Keynote address by north west mec for transport, roads and community safety, phenye vilakazi, at the launch of the north west provincial chapter of the south African network for women in transport, rustenburg, 30 june 2008

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY NORTH WEST MEC FOR TRANSPORT, ROADS AND COMMUNITY SAFETY, PHENYE VILAKAZI, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE NORTH WEST PROVINCIAL CHAPTER OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NETWORK FOR WOMEN IN TRANSPORT, RUSTENBURG, 30 JUNE 2008.

Programme Director

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

It’s a great pleasure for me to be here today and I'm very delighted that so many of you could be here at such a short notice. I hope to interact with you more often beyond this gathering as we try to involve you on some of the real issues affecting women in transport in our province.

We are here today to open a new chapter in the history of the transport sector and I believe the structure we are launching here will open a new window of opportunity for our women.

But I'm sure you have been deliberating before as women on some of the untapped opportunities for women within this sector. I therefore do not believe it will be for a first time you are engaged in efforts to raise the importance of the women in transport network and hope you are ready to take these deliberations forward through this structure.

This structure must be an invaluable source of information sharing on issues that can help empower our women within the transport sector. It must also be a source for advice and information for all of us. And as government we believe that it will be a good sounding organisation for policy engagement and will also help us to develop, shape and deliver a whole range of tangible projects aimed at meeting the transport needs and opportunities for women more effectively.

As you are already aware, the South African Network for Women in Transport is a structure aimed at facilitating and catalysing women involvement in the transport sector, thus making them leaders in this sector. It will also elevate the profile of transport as a business and career option for women in the province and help transform the sector in general.

In this regard, my department, as part of the transport family, wants to lead by example by changing the composition of various units of the department. Our own management structures currently have significant women representation, but we are in the process of increasing this to create a better gender balance.

We have also embarked on a special programme to transform our Traffic Unit to include more women on its management structure. In this regard, we will be hosting a “Women in Traffic Workshop” in the next few weeks as part of trying to device means of changing the face of our Traffic Unit to a more gender representative one as fast as we e 2010 we must have recruited many women in this unit as we believe all other organisation within this sector must work towards ensuring that women occupy strategic positions within their structures.

In other words, I am saying we need to make it our collective obligation to ensure that we build on the valuable work that is taking shape and encourage women to build their careers in the transport field.

I must hasten to say, though, that government is well aware that women are still very much under-represented in the transport sector. As Minister Jeff Radebe mentioned during the launch of your national structure, this sector has been very slow to see the relevance of women's needs or women's issues to planning and decision-making.

The fact that women are under-represented as transport professionals and as service providers in the industry is a major cause for concern. There are many other areas, particularly in technical or engineering oriented functions, where women do not feature at all. And progress in some areas is not as fast as we would like it to be.

For a very long time, transport planners and operators have usually been men. As such women's specific transport needs and aspirations have often not been identified or addressed, even though some operators in recent years have taken steps to employ women in key positions and consult women as users. However, we recognise that much more has to be done. And to that end, I would like to see far more women enter the transport industry in this province than ever before.

But it is good that we at least have the new competitive environment that provides women with greater opportunities they have not enjoyed in the past. While the potential opportunities in this environment are substantial, women must seek to involve themselves to ensure they gain access to these emerging opportunities.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the same breath let me also say that the good news is that steps to address this problem are taking shape in many ways.

Through the National Household Travel Survey the national Department of Transport has been able to understand the demographic issues and transport needs of our diverse society and we are starting to apply the solutions required.

There are currently many socio-economic opportunities specifically created for women empowerment in the economic sector that we can exploit to empower women in the transport sector.

They relate to the black economic empowerment (BEE) strategy and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) codes of good practice on broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) in order to address issues of ownership control, management, employment equity, skills development, preferential procurement, enterprise development and socio-economic development.

In particular, women empowerment is a major pillar of our strategy and is set to change the transport landscape substantially in terms of economic opportunities and skills development.

Let me conclude by saying that government is committed to a South Africa that brings together the talents of every citizen and the maximisation of the potential of every individual, to gender equality, the prohibition of discrimination and the celebration of diversity being the core principles of our goal.

Therefore, I want to recognise and applaud the important work that your initiative has played in seeking to make this shared vision a reality. Your work in relation to the position of women in transport is most valuable and I congratulate you for that.

I have a sense of relief and some pride at what has been achieved by South Africa in heightening the role of women in this sector. I am also proud of the role our province has played to ensure that women emancipation and empowerment become a success.

I have no doubt that your structure will contribute to many of our women empowerment programmes. I therefore wish you the best of success and I declare the North West branch of the South African Network for Women in Transport officially launched.

I THANK YOU!