More than 70 companies listed on the JSE do not have a single woman on their boards of directors and 26 have no women executives, a survey by the Businesswomen’s Association (BWA) has revealed.
According to BWA’s annual corporate leadership survey, South Africa will achieve only 50% representation on boards in 2031, while 2050 is the realistic target for parity at executive management level.
BWA surveyed all 315 companies listed on the JSE’s main board and alternate exchange (AltX) and their subsidiaries, as well as 20 state-owned enterprises. Offshore operations were excluded.
The survey found that while women make up 51% of the adult population only 44% of employed citizens are women. “Even more telling is that women constitute only 19,3% of all executive managers and as low as 16,6% of all directors in the country.”
Interviewed this week, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, the minister of women, children and people with disabilities, said the private sector was the worst culprit. “It is disturbing that there are companies with more than 60 executive managers and all are men,” she said. That 26 listed companies had no female executives or directors was “a disgrace”.
The survey showed that female respresentation on boards also declined at state enterprises, from 39,9% in 2009 to 36,6% in 2010, a trend that had continued since 2008.
“However, women are still far more represented on the boards of [state enterprises] than those of the JSE-listed companies,” it found.
South Africa has just 15 female chief executives, five of them in state enterprises. Of the 20 female chairpeople in listed companies, only one has executive powers. The Post Office and the SABC top the list, with 48% and 46% female directors respectively.
Company boards tend to recruit the same women as directors, a practice the BWA believes should be stopped, to create opportunities for more women to find their way into the boardroom. Altogether 1056 directorships are held by 558 women.
Mayende-Sibiya said stricter measures were needed to deal with companies that fail to meet equity targets for women and people with disabilities. “The proposal currently is that the penalty should rise up to 10% of the turnover,” she said.
Her department is developing a gender equality Bill in an effort to push companies to prioritise gender equality.
“It should influence both the public and private sector to move towards 50/50 gender parity. Such a Bill, of course, will have enforcing mechanisms.”
Meanwhile, Parliament’s public accounts watchdog, Scopa, recommended this week that the Commission on Gender Equality should be placed under curatorship within two weeks. The commission has been accused of failing to fulfil its constitutional mandate.
Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that an audit of the commission by gender specialists Four Rivers had recommended that the CGE should be placed under -”mentorship”.