Empowering women: The importance of voting in South Africa's local elections

Advocate Thandi Orleyn is the new President of the International Women’s Forum of South Africa.

The voting booth is the only place where we are all equal: man and woman, a beggar, the unemployed, young, old, and even a billionaire.

Now that Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has officially gazetted and proclaimed November 4 as the date for the upcoming local government elections, it is pleasing that women are prepared to be the driving force behind our democracy, having accounted for more than half of all voter registration activity.

After all, of the 26.74 million registered voters, 14 716 879 are women, amounting to 55% of potential votes.

Since getting on the voters roll is a prerequisite to voting and participating, let us remember that getting on the voters roll is a prerequisite to dictating the nature and direction of public policy.

This is even more significant as we celebrate Women’s Month under the themes “Building Resilient Economies for All” and “Empowered Women Empower the Nation”, marking the milestone 70th anniversary of the historic 1956 Women’s March.

Every time I go to the ballot box, I think about those women who died fighting for the right to vote or went to prison, fought for years so that we would have, as women, the right to participate fully in our country’s government.

During the past 70 years, we have jumped huge hurdles in the corporate world, advanced into top leadership positions even with the odds stacked against us.

Making meaningful progress toward diversity and parity across all spheres of life, particularly in all positions of leadership and sectors of society — depends on our continued voter turnout and political participation.

And with the rights and freedoms of women and other underrepresented communities on the line, along with so many other critical issues that impact our democracy, it’s more important than ever to make our voices heard and vote.

Just as we registered to vote, every single opportunity we have to make our voices heard is something that we must show up for. And being on the roll to vote in November is one of those chances. Indeed, our country has made substantial progress in advancing women's participation across both politics and governance.

There are a growing number of women in public administration and leadership positions in national, provincial and local politics.

According to Statistics South Africa, there are approximately 779 481 women employed in the public sector, accounting for 63.5% of the government workforce of over 1.2 million employees. Stats SA says that while women heavily dominate the overall public service staffing numbers, representation decreases at upper senior management levels

But since women's interests are themselves varied and divergent, we cannot assume that all female councillors voted into the chambers in November will be able to articulate the interests of all women.