Vrouedag in Suid-Afrika moet die rol en stryd van alle vroue in die land se geskiedenis vier, nie net dié van ANC-vroue nie.
Die belangrikheid van vroue is lank reeds vir die Afrikaner baie belangrik. Dit word mooi geïllustreer by die Voortrekkermonument in Pretoria wat in die jare dertig van die vorige eeu ontwerp is en waar die figuur van 'n vrou sentraal aan die voorkant van die monument geplaas is uit erkenning aan die rol wat vroue in die geskiedenis gespeel het.
Lees hier die volledige toespraak wat dr. Pieter Mulder, VF Plus-parlementslid, vandag met die parlementêre debat oor Vrouedag gelewer het.
Debate on National Women’s Day: The emancipation and empowerment of women
Parliament: 18 October 2017
Dr. Pieter Mulder: FF Plus MP
Speaker,
The song “Now You have touched the Women, You have Struck a Rock" will always be part of the ANC women’s march to the Union buildings in 1956. When they arrived at the Union Buildings the prime minister was not willing to meet them.
There had been more women’s marches to the Union Building that must be celebrated.
On 4 August 1915, 6 000 Afrikaner women delivered a petition on behalf of 40 000 people for the release of General Christiaan de Wet, one of the heroes of the Anglo-Boer or South African war. The then prime minister, General Jan Smuts, sent a message to the women that he was not willing to meet them or to accept their petition. They were also not allowed into the amphitheatre at the Union Buildings.
On Saturday 22 June 1940, 10 000 Afrikaner women also marched to the Union Building for peace. They were also ignored by the government.
Speaker, it is sad that we still debate the issue of the emancipation and empowerment of women in the year 2017. These issues should have been solved long ago.
My wife is a teacher and she summarises these issues with this quote against her classroom’s wall: “Anything women do (today) they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult."
Ek wil vandag ook spesifiek aan Afrikanervroue, aan hul innerlike krag en sterkte en hulle rol in die geskiedenis hulde bring. Te maklik word hulle deur sommige geskiedskrywers as slegs onderdanig en swak voorgestel.
In any struggle, women and children are usually the ones suffering the most. By the end of the Anglo-Boer – or South African war in 1902 there were 160 000 Afrikaner women and children and 130 000 black people in British concentration camps. In total 32 000 of the Afrikaner people and approximately 20 000 black people died in those British concentration camps. That is ten times more Afrikaner women and children than the number of Afrikaner men who had died on the battle field. Yet, at the end the women advised the men to continue with the war. They were the real “Bittereinders”.
My grandmother, Maria Mulder, was in such a British concentration camp where she lost family. After the war she only referred to it as the “English War”. According to her, the British had caused it as part of colonialism and British imperialism.
Toe die Voortrekkermans in 1843 gelate besluit het om nie meer weerstand te bied teen die Britse anneksasie en kolonisasie van Natal nie, het die vroue onder leiding van Susanna Smit ontplof. Hulle het daarop gewys dat na veldslagte waarin hulle saamgeveg het, die mans hulle die versekering gegee het 'dat hulle in die toekoms saam besluite kon neem oor sake wat die land raak'. Hulle sal liewer kaalvoet oor die Drakensberge loop as om weer hulle vryheid prys te gee en weer onder Britse beheer te wees. Die verengelsde Kapenaar Henry Cloete, wat namens die Britse regering met die Voortrekkers onderhandel het, was geskok dat vroue soveel vryheid toegelaat word. Hy het in sy dagboek geskryf: "These women are a disgrace to their husbands".
Vandag is ons trots op hulle.
At the Voortrekker Monument, which was designed in the thirty’s’ of the previous century, the architect decided to place the figure of a women centrally in front of the monument in recognition of the important role that women played in our history.
Speaker, Women’s Day should celebrate and commemorate the role and struggles, not only of ANC women, but of all women in South Africa’s history.
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