Local Government: Golden Oldies Standing In Way of Younger Women Councillors

Sandile Motha

The local government sector is failing to attract younger woman to avail themselves as ward councillors.

This now means with public representatives getting on in age next year’s local government election will likely be contested by older women.

SA is set to hold Local Government Elections next year.

So desperate is the situation that the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is now devising mechanisms to encourage older councillors who want to cling on to power at all costs to prepare to exit the system.

These include encouraging councillors who are already in the system to study further in preparation for a life after politics.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Women in Leadership Dialogue held in Durban before the COVID-19 lockdown, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs [COGTA] MEC Sipho Hlomuka said it was difficult to lure young women into the sector.

He said this was