The controversial Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill cleared its first hurdle when it was passed by the National Assembly yesterday. It now has to be approved by the National Council of Provinces.
This takes the country a step closer to a law that will result in the enforcement of a 50% representation of women in decision-making bodies, in both the private and public sectors.
However, the bill was not passed without drama. The ANC failed to muster enough MPs for the vote in the morning session.
A quorum could not be formed after opposition MPs left the chamber before voting began.
This angered Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, who said: "We are running the risk of discrediting this parliament . "
The DA retorted that it was not the main opposition party' s " responsibility to ensure that bad legislation generated by an ANC government is passed " .
DA chief whip Sandy Kalyan described the bill as "highly problematic".
"This bill [does] little to ensure real empowerment of women," she said.
The bill was supported only by COPE and the Minority Front.
ANC chief whip Stone Sizani accused the DA of trying to sabotage the passing of the bill by staging a walkout in the morning.
"The DA's disgraceful rejection of this bill today - the same as its rejection of broad-based black economic empowerment - once again shows it is anti-gender equality, anti-transformation, anti-redress, anti-social-justice and anti-black," he said.
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