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DA - Officially the Most Progressive Party in the World

*Disclaimer: This article does not in any way represent the political affiliations of Safro, it is merely a collection of interesting and exciting facts that together seek to praise South Africa, through one of its political parties, for achieving another world first.

THE OBAMA OF SOWETO – this is the American-centric comparison that would dog Mmusi Maimane in his recent political career, from his campaign for premiership in the Gauteng to his eventual election as the new leader of the Democratic Alliance on the 10th of May 2015. While the charismatic Maimane has certainly not been discrete in taking leaves from Obama’s campaign manual, the likenesses between the  two men have now been further cemented in that both are the first black leaders to be elected to head political parties’ whose leadership historically has been about as colourful as a pitcher of milk. However, the South African politician does best his American counterpart in terms of novelty by succeeding someone not only of a different race, but also of a different gender.

Gender and race, especially race, are important and often provocative points of discussion for many South Africans. Not surprising since our sunny shores host a veritable potjie of racial and ethnic diversity – the eighth most diverse in the world in fact. Racial integration and equalisation through legislation remain sensitive topics for advocates on all sides, the legacy of apartheid serving as ample source of fuel for heated debates across racial and socio-economic divides.  The promotion of women and female interests in South Africa, although lagging, is thankfully not as contentious an issue and partial successes, at least legislatively, have been achieved since the end of apartheid - as of the beginning of 2015 our parliament boasts the 10th highest representation of women in the world, although at 41.5% it still remains far from being truly representative of a national demographic that constitutes a child bearing majority (51%). In 2013, 20% more females were registered to vote than males. Accordingly the importance of progressive leadership choices capturing both gender and racial diversity should be obvious for any South African political party, yet it took 21 years of democracy and five national elections for any major party to change both the gender and the race of its party leader. The Democratic Alliance achieved a first in South African political history on the 10th of May when Mmusi Maimane took the reins of leadership from Helen Zille. 

And yet, in the year 2015 it would seem that it is also the only party in the world to have done so. 

An independent study of the racial and gender changes in the leadership of 529 major political parties across 99 democratic countries, between 1994 and 2015 (full dataset and infographic), shows the following: Only 95 (17%) of those political parties have had a change in the gender of the person in the top position of their party since 1994. Most of these parties (79%) are found in Western countries such as in Europe, North America and Australasia.  On the other hand only five political parties (1%), besides the DA, have in the previous 21 years had an obvious change in race of their leaders. These include the Mauritian Militant Movement (Mauritius), Democratic Party (USA), Free Democratic Party (Germany), United Democratic Party (Belize) and the Green Party (New Zealand). However, none of these parties have also had a change in the gender of their leaders, besides the Green Party in New Zealand which technically has had both a change in race and gender, but their party structure mandates a dual-gender chairpersonship, meaning that both genders must be represented in the top position at any time, therefore it does not practically represent an actual change in the gender of leadership. Otherwise, the only other political party that has come close to what the DA has accomplished is Bloc Quebecois (Canada) who in 2011 would have checked both boxes with Vivian Barbot, but unfortunately she would only serve as an interim leader, a brief breath of fresh air in the party’s traditional procession of pale males. Thus the DA remains the only political party in the world that has, in the previous 21 years, seen elected leaders of different races as well as of different genders. 

And so the new gender and racially diverse DA joins the heart transplant, CAT scan and Kreepy Krauly in the hallowed halls of South African innovations and international firsts. Congratulations to the Mmusi Maimane, the Democratic Alliance and to South Africa – a country that remains interesting, contradictory and a little bit funny at times. 

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