At the end of March Tania Campbell (DA) was removed as mayor of Ekurhuleni in a vote of no confidence. She’s the third female metro mayor to be ousted since the 2021 local government elections. The first was Eugene Johnson (ANC), the mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, then Mpho Phalatse (DA), who lost her battle in the City of Johannesburg.
After the local government election in 2021, three of the eight metro municipalities were led by women. Now there is only one female metro mayor – Princess Faku (ANC) who was elected in March in Buffalo City.
Despite making up just over half of the South African population, women fill a third of the 257 mayor posts in the country’s municipalities.
The ANC appears to be better at gender representation in local government than the DA. Nearly half of the mayors in 177 ANC-led municipalities are women. 20% of the DA’s 35 mayors are women.
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