President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed Maropene Ramokgopa as the acting Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture until a permanent appointment is made under the new administration.
Ramokgopa is also the Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.
Ramokgopa’s appointment on Friday comes after Zizi Kodwa resigned as minister and cabinet member on Wednesday, following his pending legal battle facing corruption allegations.
Kodwa appeared in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for allegedly soliciting bribes of R1.7 million, which he denied.
In a statement, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, stated the president accepted Kodwa’s resignation.
“President Ramaphosa accepted Minister Kodwa’s resignation and thanked Kodwa for his service to the nation in his capacity as Deputy Minister of State Security from 2019 to 2023 and Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture from March 2023,” he said.
The sports, arts and culture ministerial office has witnessed little representation of women heading this particular office, which highlights a wide gap in gender disparities.
Although Ramokgopa’s appointment is of a locum, she is the second woman to captain the sports, arts and culture national department. She is a female successor of Tokozile Xasa, who served as minister of sports, arts and culture between 2018 and 2019.
For decades, the dawn of feminism has been centred around advocating and fighting for women’s rights; for their equality in society, especially in male-dominated industries and countering patriarchy.
However, this ministerial office has only seen a cohort of men presiding as ministers and leading this department on a national level.
Post-democracy elections, Steve Tshwete led as sports minister between 1994 until 1999, followed by Ngconde Balfour between 1999 and 2004, then Makhenkesi Stofile, who worked as sports and recreation minister between 2004 and 2010.
Furthermore, the secretary-general of the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, spearheaded as sports minister between 2010 until 2017, of which, he was later succeeded by Thulas Nxesi from 2017 till 2018. Adding on, Xasa led as minister after Nxesi, who later was succeeded by Nathi Mthethwa from 2019 until 2023, up until the appointment of Kodwa in 2023 through his resignation.
According to Statistics South Africa for 2021, just 48.3% of women sat as ministers in the president’s Cabinet, which is a 3.4% under representation compared to men.
Additionally, such numbers show the unequal representation of women in the National Assembly. On Thursday, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) chairperson, Mosotho Moepya handed over the list of names of MPs to Chief Justice Raymond Zondo ahead of the new administration at the Constitutional Court, in Braamfontein.
During his remarks, Moepya noted that out of 400 MPs 174 are women, while 226 are men. “This means that 43.5% of the elected representatives are women, and 56.5% are men,” he said.
However, according to StatsSA for 2022, nearly 47% of women occupied parliamentary seats, which shows a significant decline of 3.5% in just two years.
As the country is moving towards a new administration of a multi-party government, will there be more women ministers, and in particular, will a woman administer as the minister of sports, arts and culture?
The Star