Political Party and Municipal Councils’ Strategies in Empowering Women Ward Councillors in South Africa

In South Africa, women and Black people became councillors after the first non-racial democratic local government elections between 1995 and 1996. One can be elected as councillor irrespective of race, gender or level of education. The country’s electoral system allows women’s presence in politics to largely depend on political parties. However, the number of women ward councillors has been unstable as some women leave the office after one term. It is political parties and municipal councils that can shape and ensure women’s stay in politics by empowering them. The paper aims to determine whether there are any strategies employed by selected municipal councils to empower women ward councillors. It explores whether there is any training provided by the municipal council to sensitise both council and community members on gender issues. The paper strives to explore whether political parties are grooming enough women to participate in politics and contest in elections. The study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. It focuses on Ward and PR councillors, from six local municipalities in the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Provinces who were interviewed using an interview guide. The findings of the study were analyzed using content analysis and themes were induced from the interview data. The results indicated that there were no strategies adopted by the municipal councils to empower women councillors. There was no training to sensitise both council and community members about gender issues and women are not groomed by their political parties to be ready to contest the elections.