IEC officially handed over list of Members of Parliament

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has officially handed over the list of designated Members of Parliament to Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.

This comes as the IEC declared the 2024 National and Provincial Elections as free and fair and earmarks the beginning of the seventh administration.

IEC HANDS OVER LIST OF NEW MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

IEC Chairperson Mosotho Moepya officially handed over the list at the Constitutional Court on Thursday.

Moepya said their role as the IEC as contemplated in the Constitution is to ensure that South African voters have exercised their right to choose leaders.

“Today we say to you that we have concluded that task,” he said.

The Chief Justice also handed over the list to Parliament Secretary Xolile George in preparation for the first sitting of the National Assembly.

The National Assembly must elect a woman or a man from among its members to be the president at its first sitting.

The president-elect ceases to be an MP in the Cape Town-based parliament and must be sworn in to office within five days. Thereafter, he names a cabinet to help him run the executive government in Pretoria.

For the past three decades this has been a smooth procedure, as the ANC has always had more than 200 MPs on its own and has been able to designate its leader as president and confirm him comfortably.

This year, Ramaphosa or a new ANC leader will be forced to rely on backers from other parties in order to get over the threshold, implying a coalition or an agreement to allow the formation of a minority government.

GENDER REPRESENTATION AND AGE GROUP

Moepya also confirmed that 174 (43.5%) of the elected representatives are women while 226 (56.5%) are men.

Notably, the age range of the members that will constitute the National Assembly is 20 – 79.

In the sixth Parliament there were 44.5% of women (both in the NA and NCOP). This was an improvement of about 3% on the number of women MPs in the fifth democratic Parliament.

The fifth democratic Parliament had 187 (41.1%) women MPs and was ranked number 10 in the world in terms of women’s representation. This was out of 193 Parliaments, which the world body of Parliaments, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, surveyed.

In the seventh Parliament there are 12 candidates in the 20 – 29 age range

The 30 – 39 age group is represented by 67 candidates

A total of 110 candidates are in the 40 – 49 age group

Again, 110 candidates are in the 50 – 59 age range

On the other hand, 90 candidates are between 60 – 69

Lastly, only 11 are 70 and above

In the sixth Parliament, the youngest MP was 20-year-old Itumeleng Ntsube, an African National Congress member and Free State Permanent Delegate to the NCOP. The second youngest MP was 24-year-old Sibongiseni Ngcobo, a Democratic Alliance MP in the NA.

Notably, the number of young people in Parliament has also decreased from 15 in the sixth Parliament to just 12.