Has South Africa offered women enough opportunities to thrive in the past 30 years?

Gender transformation in South Africa's public and private workplaces has been the state's policy position from the onset of democracy. But how meaningful has it been in the past 30 years, especially in senior and strategic positions?

A war on women's bodies and a pandemic. That's how gender activists describe gender-based violence in South Africa. Over the past three decades, the country has seen the indiscriminate maiming and violation of women, with many losing their lives.

As we kick-start our Women's Month focus, the struggle to create a non-sexist democratic South Africa found expression at the CODESA negotiations, resulting in the constitutional recognition of women's rights, and later the creation of the National Gender Machinery to ensure gender mainstreaming across all areas of society.

National security is the protection of the country's sovereignty, its citizens, borders and economy. During apartheid the state's interest was to protect the minority at the expense of all its citizens, but the post-apartheid government sought to transform its approach to embrace the new democratic culture. However, while South Africa is generally a peaceful and stable country, over the years the state intelligence agency has not been immune to political developments that compromised its effectivenes.

Have Chapter 9 institutions successfully guarded South Africa's democracy in the past 30 years?