Today, June 16, marks Youth Day, an ideal opportunity to reflect on the ages of our Members of Parliament.
In South Africa, our definition of a youth is someone under the age of 35. We are often told that South Africa has a young population, so it is worth seeing if this is reflected in Parliament.
Becoming an MP can follow a complex and difficult journey. In many respects, the job is viewed as one which requires experience. It could be argued that this naturally favours older people.
Parliament - particularly the ANC benches - frequently faces criticism in this regard.
The ANC caucus comprises largely older MPs, especially when compared to the opposition.
This was seen during the 2018 Youth Day debate in the National Assembly where, in his straw survey, Mkhuleko Hlengwa found that most of the MPs falling within the youth category were found on the opposition benches. Is this accurate?
The Parliamentary Monitoring Group (PMG) obtained the birth dates of all current Members of Parliament, with the exception of ministers and deputy ministers.
The importance of youth in representative politics and the scarcity of information on the ages of Members of Parliament in South Africa led the PMG to conduct this mini-study.
From the data collated, the PMG has found that the average median age of Members of Parliament is 54 years.
Statistically, the DA has the largest number of young MPs between 25-35 but is outperformed by the EFF and IFP proportionally.
The PMG’s findings show only 23 MPs fall in the category of youth (35 and younger) - 18 of these MPs are in the National Assembly and the remaining five are in the National Council of Provinces.
This category of youth makes up 6% of all Members of Parliament.
Of the 23 MPs falling in the category of youth, the breakdown by gender is promising: 13 of the MPs are female and 10 are male.
Let’s look at the youngest MPs per party:
Hlomela Bucwa (DA) 25
Gwen Ngwenya (DA) 28
Nkagisang Koni (EFF) 30
Mkhuleko Hlengwa (IFP) 31
Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (EFF) 33
Wouter Wessels (FF+) 34
Tasneem Motara (ANC) 35
How does this fare against international trends? In the 2016 youth participation in national parliaments study, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global institution, found:
Young people under 30 make up less than 2% of the world’s MPs.
People between the ages of 20 and 44 make up 57% of the world’s voting-age population but only 26% of the world’s MPs.
Male MPs outnumber their female counterparts in every age group.
The parliaments in Ecuador, Finland, Norway and Sweden are the only ones in the world where more than 10% of members are aged under 30.
- Issued by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group.