"Men should always make up the majority of the South African cabinet because of the cultures in our society that promotes male dominance"

South Africa is a multicultural society, people are coming from different communities and as result they subscribe to certain values and beliefs. Majority of these communities where we are coming from are dominantly led by traditional leaders who are mostly males which is something that leaves us with few female leaders.

 

When we are discussing female leadership we cannot ignore the historical background of South Africa as a country. Before 1994 women were not given an opportunity to lead in work environment including the south African parliament, instead women expected to be house wives and participate in limited careers such as education and health which afforded them limited opportunity to lead.

 

I am holding a view that women should take part in key leadership areas such as parliament equally as men do. Women must be elected into power and lead in parliament, before gender they are human as well so they do have the capacity to lead. Any culture that seeks to deprive women from leading must never be encouraged. today in South Africa we are stacked with abused women and children simply because they males are raised to believe that they have authority over everything including the lives of women as part of societal values.

 

South Africa has produced many capable women to lead parliament, which includes the late Winnie Mandela, Baleka Mbethe, Doris Dlakude just to mention few. We currently have a female premier in the Mpumalanga province which is an indication that women have the capacity to lead in parliament so they must never be denied the opportunity to do so because of cultural beliefs.

 

We must also remember that women are born caregivers, so I believe that the rate of corruption in government can be minimized since it is not in their nature to steal but to give. Home based care centers, churches, orphanage centers are mostly dominated by women which is a sign that women have the capacity to lead and they can make good parliamentarians also.

 

In this world no one is born with culture, it is something we develop to satisfy our societal values or beliefs, as the South African constitution of 1996 believes and promotes gender equity therefor we must as societies elect women to lead parliament as equal as men. Since we have women who are radio personalities and TV personalities who can speak and understand the judicial matters which can make them very good law makers of this country.

 

Vocal women like Malaika Mahlatse are viewed as disrespectful and uncultured simply because they speak their minds and stand by what they believe to be morally acceptable in societies.

As communities we must create platforms that will enable women empowerment and leadership, so that we do away with the male dominated leadership particularly in parliament. women should be prioritized also. Young girls must be allowed to participate on political activities so that they can know and understand the possibility to lead in this open democratic South Africa, I therefor personally disagree with women being deprived to lead in parliament.