SA Elections: Gender parity takes a knock

Johannesburg, 7 August: The gains made for gender parity in politics over the last three decades took a knock on almost every front – parliament, cabinet, premiers, and the media in the May 2024 South African elections.  While women in South Africa constitute the majority of voters, they remain underrepresented in virtually all areas of political decision-making.

These are the key findings of a gender audit of the South African elections conducted by Gender Links in partnership with International Idea as part of its partnership with the Swedish funded International Idea -led consortium: Enhancing the Inclusion of Women in Political Participation in Africa.

Women now constitute 43% of parliamentarians in South Africa, which is three percentage points down from the last administration. South Africa also drops from twelfth to twenty-second place in the global ranking of women’s political participation (WPP). In the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), South Africa drops from first to third place, with Namibia leading the way, followed by Mozambique.

The 2024 election was the most contested since the advent of democracy thirty years ago when the ANC won 63% of the vote. As predicted, following power cuts, load shedding, growing unemployment and a sluggish economy, the party lost significant ground, attaining just 40% of the vote and losing its outright majority. This shifts the country from a one-party dominant state to a multi-party democracy.

Democracy was the big winner in the watershed 2024 South African elections that witnessed the African National Congress (ANC) dip below the 50% mark for the first time in thirty years, and the emergence of a Government of National Unity (GNU).

But in the National Assembly, women’s representation dropped from 46% in 2019 to 43% following the 29 May 2024 elections, which witnessed the ANC losing seats and winning less than half (40%) of the votes for the first time since the first democratic elections in 1994.  The ANC is one of the few political parties that has implemented a 50-50 quota for women. This, combined with the Proportional Representation (PR) system at the national and provincial level has helped to guarantee a high level of women’s representation. There is therefore a strong correlation between the ANC’s performance in elections and women’s representation.

Ironically, women now comprise the majority of the ANC parliamentarians, at 53%, but the overall drop in the ANC’s majority contributed significantly to the decline in women’s representation.  The Economic Freedom Front (EFF), a breakaway from the ANC, also surpassed the fifty percent mark, with 54% of its parliamentarians being women.

Five smaller parties with just one or two seats have 50% or more women. These include Patricia de Lille’s GOOD Party (which won just one seat, a woman), Build One South Africa (BOSA), the African Transformation Movement (ATM), and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).  GOOD is the only South African political party led by a woman.

Other more conservative parties did not observe the principle of equality.  In particular, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) have 32% and 34% women, respectively. The IFP has just 29% women in parliament.  Six small parties, with one to three seats, have no women at all.  Despite the change in the electoral system to allow Independent candidates to stand for election, none of the six independent candidates won a seat in parliament.

Once boasting 50:50 in Cabinet, the proportion of women ministers and deputy ministers has declined. Of particular concern is the decline in women’s voices in the media: from 20% of those whose views and voices are heard in the political topic category in the last elections to 18% in the 2024 elections.  Globally and in South Africa, online violence against women journalists, as well as women politicians, is rife. Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) recorded a total of 1 025 online attacks against journalists during the election period. Women constitute six of the top ten journalists who received threats, with Karyn Maughan receiving the bulk of the abuse.   Attacks are generally personal, racialised, and threatening and the use of profanity is widespread and most of the reports of the attacks originate from Twitter/X.

Women have however been finding their voice in other forums, A coalition of individual women and women’s organisations from across South Africa made a Submission to represented Political Parties On The Outcome Of The Elections And Future Governance In South Africa, calling on political parties to deliver on their mandate “to exercise leadership that is responsible, accountable and ethical, and that enables the country to move forward in a more united and reconciled way, in which the President and political parties put the citizens and country first.”

(View the full report here. View the 2024 Africa Women’s Political Participation Barometer here. For more information contact Susan Tolmay governance@genderlinks.org.za; phone 083 519 8959.)