The league – upset that those in power ‘forget the women’s agenda’ once elected – is unsure whether to support any candidate at the party’s December conference.
With dozens of senior ANC leaders clamouring for positions ahead of the ruling party’s December elective conference the party’s women’s league appears to have found no inspiration to actively campaign for candidates seeking office — including those wanting the highly sought-after post of deputy president, currently occupied by David Mabuza.
The ANC Women’s League has recently debated whether it should support one of its own to stand for the top two ANC positions. During the last meeting of its national working committee (NWC), league president Bathabile Dlamini’s organisational report said there was general fatigue among members. Dlamini said the politics of patronage had neutralised and dampened women’s spirit, adding that ANC leaders often imposed women leaders that favoured them as an avenue to getting women’s vote. She said there was also a concern that women in cabinet positions were not driving women’s agenda.
The embattled leader — who was found guilty of perjury last week and will be sentenced in April — said some within the structure and those in leadership positions within the ANC at times opted to be guided by a desire to be accepted by the men in the driving seat. “The ANCWL must never be used as a step ladder to excess positions of power. Positions of power must be for changing gender and power relations,” Dlamini said.
A senior leader in the league who sits on its NWC said there was a feeling among some members that the body should not back anyone going into the national conference, adding that this view was informed by many of Dlamini’s concerns.
The NWC member added that while some in the league would publicly back ANC – and South African – president Cyril Ramaphosa for continuity, there were others who felt strongly that the league should avoid the succession battle completely.
“We have our own conference to worry about. This must remain top of mind. It can’t be that we use the few resources that we have to drive another person’s agenda as we did in 2017,” the NWC member said.
“I am of the view that even comrade [Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma] has not come to the party and displayed that she genuinely cares for the league. In fact I can’t think of anyone among the women in the cabinet who has promoted and stood for the women’s agenda in their portfolio,” the NWC member said.
During the NWC meeting, one member reportedly accused some women leaders of forgetting the league after using it as a ladder to rise politically.
“Some of those women are political heads but they don’t think of women’s issues anymore. They keep talking [of a] budget for women but you don’t see it. They climb through this ladder,” the member reportedly said.
“The gender perspective should remain at the centre of the ANC. It seems as if we fight for people and when they get positions they just forget about the women’s agenda. Those women in the [ANC] national executive committee should be called to account for what happens for women’s agenda in their departments.”
Women who have been touted as possible contenders for the deputy president position include Thandi Modise, Mmamoloko Kubayi and Lindiwe Sisulu. Sisulu will likely need the backing of the women’s league first to help appeal to undecided provinces to have any shot at a position among the ANC’s top six national leaders.
Her protracted bid for the top job is believed to have led Sisulu to hire Dlamini as interim board chairperson of the Social Housing Regulatory Authority in 2019, when Sisulu was still minister of human settlements water and sanitation. Dlamini came to Sisulu’s defence after the minister was chastised earlier this year over a controversial, widely published article, in which she labelled judges as “mentally colonised Africans”.
The women’s league is facing possible disbandment. The ANC recently appointed a task team consisting of Modise, Nathi Mthethwa and Jenny Schreiner to consider its status and to make recommendations to the national executive committee.
The league has been teetering on the brink of collapse, with many of its structures in provinces failing to grow their base. It has also been tainted by financial scandals that saw the suspension of its North West provincial leaders for alleged fraud and corruption after R2-million went missing. The Mail & Guardian recently reported that the league’s national structure had also reported a missing R10-million, while the organisation was struggling to raise funds for its conference.
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