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Elections

South Africa: National Elections

Date of event: 
22 April 2009

South Africa will hold national and provincial elections to elect a new National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each province on April 22, 2009. The National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation. Two hundred members are elected from national party lists, the other 200 are elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa is chosen by the National Assembly after each election. The premiers of each province are chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature.

Media Monitoring Africa (MMA)

Resource Description: 
Media Monitoring Africa is providing truly independent monitoring of the 2009 South African elections, providing daily reports on media coverage of election news, weekly reports as well as MMA’s Election Media Ratings.
Link to Resource: 
Media Monitoring Africa

South Africa: Women's representation quotas

Resource Description: 
The Constitution of South Africa (1996) lays down in Article 1 the fundamental values on which the republic is founded and includes among these non-sexism. The equality clause of the constitution includes a provisor that is aimed at ensuring substantive rather than merely formal equality: "Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken." (1996, Article 9.2.). Though the Constitution does not specify those who have been disadvantaged by unfair discrimination the South African courts have interpreted it to include women.
Resource file: 
application/pdf iconQuotas.pdf
Link to Resource: 
South Africa: Women's Representation Quotas

Who Answers to Women? Gender and Accountability

Resource Description: 

This report shows that realising women’s rights and achieving the Millennium Development Goals depends on strengthening accountability for commitments to women and gender equality. The examples highlighted throughout the Report suggest that for women’s rights to translate into substantive improvements in their lives, and for gender equality to be realized in practice, women must be able to fully participate in public decision-making at all levels and hold those responsible to account when their rights are infringed or their needs ignored.

Link to Resource: 
Full report

New Women's Movement: Women's Response to Current Election Climate - 2009

Date of event: 
7 March 2009

Women and Elections

The participation of women in democratic processes is of key importance. There can never be true democracy without the inclusion of women and those that were previously disadvantaged and marginalized. While women's participation in these processes is still viewed as vital, women are still faced with obstacles, yes, certain level of progress has been made but women still face obstacles.

According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), women constitute the majority of people on the Voters' Roll but their representation and participation in politics is still low.

Women and Elections

Gender issues are still excluded in political agendas. This means that women are often left out in political debates and issues that they face are neglected. A look through the political parties’ agenda, one cannot help but notice that the gender element is obscure. By this I mean issues affecting women are not given the attention they need and that the issue of representation is not dealt with.

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