SA’s future is bright, and it is female

#IwantToVoteBut dominated discussions on Twitter for the latter part of the day on Monday as South Africans enumerated the many reasons why they were reluctant to cast their ballots on Wednesday.

In yet another barometer of the good health of our 25-year-old democracy, participants listed various reasons: ranging from the serious (a general mistrust of the political parties standing in the elections, and feeling that the issues closest to them aren’t being adequately addressed) to the cynical (a belief that their vote won’t make a difference) and to the funny (such as that their ID books are with mashonisa, or loan sharks).

Contrary to widespread perceptions around voter apathy in South Africa – our citizens continue to engage the government, political parties and each other, on the most pressing issues of the day.

Although not having the benefit of a gender breakdown of the participants in one of the day's top trending hashtag – it could safely be assumed that a large percentage of those offering an opinion are female.

It is women, after all, who appear to be taking a greater interest in the country’s political future than their male counterparts.

Recently published data from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) indicate that there are more women registered to vote in the upcoming elections than men.

For voters between the ages of 30 to 39, there are more than 3.5-million female registered voters, compared to just over 3-million male voters. In the age groups 18 to 19 there are slightly less than 195,000 females registered, as opposed to just over 156,000 males.

This has become an established trend with more women on the voter’s roll in the 2009 as well as the 2014 elections.

While this may reflect simple demographics – women constitute 51% of the population: it is nevertheless a phenomenon – one the African National Congress (ANC) as the governing party is taking seriously: particularly as research indicates that women voters are returning to the organisation.

In 2018 the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA) at the University of Johannesburg published the latest results in its quarterly study on voter preferences; showing that women voters are displaying a renewed affinity for the ANC.

The general shift in voting preferences has in part been ascribed to increased trust levels in the ANC under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Although one newspaper has cynically suggested that as the primary beneficiaries of social grants, women voters “fear they will lose their grants if another party came to power”, this is a condescending and short-sighted view.

There are substantial reasons why women would see the ANC as their natural home; evidenced by the recent proliferation of young women in the organisation’s campaigns led by the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) and its Young Women’s Desks, among others.

In one of the organisation’s campaign documents, titled Reasons to vote ANC, one member rightly says: “I will vote for the party that believes in the emancipation of women. I will vote for the party that has confidence in its young people.”

Another, who at the age of 28 is a business owner, entrepreneur and motivational speaker writes: “The ANC government has gone a long way to ensure that women’s empowerment is a priority in the policies and laws of this great country.”

Yet another, also a young black woman and business owner, says: “I owe much of my success to the policy spaces opened up by the ANC government.”

On so many fronts, whether it is in the introduction of progressive legislation advancing gender equality, in supporting black female entrepreneurs, in the provision of social support to women and girls and their families or in opening the doors of learning, the ANC has delivered many victories for the women of this country.

It is for this reason, as one member of the ANCWL Young Women’s Desk says: that the ANC needs to be given another chance to further improve the quality of women’s lives. It is the ANC and the ANC alone that has a clear and sustainable programme of advancing the position of women in our society.

The organisation has a formidable track record in having done so over the past 25 years, despite our society continuing to grapple with the insidious effects of patriarchy and discrimination against women that manifest themselves in, among other things, gender-based violence.

Advancing women’s rights is one of the foremost aspirations contained in the ANC’s 2019 Elections Manifesto – and we have been mandated to do so in successive national elections.

It was the country’s founding president, Nelson Mandela, who once said: “If you want to change the world, help the women.”

We have come a long way, and we will continue to build on our successes. We carry with us the hopes and aspirations of this country’s women.

That we will deepen the Constitutionally guaranteed right to equality, that we will rid our society of sexism and patriarchy, that we will continue to represent the interests of all this country’s women – and that we will ensure that gender equality is mainstreamed into all government planning.

The young women who have registered to vote in the upcoming election have taken up the baton of struggle by the brave women pioneers of the 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings.

They want to take this country forward, which is why they have taken the important step of registering to vote. In doing so, they are saying that they want to be part of the bright future towards which we all aspire.

It is a future that is bright, and it is female. Our women have high expectations of us. We dare not fail them. DM

Khusela Diko is the chairperson of the gender subcommittee of the ANC’s Gauteng provincial executive council