From age 20 to 76: MPs to be sworn in lack youth representation

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As the country celebrates of Youth Month, Parliament will on Friday have its first sitting of the 7th Administration.

Chief Justice Raymond Zondo is expected to preside over the sitting.

Zondo will be swearing in the 400 newly elected public representatives with fewer than 1 in 5 Members of Parliament in the 7th administration under the age of 39.

According to StatsSA, youth in South Africa makeup 34.3% of the population.

However, the representation of the youth cohort in the National Assembly shows a slightly different picture when compared to the country’s population.

Those aged between 20 and 39 years make up just under 20% of the National Assembly while those between the ages 40 and 59 (55%), making the most represented group in Parliament.

 

The South African Youth Council spokesperson Benedict Mphukhe recently said they are very concerned about the small number of Members of Parliament under the age of 35.

Mphukhe  emphasized that he remains worried that most political leaders do not show interest in addressing issues facing the youth such as education, unemployment, youth empowerment programs and skills development.

“Most of these political parties do not prioritise youth to be Members of Parliament. How do you realise that there is a problem? Even recently at the results operations centre, I can quote one or two political leaders, Julius Malema when he speaks, he says he has interest in the Ministry of Finance, and Gayton McKenzie says he has interest in the Ministry of Home Affairs. You don’t hear any of them talking about the Ministry of Young People and People with Disabilities,” says Mphukhe.

 

Looking at the distribution of ages of all the 400 Members of Parliament, it shows that at the top of the pile are the two age groups, 40-49 and 50-59, totaling 220 members, making up 55% of all Members of Parliament.

The next most represented group skews older at 60-69 years old and they number 90 members, making up 22.5% of all Members of Parliament.

The first group to be considered the youth (30-39) is made up of 67 members (16.75%), and the youngest group of Members of Parliament (20-29 years old) has just 12 members (3%).

The youngest member of the 7th administration is the Patriotic Alliance’s Cleo Wilskut aged 20 year. Wilskut was born in 2004, 10 years after South Africa’s first democratic elections.  Whilst Chris Hattingh from the Democratic Alliance is the oldest Parliamentarian at 76 years old – born (1948) just three years after the conclusion of WWII.

The least represented group in the National Assembly is the oldest group of Parliamentarians at 70-79 years old with 11 members. including the current President Cyril Ramaphosa at 71 years old, making up just 2.75% of the 400 members of the National Assembly.

 

The average age for the 400 Members of Parliament is 50 years-old with the African National Congress members average 52 years-old, followed closely by the Democratic Alliance averaging 49 years with their 87 seats. The Economic Freedom Fighters’ 38 seats have an average age of 45 years. The new uMkhonto weSizwe Party, which has 58 seats, has an average age of 48 years.