Multi-party Women’s Caucus calls for more women representation in upcoming municipal elections
The Multi-Party Women’s Caucus (MPWC) has encouraged all female politicians to try and change the mind-set of their parties in relation to the 50/50 representation in the upcoming municipal elections.
Committee Chairperson, Ms Masefele Story Morutoa, said it was not too late to achieve this. “The lists have not been submitted to the IEC (Independent Electoral Commission) yet. We must make sure political parties take it seriously.”
Ms Morutoa added that although South Africa had gone a long way in trying to achieve 50/50 representation. She felt that some of the gains made after the 1994 have been lost. “It is almost like we are regressing. We need to do introspection and find out what is causing this.”
Her comments comes after a briefing yesterday by the South African Local Government Association (Salga) which made a presentation to the Committee on the issues pertaining to the local government elections as well as on the functionality MWPC in municipalities. Ms Morutoa said: “We have made inroads, but then we relaxed. Once we relaxed, we regressed.”
National Commissioner of Salga’s Women’s Commission, Councillor Sindiswa Gomba, told the Committee that there was only one political party which had 50/50 in its policy framework, and that she hoped others will follow suit in the upcoming municipal elections. She said of the 4 810 proportional representation seats in the country, a total of 2 184 were filled by women as opposed to 2 626 men. Of the 4 277 ward councillors in South Africa, 1 413 are women compared to 2 864 men. “The impact of patriarchy is still there…the gap is wide,” said Ms Gomba.
The Committee further heard that structures for MPWCs were in place in most metropolitan municipalities in provinces. However, in some areas in Gauteng, the Northern Cape and Western Cape they were still not functioning. The Committee urged all the districts, which have inactive MPWCs to come on board so that women issue could get the necessary attention and focus it deserved.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Rajaa Azzakani
Tel: 021 403 8437
Cell: 081703 9542
E-mail: razzakani@parliament.gov.za
