Challenges to women in politics in South Africa's new political landscape

The recent South African election marked a historic shift, as the ANC lost the parliamentary majority it had held ever since the end of apartheid. Women remain underrepresented in both parliament and government. Leaving aside the numbers, the new political landscape, with its multi-party cabinet and increasingly violent opposition, has brought fresh challenges for women in politics. They will have to join forces across party lines to resist the rise of big man politics, marked by patriarchal behaviour and violent masculinity.

Amanda Gouws, Stellenbosch University, and Diana Højlund Madsen, the Nordic Africa Institute

The 2024 general election was the first in post-apartheid South Africa in which the African National Congress (ANC) did not win a parliamentary majority. However, it does remain the largest party, with 40 per cent of seats in the National Assembly. After the election, the ANC agreed to form a coalition with nine other parties, which it refers to as a government of national unity (GNU), under the leadership of the ANC’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

Women’s representation in the National Assembly, remained at 45 per cent, the same level as after the last election in 2019, meaning that the gap to the men's representation at 55 per cent stays at ten percentage points. When parties deliberately avoid including women on their party lists in winnable positions, it risks reversing the gains achieved in women’s representation since 1994. In that year, the ANC adopted a 30 per cent voluntary quota (the only party to do so); the quota rose to 50 per cent in 2009.

The importance of quotas for policy making

When it comes to women in policy making, quotas make a big difference in terms of both numbers and real influence. There is a direct link between women’s quotas and parliamentary policy making that promotes gender equality. Quota policies have an effect on the composition of political elites, and a quota may therefore influence the capacity of women in parliament to pursue legislative and policy change in different ways External link, opens in new window.: (1) with more women in political office, they will eventually form a critical mass that will pursue women’s policy concerns; (2) women will form strategic coalitions to promote policy change; and (3) the entry of women into politics will eventually alter male behaviour in the political arena.

However, the rules and norms that safeguard men’s political power still have the capacity to diminish women’s influence in policy making. Party discipline may, for example, prevent women from setting policy agendas and tabling women-friendly bills. Furthermore, male elites may exploit the presence of women to pursue their own agendas – for example, through gender washing, which makes it seem as if they (or their parties) are progressive, even if they actually have no real commitment to issues of gender equality.

The 1990’s: Substantive representation

South Africa has a very progressive constitution, with the terms “non-racism” and “non-sexism” included in Chapter 1 (1b) External link, opens in new window.. The country is generally perceived to have been successful in increasing women's representation in government. And if we look at women's representation in South Africa's National Assembly (45 %), although it is not in parity with men's, it is at least higher than women's average representation External link, opens in new window. in parliament both globally (27 %) and in Sub-Saharan Africa (27 %). There is no hard quota in the form of a legislative allocation of women that all political parties must adhere to; only a soft quota that each party sets on a voluntary basis.

In 1994, 111 women were elected under the ANC’s 30 per cent quota. The women in this first parliament had what is called substantive representation (i.e. they had the ability to influence policy and represent women’s interests), rather than mere descriptive representation (which only refers to numbers). Substantive representation was facilitated through the National Gender Machinery (NGM) founded after the 1994 election, which consisted of a set of committees, units and other institutions within the state that focused on achieving gender equality: for example, the Office on the Status of Women (OSW); the multi-party women’s caucus; the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and the Status of Women (JMC); and the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) (outside the state and protected in Chapter 9 of the constitution). The JMC played a crucial role by monitoring the implementation of gender-equality measures in all government departments. During this time, female substantive representation was reflected in key laws that were passed to enable gender equality, such as the Maintenance Act (Act 99 of 1998), the Domestic Violence Act (Act 116 of 1998), the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (Act 120 of 1998) and the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (Act 92 of 1996). Salient to this legislative work was the relationship of femocrats with the women’s movement, called the Women’s National Coalition (WNC), which assisted in setting the gender agenda.

The 2000’s: The PR system quelled dissent

While those laws referred to above were important from the perspective of law reform, they have been unevenly implemented, and women have gained very little in the way of material benefits from them. In fact, the failure of implementation of many laws could most likely have contributed over the long term to the election woes of the ANC in the 2024 election. Since the WNC fragmented shortly after the democratic transition, South Africa today lacks a non-partisan umbrella women’s organisation to champion gender issues at the national level. Temporary movements External link, opens in new window. often come together to contest controversial legislation, but a national-level movement has been notable by its absence.

The longer the ANC remained in power, the harder it became for women to exert any influence on policy. The ANC’s one-party dominance and its centralisation of power undermined the role of parliament and elevated the cabinet above parliamentary oversight. The proportional representation (PR) system was used by the ANC to quell dissent and discipline independently minded women.

