South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA 14 Gender, elections and the media workshops February to March 2004 Synopsis This report covers the Gender, Elections and Media workshops that took place in South Aifrica, w th the supportof NIZA, betw een 17 February and19 March 2004 in three provinces , Gauteng, Western Cape a ndKwa Zulu-Nata l. The programmes for the workshops are attached at Annexes B, H,KandN. They consisted of: x A one day w orkshopon Gender, Elections and the Media that focused on key g ender issuesinthe then upcoming elec tions in partnership with the South Afr ican National Editors Forum (SANEF). x Four newsrooms training worksh op with key print and electro nic media, i ncluding Kaya FM, E-TV (Johannesburg) K-FM (Cape Town) and SABC (Kwa Zulu Natal) x Two tertiary institutions where training was given to postgraduate students in the Media Studies Department (University of Stellenbosch and the Durban Institute of Technology). x Two one day media skills training workshop for women in politics (in Cape Town and Kwa Zulu Natal). Participants Workshop M F Unknown TOTAL Gender, media and elections 7 6 0 13 Gauteng – Onsite Train ing Gender, media and elections 1 22 0 23 IDASA Gender, media and elections 6 16 0 22 Cape Town – Onsite Training Gender, media and elections 2 8 0 10 KZN - DIT Women in Politics 1 36 0 37 KZN - IEC Gender, media and elections 2 15 0 17 KZN – SABC Onsite Training Gender, media and elections 18 23 14 55 Rhodes University Onsite Training Total 37 12614 177 % 21% 71% 8% 100% 15 Context % of women % of women in % of women in cabinet parliament councillors National assembly Region 18.0%19. 2% 22.7% South Africa 29.6% 30% 28.2% x The table above illustrates that the representation of women in cabinet, parliament and as councillors in South Africa pertaining before the 2004 elections. The figures show that representation is above the regional level in every instance. x With 30 percent women in parliament, South Africa, with Mozambique, had the highest in the SADC ranking of women in Parliament. Both these countries have a PR system and the ruling parties (the ANC and Frelimo) have adopted party quotas. x The key gender issue in the South African elections was whether South Africa would use this opportunity to move from the thirty percent to fifty percent target advocated by the Fifty Fifty Campaign. This campaign raised the concern that South Africa’s success in increasing women’s participation in decision-making rests heavily on the ANC quota and that other parties should be obliged to ensure women’s increased representation in decision-making. The Fifty Fifty quota advocates a legislated fifty percent quota. x Against this background, the relatively small increase in women’s representation in parliament from 29 to 32.8 percent proved a disappointment in some quarters. However, the extent of media coverage around this issue, and the general fervour before the announcement of the new cabinet, played a key role in the increase in women’s representation in cabinet from 29.6 percent to 42 percent. x Women’s increased representation in cabinet received banner headli nes in most media and became one of the main talking points post elections (see media clippings). 16 GAUTENG Repo r t on the Gauteng Onsite Training on Gender, Media and Elections 17 an d 25 February 2004 Objec t ive Theo n site training workshops were launched in partnership with the Gender Advocacy Progr am me, SAMSO and the South African National Editor’s Forum (SANEF). 17 February Kaya FM The session was conducted over lunchtime with the newsroom. The workshop was to engage with the journalists on the gender dimensions of elections and share findings of the Gender Links recently published study, Ringing Up the Changes: Gender in Southern African Politics. Participants were asked to take a guess of women’s representationin South African politics. Colleen Lowe Morna presented statistics on where women are in the various tiers of government. Participants were asked why it is necessary to have women in politics. Responses included the following: x Women constitute more than half of the country’s population, x Women are hard workers and are less prone to be corrupt, x They know the needs of people on the ground especially women, x Women are compassionate and would carry over this onto their respective portfolios. Ms.Lowe Morna presented the finding of the publication, this co vered issues like the legisla t ion that has been passed since women entered parliament after the 1994 electio n s, the kinds of institutional transformati on that has occurred in parliament, the change in attitudes of their male colleagues and the kinds of portfolios women handle in parliament, for e xample, the Chairs of the Defence and Finance Portfolio Committees are women. The Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs and the Minister of Minerals and Energy are both women. The presentation also highlighted findings from other Southern African countries for comparative purposes such as the question of whether education mattered to women politicians. The presentation also highlighted the role the media plays in the manner in which women politicians are covered. There was great debate on how the Minister of Health, Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been covered by the media. Some journalists 17 argued that the media often responds to HIV/AIDS policy which government has established. At times the media has portrayed her in an unfair manner. Some women journalists argued that if it were a male Minister of Health, she doubted if media coverage would have been the same. Male politicians were not vilified in the manner that the Health Minister has been. Story ideas x Look at women farmers and when a story has to be done, call Agri S.A. and request to speak to a woman farmer, x Look at women who are in parliament and find out how they are coping, x Look at election lists and where women are on those lists, x Predict who will be the first woman President of South Africa, x Look at the first generation of women MPs and those who were re-elected in the 1999 elections, what has made them stay or leave for those who have left. Way forward Partici p ants were given folders on Gender, Media and Elections, which contained fact sheetson women in politics in Southern Africa, information on proportional representation, the quota system and good examples of media coverage on women in politics. Enclosed also was Gender and Elections contact list compiled by Gender Links. Portia Kobue, the newsroom manager thanked Gender Links for an informative session and encouraged her colleagues to report with a gender lens for the 2004 elections. 25 February 2004 E-TV This half-day workshop was organized in partnership with SANEF and E-TV. Mr. Joe Thloloe welcomed all the participants and encouraged them to take all information they get at the workshop and implement it in their respective newsrooms. Hopewell Radebe gave a background to the workshop and why it was necessary to take place. He gave background on SANEF and its objectives, which are: x To address and redress racial and gender imbalances in the media, x To promote cooperation in all matters of common concern, x To nurture and deepen media freedom as a democratic value in all our communities and at all levels of society, x To promote media diversity in the interest of fostering maximum expression of opinion. Gend e r and Media Baseline Study Kubi R ama, Gender Links Participants were asked to pair up and go through the day’s newspapers and pick two storiesand look a t whether they have a gender angle, number of male and female source s in it and whether they would have taken a different angle to the s tory. This exercise led to a discussion on the findings of the Gender and Media baseline study in South Africa. Some radio stations expressed concern that they had low ratings but they mentioned that the focus of the station was in the process of change. The screening of 18 “Making Every Voice Count” video, which is based on the GMBS findings, followed this. Due to time constraints, only the first half of the video was screened. Comments on the video x There is still an underlying attitude to women journalists but it is very subtle in newsrooms, x South Africa needs to learn from other countries when it comes to training, whereby seni or editors and manage r attend these worksh ops and begin the process of implementation, x The video ref lects the issues that women jour nalists have to deal with once they enter newsroo m, x It also shows that women at times pe rpetuate gender stereotypes William Bird of theMedia Monitoring Projec t gave a presen tation on the resea rch they had conducted in the 1999 elections. T his re vealed h ow med ia had covered the el ection process, the issuesof the elections and h ow the y had mi ssed to extrapolate ge nder issues of the campai gns.This presentationotheGen led t der Links’ presentation on Gender and Elections. Thi s was an interac tive pr esentation that involved participants . They were asked giv e answers to questio nslike, th e number of women in parliament currently, the number of Ministers and De puty Ministe rs, whe re do South African women stand in comparisongloballyand in theregion. Participants were asked to recall negative coverage ofwomen politicians and to think aboutwhether the coverag e was fair or unfair.

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