By HRH Princess Eurika Mogane
For decades, the discourse surrounding gender equality in South Africa has been framed through a lens of binary conflict: a progressive, rights-based Constitution on one side, and an inherently patriarchal system of customary law and traditional leadership on the other.
Critics routinely view traditional structures as archaic bottlenecks to the advancement of women, pointing to deeply entrenched customs that historically marginalised women from land ownership, succession, and formal governance.
But this binary model is not only flawed; it is a strategic error.
As the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) executes its constitutional mandate to root out gender discrimination across every corner of our society, we must confront a fundamental reality: we cannot eliminate gender inequality by operating in isolation from the institutions that govern the daily lives of millions of rural South Africans.
The true frontier of gender transformation does not lie solely in urban boardrooms or legislative chambers in Cape Town; it lies within our Traditional Councils.
It is time to rewrite the narrative and recognise traditional leadership not as an adversary to equality, but as an underutilised, highly potent catalyst for it.
To understand how traditional leadership can combat gender inequality, we must first separate authentic African customs from the distortions introduced by colonialism and apartheid.
Pre-colonial African governance frequently recognised the indispensable power of royal women—Queen Mothers, Princesses, and Rakgadis- who held significant political, spiritual, and mediatory authority. They served as institutional checks and balances against autocratic rule.
The systemic codification of customary law by colonial authorities deliberately stripped women of these roles to streamline a highly patriarchal style of indirect rule.
Authentic tradition is not rigid; it is a living, breathing ecosystem. Historically, our customs evolved to respond to the survival needs of the community. Today, the greatest threat to our community’s survival is the national disaster of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) and the systemic economic exclusion of women.
Therefore, adapting our traditional governance to protect and elevate women is not an abandonment of our heritage—it is the ultimate fulfilment of it.
Traditional leaders are uniquely positioned to combat gender inequalities because they possess what statutory institutions often lack: immediate proximity and deep-rooted cultural legitimacy. When a woman faces domestic abuse or economic dispossession in a rural village, a magistrate’s court or a provincial government department can feel distantly abstract, bogged down by geographic and bureaucratic barriers.
The local Chief, Headman, or Traditional Council is the immediate authority on the ground. When traditional leaders are actively trained and mobilised to champion gender mainstreaming, the impact is swift and transformative:
• Rewriting Local Jurisprudence: Traditional courts can institutionalise zero-tolerance policies for gender-based abuse, ensuring that cases of domestic violence are immediately escalated to the South African Police Service (SAPS) rather than being quietly settled through family mediation.
• Securing Land and Economic Rights: By dismantling patriarchal barriers to communal land allocation, traditional leaders can directly economically empower women, providing them with the financial autonomy needed to break cycles of abusive dependency.
• Eradicating Harmful Practices: Traditional leaders hold the cultural authority to systematically dismantle harmful practices—such as forced child marriages or abusive initiation traditions—from within, replacing them with rituals that honour and protect the dignity of our youth.
The shifting of this paradigm is already being driven from the inside out by structures like the Royal Princesses Network. Royal women across South Africa are stepping into their historical roles as custodians of community development, leveraging their titles to build bridges between custom and the Bill of Rights.
As traditional leaders, we hold a sacred duty of care to our people. A leader cannot claim to protect a kingdom or a community while remaining silent while half of its citizens live in fear of violence and economic starvation.
When traditional leaders speak out against toxic masculinity and gender inequality, they strip abusers of the false excuse that their violent behaviour is “part of African culture.” Culture is defined by dignity, respect, and Ubuntu—none of which can exist where women are subjugated.
The Commission for Gender Equality does not seek to dilute traditional leadership; we seek to fortify it by aligning its immense social authority with the constitutional promise of equality.
We urge provincial houses of traditional leaders to establish permanent Gender Mainstreaming Desks, to mandate gender-sensitisation training for all traditional councillors, and to actively increase the representation of women within formal traditional governance structures.
The liberation of African women will not be achieved by erasing our cultural roots, but by watering those roots with the values of justice and human dignity.
Traditional leadership must stand up as the ultimate shield for the vulnerable. Only when our crowns and our Constitution march in lockstep will we finally break the back of gender inequality in South Africa.
HRH Princess Eurika Mogane is a Commissioner at the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE)
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