Laura & Alastair

South Africa's Leadership in Numbers 

With the national elections now behind us and a new parliament in place we've spent the last few weeks looking into some of the numbers behind the latest instalment of government. 



We started with an interactive dive into the gender and age makeup of the South African Parliament. Some of the key takeaways  are that while the number of politicians in the National Assembly aged 35 or younger has more than doubled to 48 since the last Parliament, most of the MPs are still relatively old. 57% of them are 50 years or older. Women make up 45% of the Parliamentary seats. The full interactive version can be viewed here. 
 

Pulling it all together

The first interactive visualisation was done just days after the election results were released. We've had to update it a few times since following the various resignations of MPs over the past few weeks. 

The second visualisation, which we're releasing today, was done following the announcement of the new Cabinet by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Below is an introduction to the visual story. You can view the full interactive version here.



 

Women In Parliament & Cabinet

With 30 of the 64 Cabinet members being women, the gender makeup of the Cabinet mirrors that of the National Assembly, from which it is largely drawn.



South Africa ranks among the top few countries in which women make up a significant portion of the national parliament. In the UK's House of Commons 32% of the seats are held by women, and in Australia women hold 29% of the seats. Closer to home, Rwanda's national parliament is made up of more than 60% women, while Kenya's is at the lower end with 22% women.

Check out the rest of the visual story here

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