While half the ministers in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet are women, this Cabinet as a whole is still slightly skewed towards men.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has been hailed for the important milestone of appointing women to half the country’s Cabinet posts for the first time.

South Africa's president on Wednesday named a trimmed-down Cabinet that is 50% women, making the country's one of few in the world to be "gender-balanced."

President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement followed similar moves by Ethiopia and Rwanda last year.

By Paul Berkowitz,

The numbers are staggering: in the last general election, nearly 2.5-million more women voted than men.

Voter turnout was significantly higher among women than men in 2014, when 76% of registered women voters came out to cast their ballot compared to 70% of men (10.6-million women verses 8.1-million men).

A number of organisations representing the interests of women have gathered in Parliament on Monday for a Women’s Charter Review Conference.

The conference serves as a launch pad to engage women across all sectors of society on issues like gender-based violence and gender parity.

The Commission for Gender Equality has called for punitive measures against political parties who don't adhere to the 50/50 gender parity.