Women's names do not feature in ongoing power struggles for the top leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), although the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has three women at the helm. In the countdown to 2015 - the deadline for the 28 targets of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development and of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 3: promoting gender equality and empowering women - South Africa needs to redouble its efforts to ensure the achievement of gender parity in all areas of decision-making. South Africa also needs to ensure that this translates into real changes in the lives of the majority of women.