Madam Speaker:

Women are the backbone of South Africa. Today, as a parliament, we salute and say 'thank-you' to the women of all the families and communities in our nation.

In the past, we have rightly celebrated the important role that women have fulfilled in our struggle for liberation. We have also highlighted the unfinished agenda of the liberation of women from all forms of oppression and sexism which continue to flourish within our families, workplaces, communities and society.

We must strive to narrow the gap between the paper rights of women, codified in the Constitution, and the real lives that women lead. The grim reality is that abject poverty affects women worse because they bear the responsibility of raising families and are often the sole breadwinners.

The shocking truth is that physical and sexual violence against women has climbed steadily since the advent of democracy.

The contribution of women to our struggle for liberation and the unfinished agenda of women's liberation will rightly remain high on our agenda until the work is complete.

This year, however, we must talk about, and rightly celebrate, the many women who are at the front line of the war we are involved in, and are bearing its full brunt.

Our people are dying by the hundreds of thousands because of HIV/Aids. Millions of South Africans are now directly, or indirectly, affected by this terrible pandemic. A horrific pandemic that is spreading death, destruction and suffering on a scale that exceeds by far the toll of many of the past wars experienced in our land.

If this Parliament were to rise to the responsibility we bear, we would hold weekly discussions about the war on HIV/Aids until we can muster the capacity of giving to this war the leadership so desperately needed.

Unlike any other war fought before, women are at the frontline, both in terms of the contribution which is required of them to win the war, as well as in respect of the casualties of death and suffering which this war is imposing.

Women are dying of HIV/Aids. Six times more girls are HIV infected than boys. Two and a half times more young women in South Africa are infected than their male contemporaries.

Mothers are burying their children and are required to have fathomless amounts of energy and strength. They have to hold together families ravaged by HIV/Aids, women and mothers of children born with HIV/Aids, wives and partners of those affected by it. Women also are victims of all that which is going wrong in our war against HIV/Aids, such as the inertia in smashing the collective madness flowing from the absurd notion that by raping a virgin, one could be cured of HIV/Aids.

In the past two and a half months I have buried two of my own children because of HIV/Aids. They were two wonderful children, who lived an ordinary life like millions of other South Africans. Like many other South Africans, through no fault of their own, they fell victims of this pandemic.

As I remember them, I must pay tribute to my wife Irene, who has the pain and suffering of a mother of a depth that those who have not been in her position cannot even begin to comprehend. I pay tribute to my wife, because in so doing, I today pay tribute to all the mothers of South Africa, who had to bury their children prematurely, or who are struggling with children who are infected or affected by HIV/Aids.

Only in a time of war, do parents bury their children as often as we do, and so much mourning and funerals characterise our lives. Like in many wars before, we have cried for our dead for so long that our tears have run dry. Now we need to muster the courage to transcend our pain and come together as a nation to end this nightmare.

We have all dreamt of a free, non-racist and non-sexist nation. If we are honest with ourselves we must accept that our nation is still far from being free, non-racist and non-sexist. Absurdly and paradoxically, the HIV/Aids pandemic is the great equaliser: killing our people, irrespective of their race, social class or gender.

Only the most naive can continue to believe that they are not going to be directly or indirectly affected by HIV/Aids, because of its being allegedly limited to the poorer reaches of our nation, or those with particular sexual orientations. HIV/Aids has placed me on my knees and destroyed my family, in spite of the lifestyle stringently maintained by my wife and I and the social status we enjoyed.

Throughout history, nations have been forged into unity because of its people having fought together in a great war, side by side, shoulder to shoulder. We hoped that the struggle for liberation would bring together all South Africans and build us into a single nation. We have achieved much in this most noble of endeavours. Yet, in spite of our nation building efforts, we all know that we are far from having created a united South African nation.

The war against HIV/Aids provides such an opportunity. We are dealing with an enemy which pays no attention to the considerations which too often divide us, be it our different political homes, our respective race, ethnicity, social status, gender or sexual orientation. Our nation will either be forged into unity, or forever be destroyed, depending on how we respond to the war against HIV/Aids.

Like any other war in which the survival of a nation is at stake, victory or defeat depends on the calibre of leadership which a nation can bring forth. Until now, the leadership on the war against HIV/Aids has been disastrous and has compounded the problem.

Similar leadership provided in respect of a war against an external enemy would cause people to openly talk about treason and collusion with the invader. The people of South Africa have been equally betrayed by a leadership which has not made HIV/Aids a national emergency and the absolute priority that it is.

HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment and poverty are killing our people and tearing our nation asunder. They should be dealt with as national crises, which receive the fullest attention and engagement of Government and the overwhelming allocation of public spending. Some of my colleagues may find it inappropriate for me to make such statements on this occasion. But I know that this is the paradigm shift this Parliament needs to bring about. Whether we talk about women, transportation or banking, we need to do so within the context of addressing these national emergencies.

Women are suffering more than anyone else in our society, because of unemployment, poverty and crime. Women are targets of crime to a much greater extent than their male counterparts. They fall prey to crimes perpetrated against them, such as rape, family abuse and indifferent forms of discrimination in workplaces and communities. Women are facing the full brunt of the ever rising unemployment and ensuing poverty. They are the first to be retrenched and they are less employed than their counterparts, in spite of them often being more reliable than men.

In my longstanding experience in Government, especially when I was the Chief Minster of the erstwhile KwaZulu Government, I noticed, time and again, that one could rely on female civil servants to get the work done. It is obvious to me, that because the survival of the species depends on women's reliability in attending to the needs of the newborn and raising them into adulthood and independence, God has made them more giving, reliable and enduring. Yet, they are still less employed than their male counterparts which shows the bias in our society still runs deep.

If, on this occasion, Madam Speaker, we are genuine in our desire to celebrate the women of South Africa beyond merely lip service, this Parliament must resolve to bring about far-reaching changes to the policies and leadership with which HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment and poverty, until now, has been handled.

It is essential that we, as a legislature, begin to provide leadership to address the weaknesses and public policy failings of the Executive. By fighting this war; by rising to these challenges; by pulling together in the trenches; shoulder-to-shoulder, we shall not only overcome, we will succeed in forging a new nation. A reborn nation, free from the legacy of the past. A nation at ease with itself.

In a very special and unique way, Madam Speaker, this Parliament is the fulcrum, the people's cabinet if you will, of the nation. In view of the gravity of the emergency of HIV/Aids, particularly upon the lives of women and children, I suggest we convene at least one day a month, for a dedicated session, to deliberate upon the progress that the Executive and we, as parliamentarians, are making in our nation and community, in the fight against HIV/Aids.

We would then report back to the nation. Is this not the very essence of parliamentary democracy? I believe such a lead from the people's parliament could play a decisive, if not determining role, in winning the people's war.

Now is the time for action, not words. Let us make a start today.