Additional information about gender quotas

The Municipal Structures Act 1998 required that parties “seek to ensure that 50% of the candidates on the party list are women, and that women and men candidates are evenly distributed though (sic) the list.” The weakness of this wording is that it encourages, but does not oblige parties to adopt a zebra system for the [proportional representation] seats, and places no obligation on them to field women candidates in the ward seats. The influence has been especially felt within the ANC.’ (SADC Gender Protocol 2011: 67) In 2011, women constituted 38 per cent of all representatives at the local level (SADC Gender Protocol 2011: 62).

At the national level, the Africa National Congress (ANC) remains the only party which practices voluntary party quotas, having first put in place a 30 per cent quota ahead of the parliamentary elections in 1994. In 2006, the ANC adopted a 50 per cent gender quota in local elections, and this was extended to national elections in 2009. The party statute stipulates ‘the provision of a quota of not less than 50% (fifty per cent) of women in all elected structures’ (ANC Constitution, Article 6 [1]). Currently, the ANC holds 264 seats in the National Assembly, a little less than a two-thirds majority. While it does not have explicit provisions for voluntary quotas, the party Congress of People (COPE), which was established in 2008 by the former ANC members, ensured that 50 per cent of its elected Members of Parliament were women (Gender Links 2009).