With the party in an election year, officials are treading carefully when considering the process of removing ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini from her post. (David Harrison/M&G)
The ANC has kicked the can further down the road in an attempt to delay the inevitable after its national executive committee (NEC), which met this past weekend, instructed its top officials to further discuss when and how ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini must step aside.
Dlamini will become the third ANC national leader to be affected by the contentious resolution, adopted at the party’s 2017 national conference. The other two are secretary general Ace Magashule and Bongani Bongo, former chair of parliament’s home affairs portfolio committee.
Dlamini was found guilty of perjury on 12 March. Magistrate Betty Khumalo ruled that the former minister of social development had committed perjury while being cross-examined in the 2018 inquiry relating to the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grants debacle. The state has argued for jail time or a substantial fine. Sentencing will take place on 1 April.
ANC treasurer general Paul Mashailtile skirted around the issue when asked by a journalist on Monday why Dlamini was afforded liberties and why exceptional circumstances were created in her case.
Mashatile denied this was the case, and said that ANC officials would discuss Dlamini’s case when President Cyril Ramaphosa returned from the Expo 2020 Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
“Step aside applies when you are indicted in any court of law for charges of serious crimes and you are expected to step aside if you are convicted in any court of law. Those policies are in place, however in processing this matter the NEC has asked the officials to do that. The officials have not met today,” he said.
The ANC Women’s League is facing a possible dissolution after the party tasked Thandi Modise, Nathi Mthethwa and Jenny Schreiner to make recommendations regarding its status.
During the weekend NEC meeting, the issues were raised by members who are also in the executive of the league. Sources with intimate knowledge of the meeting said that Tina Joemat-Pettersson, a former ally of Dlamini, led the call for her to be removed from the NEC meeting and to step aside.
The league itself has already attempted to have Dlamini step aside. The Mail & Guardian has previously reported that the deputy minister in the presidency, Pinky Kekana, led the charge during a national working committee meeting of the women’s league in February.
But those in Dlamini’s corner maintain she should not be forced to step aside as she will have room to manoeuvre if she appeals the ruling. This was made clear when her supporters lambasted Kekana for making the suggestion during the February meeting.
Some of her key supporters — detractors of Ramaphosa — are also expected to use her conviction as a springboard to launch further attacks and undermine Ramaphosa and his supporters and in the campaign towards the 2022 elective conference.
Although Dlamini’s influence in the ANC and government has been minimal, she still holds a great deal of influence in the league.
The women’s and youth leagues have been used by ANC leaders in the past to launch their campaigns for top ANC positions.
Dlamini has in the past used her command of the league to support her allies, including Magashule and former president Jacob Zuma, but her support has waned. She was humbled when she failed in her attempts to push for the league to back Magashule. Her plan for the women’s league to march on an NEC meeting in support of Magashule also fell flat last year.
Instead, the league chose to release a statement calling on Magashule — who was suspended but who has refused to step aside and instead issued a letter “suspending” party president Cyril Ramaphosa — to “humble himself” and abide by the decision of the NEC.
Dlamini’s plans for the league to come out in full force in support of Zuma when he was convicted for contempt of the constitutional court ruling that he appear before the Zondo commission was also defeated by her detractors in the league’s executive committee.
Although her recent attempts to get the league to go against the grain in the ANC have often failed, many in the structure remain loyal to her.
The disunity in the league has shown itself in the provinces.
This week, its Eastern Cape task team endorsed Oscar Mabuyane for a second term as ANC provincial chairperson. Mabuyane is a Ramaphosa ally and a traditional foe of the Dlamini grouping.
In a statement, the task team agreed that Mabuyane was part of a well-known collective in the ANC, having evolved through the long-standing democratic practices and traditions of the movement.
“The commitment, clarity of content and resoluteness previously and currently demonstrated by these comrades give us the courage and assurance that their election to the ANC Eastern Cape leadership will benefit and advance the course of the struggle against poverty, landlessness and joblessness. We call upon all ANC delegates to support and rally behind this leadership in a quest to ensure unity and cohesion of our glorious movement,” it said.
The women’s league recently debated whether it should support one of its own to stand for the top two ANC positions. But during the last meeting of its national working committee, Dlamini’s organisational report said there was general fatigue among members.
She said the politics of patronage had neutralised and dampened the spirit of the women, adding that ANC leaders often imposed women leaders upon the party to garner the female vote. She said there was also a concern that women in cabinet positions were not driving the agendas of women.
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