From the second parliament (1999–2004) on, women’s substantive representation declined, as women had less space in which to raise women’s issues. In many cases, the women MPs of the ANC had to toe the party line and would be accused of disloyalty if they overstepped the boundaries of ANC centralisation. The PR system and quotas were used to maintain the loyalty of MPs and to control the legislative agenda. Women are put on the quota list by male party leaders, and as a consequence they owe accountability to those men, rather than to the electorate. In the multi-party caucus, women were supposed to follow the party line, making it very difficult to work collectively across party interests.

The 2010’s: State capture eroded the NGM

The decline of women’s substantive representation continued during the third (2004–2009) and fourth (2009–2014) parliaments. Even though women’s descriptive representation increased as the conservative ANC Women’s League gained ground in institutional positions, the National Gender Machinery was hollowed out External link, opens in new window. due to state capture External link, opens in new window., a form of corruption that repurposed the mandates of institutions during the Zuma regime (2009–2018).

In the fifth (2014–2019) and sixth (2019–2024) parliaments, conditions did not improve and the Ministry for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities that replaced most of the institutions of the NGM, remained dysfunctional, with limited visible involvement in finding solutions to, for example, gender-based violence External link, opens in new window..

Political landscape after the 2024 election

The ANC uses a so-called zebra list for its parliamentary candidates, where – from number ten down – every second name is that of a woman. The practice of quotas and zebra lists has spread to other major parties that did not originally have a quota system: for example, in the 2024 election the Democratic Alliance (DA), the second biggest party, won 87 seats, with at least 30 per cent of those taken by women on its list, while the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) made use of a zebra list and got 39 seats with more than half of them going to women.

Parity in cabinet has also declined somewhat, compared to Ramaphosa’s first term. Women now make up 44 per cent of ministers (14 out of 32) and 40 per cent of deputy ministers (17 out of 43). The majority of ministers and deputy ministers are from the ANC. The portfolios are not the kind of “soft options” often given to women, but include the Departments of Defence and Human Settlements. New young women’s faces have entered the cabinet: Siviwe Gwarube (basic education) and Thembi Nkadimeng (justice and constitutional development). There is also a new minister of women, youth and persons with disabilities – Sindisiwe Chikunga, who has a track record in the ANC Women’s League.

Policy influence after the 2024 election

The influence of women on policy and substantive women’s representation will face obstacles, because policy consensus will be difficult to establish among the ten parties of the GNU. The DA, which secured 21 per cent of the vote and which used to be the official opposition, differs on such major issues with the ANC, as land redistribution (how to establish a fair system of land allocation), national health insurance (giving all citizens access to decent health care) and black economic empowerment (affirmative action for previously excluded population groups).

When the GNU was formed, a government lekgotla (gathering) was held, at which it was agreed that the parties should coalesce around their intention of working together, and that policies should be distilled from disparate election manifestos. This will remain a challenge for women, if we look at the gender-blind nature of most of the manifestos: gender receives scant attention, except for the manifesto of the EFF, which won 10 per cent of the seats in the National Assembly, but which is not included in the GNU grand coalition, by its own choice.

In its manifesto External link, opens in new window., the EFF has a significant feminist section on gender equality – more comprehensive than any other party. However, it still remains at the level of rhetoric, given that men in the party often make sexist remarks – such as saying that the woman who accused ex-President Zuma of rape in 2006 would have asked for taxi money to get home if she had not enjoyed the experience. Or recently the party fined one of its women members of parliament External link, opens in new window. and demanded a public apology from her because she missed a budget speech to take care of her ill baby.

Zuma and the rise of big man politics

The third biggest party, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), was a total newcomer in the 2024 election. It was started by ex-President Zuma to challenge the ANC (even though he remained a member of the ANC and was only expelled after the election). MK secured 58 seats (14 per cent of the vote), but is not included in the GNU grand coalition, by its own choice. Together with the EFF, the MK now forms the official opposition.

Zuma is a traditionalist, who has several wives and who, before he became president, was put on trial for rape. During the process, he invoked the cultural defence External link, opens in new window. (“in my culture we do things this way”) to justify non-consensual sex. He was acquitted for lack of evidence. Zuma was also responsible for large-scale corruption and state capture through patronage networks.

