men.

It will thus be important not to separate discussions on men’s violence from other social issues such poverty, unemployment, health, substance abuse, etc. Ending men’s violence must be part of other social development goals.

For instance, the roll-out of the Provincial Intervention Programme that I am currently doing for the Ministry of Police in all nine provinces does reveal as such. As part of this provincial programme, I also get to hold in-depth engagements with police officers.

This engagement with police officers is mostly on issues of their health and wellness both at their respective working and dwelling/residential places.

The socio-economic vulnerabilities of men and boys must then also find resonate to our discussions at this side event, as factors effecting or affecting men and boys respond to matters of gender equality and gender-based violence.

These vulnerabilities must also find resonate in the decision-makers of our respective Governments, in our South African case, the Department of Police. For, as SAPS leadership, we seek and strive for a proactive SAPS Top Management that is able to manage their police officers fearlessly, fairly and with focus, by treating all police officers impartially, with respect and courtesy and without bias, discrimination and prejudice.

Madame Chairperson, I believe that this Side Event on Hand-in-Hand with Men and Boys against Gender-Based Violence should be instilling encouragement in men and boys, to have power to be agents of change, to have a responsibility to talk for gender quality and against gender-based violence and abuse.

This must be an opportunity for men and women to share their concerns and perspectives with each other in a structured and non-confrontational manner.

Without being overly ambitious to being unrealistic, I think the change should start within our respective Countries, societies, communities, homes, and working places. This Side Event must start to strengthen in-house, and also to provide specialised and responsible people with real knowledge on gender equality.

I am hoping then at this side event, we will all begin to establish working partners within our own country South Africa, with the Diaspora organisations, with Governments through bi-laterals, and of course, with international civil society organisations thorough the United Nations and other instruments such as the African Union, European Union and SADC.

There are NGOs who are providing rehabilitation to abusive and violent men. Such interventions are being proven to have a broader impact on the understanding of men’s violence in the society.

This side event can declare itself very successful if it manages to produce and encourage at least men and boys who will speak up when their best friends tell a demeaning joke about abusing women in anyway; and, who will in-turn, rebuke them by telling them women are not public property.

So teaching men to intervene against the problematic behaviour of other men is critical to social change and it is essential because men care so much about what other men think.

In conclusion, Distinguished Delegates, I would like to reiterate what I said earlier on that, initiatives that have a focus on men’s role in gender equality and gender-based violence, also serve the well-being of women and the girls.

An American philosopher once said: “you can’t be part of the solution until you understand how you are part of the problem”. Therefore, we all need to pose this question to our men and boys: if a man and a boy can learn to love and respect one female being, their mother: why can’t those feelings be extended to every woman?

I thank you all.

Ms. Nomsa Hani
Head of Office & Acting Spokesperson: Deputy Minister of Police
Ministry of Police
Tel: +27 12 3934469 / 21 4677023
Fax: +27 12 3934614 / 21 4614174
Cell: +27 (0) 82 772 2053

www.saps.gov.za