Khanyisile Mamba – Swaziland

Khanyisile Mamba, Deputy Mayor of Manzini Municipal Council is the only female Deputy Mayor in Swaziland, a position she ascended to after only one term in council. What’s more is that she has been the only woman in council until the recent elections when another woman was elected, making two.

Mamba is a woman who has more than made her mark in the Council, according to the Mayor of Manzini Council Owen Nxumalo. He adds that he has been consciously creating more space for her to learn and take on greater responsibilities within Council so she could develop and gain more confidence saying that his own wish is to be succeeded as Mayor by a woman at the end of his tenure.

Mamba has grown so much in her current position that she has already set her sights on standing for a parliamentary seat. Not one to be held down, she plans on standing in the 2013 elections despite having tried and been unsuccessful in the 2008 elections. She explains the outcome in this way, “I would have won had women voted for me as they are the majority. This shows that women still do not support each other. Even in Parliament, there should be more women than men. I think there were four or five women who were elected and the required number was about 13 and because those elected were so few, the rest of the women in Parliament were appointed by the King.”

But even though she did not win this time around, she is keen to try again in 2013. If she is again unsuccessful, she has committed herself to becoming the first woman Mayor of the Manzini City Council in 2013.