MK filled its parliamentary seats mainly with men (only 13 out of 58, i.e. 23 per cent, of the MK members of the National Assembly are women), and specifically with profoundly conservative traditional leaders, who expect women to fulfil stereotypical women’s roles supported under customary law (oral traditions that were codified in law during the colonial period). The male traditional leaders enforce customary law, often to the detriment of women. For example, the Communal Land Rights Act allows traditional leaders to distribute land, but they are reluctant to grant ownership to women.

MK reveres African traditions and culture, and harks back to the notion of a precolonial past, with a desire to “move from constitutional supremacy to unfettered parliamentary supremacy”. The party also wants to change parliament in order to establish an upper house of non-elected members, or, as its manifesto External link, opens in new window. says: “Indigenous kings and queens as well as other traditional leaders”.

KwaZulu Natal (KZN), the province where MK was founded and where it won 45 per cent of the vote for the provincial government, is considered one of the most violent provinces. Politics there is therefore a dangerous business, steeped in a reactionary type of nationalism that often leads to violent flare-ups. Inter- and intra-party (ANC) infighting at the local government level has already led to the assassination of a number of politicians External link, opens in new window. in KZN. In 2018, the police opened 258 dockets on political killings in KZN, some of them women. In 2021, 18 local councillors were assassinated. Politics is not a safe space, and this lack of safety may dissuade women from entering the political arena at the local level: a 2019 study External link, opens in new window. found that 66.5 per cent of women councillors in KZN had experienced some form of violence. When Zuma was sent to jail for contempt of court, there followed a large-scale political insurrection, in which 400 people died, infrastructure was destroyed, stores looted, supply chains disrupted, food security undermined and racial tensions stirred up, with far-reaching economic losses running into billions of rand.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)

The EFF was founded in 2013 by the expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and his allies. This party keeps such issues as land reform, racism and corporate greed on the political agenda through its populist mobilisation. The very belligerent and uncouth behaviour of the party’s male leaders (who wear red overalls and hard hats in parliament) was what sparked the rise of big man politics. The EFF has mounted demonstrations – described by some as riots – on the floor of parliament. The singing and chanting, and the endless points of order raised by its members have, for example, delayed the annual State of the Nation address by the president for hours, every year. This has led other parties to complain of intimidation. Instead of dealing with the behaviour, the solution is to tighten security around parliament.

Big man politics represents patriarchal behaviour that engages in power play, foments violence and reduces the space for women’s descriptive and substantive representation. As Cheryl Potgieter, director of Gender Justice, Health and Human Development at Durban University of Technology, has said External link, opens in new window.: “The role of patriarchy and violent masculinity has often been overlooked when analyses are done on what has been constructed or labelled as political killings”.

Conclusion

With the decline in women’s substantive representation and the rolling-back of the structures of the National Gender Machinery, women MPs must now rely on the spirit of consensus to form the core mechanism of the GNU. In the past, the multi-party women’s caucus struggled to get women MPs to agree on issues, because they had to stick to their party lines. Now that those party lines have had to be softened, it may prove easier for women to work together and form strategic coalitions. It is, for example, the first time that the deputy speaker is a member of another party (DA). And both the speaker (ANC) and the deputy speaker are women. While the parties in the GNU have different levels of gender-equality consciousness, the parties outside the GNU, such as MK, rely on patriarchal political methods of dishing out insults, threatening violence and diminishing women’s space and contributions in the political arena. This big man politics does not bode well for democracy and gender equality

Policy recommendations

• Legislative quota of 50 per cent. The ANC is the only one of the parties in the South African parliament to have a voluntary quota. To prevent a decline in women’s descriptive representation, we recommend a legislative quota of 50 per cent women, in combination with a compulsory zebra list for all parties.
• Restore the women's caucus. Given that parties which were previously in the opposition are now part of the government, it may be easier for women to work together in a multi-party parliamentary women’s caucus for a gender-equality agenda. The caucus should be resurrected under multi-party women’s leadership.
• Develop a women’s manifesto. In order to re-energise and reconnect the women’s movement with the national level (the GNU and the women’s caucus), a women’s manifesto could be developed by a broad-based group of women’s/gender organisations (spanning differences in ability, age, class, ethnicity, race and sexuality). A source of inspiration for this could be the women’s manifesto developed in Ghana in 2004, based on countrywide mobilisation and consultation. It serves as a platform for the struggle for gender justice and could be a model for South Africa – not dissimilar to the Women’s Charter campaign before the democratic transition.
• Sanction big man behaviour. Big man politics should be reined in, with penalties/sanctions for the display of toxic masculinity in parliament and other tiers of government.
• Set up a gender-equality agenda. This agenda should deliver material benefits to women citizens and address questions of toxic masculinity, for example through dialogue with men’s organisations.