South Africa: Election coverage through a gender lens

By Colleen Lowe Morna

30 April, Johannesburg; World Press Freedom Day on 3 May comes just a few days after the dust has settled on the 22 April South African elections. While some have bemoaned the lack of depth in media coverage, the elections and media coverage have - by and large - been certified as free and fair.

But how true is that when viewed through a gender lens? We start from the premise that freedom of expression means that all views and voices are heard. Formal censorship is but one way in which certain voices are silenced. A far more pervasive and worrying form of silencing is when the views and voices of certain segments of the society are persistently and systematically excluded from the media. That is more often than not the case with gender.

Gender Links in partnership with Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is continuing monitoring of election coverage until 15 May and will conduct a debate on the findings with key editors and stakeholders before releasing a comprehensive report at the end of this month.

But the trends are fairly clear. On the plus side, while women constituted only 10 percent of all sources in the 1994 elections, that figure has risen to 24%. That is higher than the global average of 21% women news sources in the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) of 2005. But considering that women now constitute 45% of members of parliament, and 52% of society, the inescapable conclusion is that we are only half way to where we need to be.

The stock response from editors to these kinds of numbers is that they report that which is newsworthy. Sure, most political parties are led by men. But the official opposition Democratic Alliance is led by Helen Zille. And the ruling African National Congress (ANC) spokesperson Jesse Duarte is a woman.

What about the voters? How often were their views consulted? Was coverage shaped around hot button issues like poverty, education, crime, gender violence, HIV and AIDS? If it were, surely the voices of women would have rung loud and clear, had anyone bothered to consult them.

Qualitative monitoring conducted by GL has yielded several examples of blatant gender stereotypes such as the prominent coverage given to Zille admitting that she used Botox (Sunday Times, 28 December); references to Zille as the “poster girl” and references to COPE leader Mbalima Shilowa’s wife Wendy Luhabe as the “Sugar behind Shikota” (Mail and Guardian, 31 October).

The male dominance of politics has been underscored by several articles bearing the headline “all the President’s Men” (for example the 28 August cover of Financial Times; and an article in The Star on 7 April). Several other articles bearing the title “all the presidents’ women” such as the Sunday Independent on 25 January and The Star on 26 January referred to rumours and allegations concerning a young woman said to be carrying the baby of President Kgalema Motlanthe, who is separated from his wife.

Media watchdogs such as the Freedom of Expression Institute have bemoaned the lack of depth and issue coverage in the elections; this also reflects in the coverage of gender issues which constituted a mere 2.4% of election coverage. For example, much of the media focus on President-elect Jacob Zuma’s polygamous life style centred on who would be the first lady and what it would cost tax payers to have such an extensive first family rather than what this reflects about his views on the Constitution and women’s rights.

To its credit the Mail and Guardian ran an opinion piece by Gender Links on the subject that prompted several on-line responses. SABC International hosted a debate on the subject with two for and two against, in front of a regional audience and with questions phoned in by viewers across Africa.

Sexist comments like ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s offside on women who are raped not asking for taxi money in the morning prompted spirited debate and a well positioned piece in the Mail and Guardian (30 January). This in turn prompted a debate on whether or not the personal is political.

The Mail and Guardian Critical Thinking Forum partnered with Gender Links, the Human Rights Commission and Constitution Hill in posing this question to a panel of all the political parties, providing the substance for a special supplement on Gender and the Elections by the Mail and Guardian (20 March). Throughout the period GL ran Gender and Leadership debates that resulted in a checklist of transformative leadership to be circulated shortly.

Several newspapers ran lengthy profiles of prominent women in politics, including new and emerging leaders in opposition parties. Examples include “Copes eager new girl on the block (Lynda Odendaal) in the Sunday Independent on 21 December; “Woman with her heals on the ground” (Wendy Luhabe) in the Sunday Independent of 9 November; “The love of my country has guided me” (COPE’s Lyndal Shope) in The Star 7 November; “On the campaign with superwoman” (Helen Zille) in the Saturday Star of 18 April and “Die-hard had to eat her words” (former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka) in the Sunday Independent of 29 April.

While white male commentators and analysts predominated in all media, the Mail and Guardian is to be congratulated for its frequent use of black female experts and opinion shapers like Nikiwe Bikitsha and Phumla Gobodo-Madikizela who shed refreshing views on the issues (like the Sunday lunch disputes in Bikitsha’s home over whether to vote COPE or ANC).

The Mail and Guardian also consistently consulted “ordinary” women and men in equal numbers for their views on the elections. The newspaper’s election cover, showing Zuma and Zille, and flagging a supplement on women’s economic empowerment, is an example of the gender balance that GL and media partners who promote gender equality in and through the media hope will be achieved in future coverage. If women constitute half the population, it’s not too much to ask that they be equally seen and heard in the news!

* Colleen Lowe Morna is executive director of Gender Links. This article is part of the Gender Links Opinion and Commentary Service.