Spread the word
The Rural Women's Assembly invites you to
Join hands with us and hundreds of rural women on 21st March - Human Rights Day!
For immediate release
LAND FOR FOOD!
ONE WOMAN, ONE HECTARE!
Cape Town, South Africa, 18 March 2015 - This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the First International Congress of Women and unlike its humble beginnings with 12 Northern countries, today millions of women across the globe stand united in a call for freedom. No struggle for women has been won without women themselves demanding their political space, life and love. The struggle to end apartheid would not have been possible without women demanding their rights.
It will take 77 years for women to achieve equality in pay at the current rate of progress and it will take 123 years for rural women to gain labour equality at the current rate of progress. It has taken the ruling party 20 years to realise its land reform program is failing, 20 years to acknowledge small holder farming women are the most successful and now we have promises for new legislation, a valuer general and the end of willing buyer willing seller, how much longer must we wait.
The Rural Women’s Assembly will not wait, we will walk to ensure that land, respect and equality are achieved in our lifetime.
Rural women are the guardians of seed, life and love. Without land, seeds cannot be planted. Without land, life cannot be brought forth and without land in the hands of women, the love for nature does not exist while corporate control rapidly destroys the planet we share.
We will not wait to be given land and will march across the world in unity with our sisters. Our march with 27 stops (to mark 27 years of Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment) in the 60th anniversary of the freedom charter is a reminder to all that the organized struggle for freedom of women is a force to be reckoned with. Our struggle for freedom is 40 years older than the Freedom Charter and we will not wait any longer for change.
We will not wait for willing buyer willing seller, we are willing women and we occupy and guard the earth. One woman refusing to move on a bus galvanized the fight for civil and political rights, women refusing to sew for Ford created the Equal Pay Act. This year millions of women on the move will change our relationship to the earth.
South Africa celebrates Human Rights Day on Saturday, 21 March. The RWA will not wait on the promises of land reform made by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address. Women do not need a process for change promised by politicians. The Rural Women’s Assembly will not wait on the introduction of new policy frameworks, the Rural Women’s Assembly IS NOT WAITING, WE ARE WALKING!
At 10 am at the District Six open fields in Cape Town, we start walking, walking to demand LAND FOR FOOD and ONE WOMAN ONE HECTARE. We then proceed to the provincial legislature where we hand over our demands to a government representative and then proceed to St. Georges Cathedral for a cultural prayer.
LAND FOR FOOD!
ONE WOMAN ONE HECTARE!
For more information contact:
Denia Jansen: 078 983 4243/073 562 8599
Carmen Louw: 083 655 6982
Lien Mouton: 083 566 1428
Theresie Falatsa: 071 961 6670