Despite an upbeat assessment of the African National Congress Women’s League’s (ANCWL) congress by some of its officials, many of the problems that plagued the organisation are likely to remain with it for a while.
According to the league’s Organisational Report, the problems that disrupted the ANC in Limpopo, Free State and the Eastern Cape in the past few years have affected the league as well. While Limpopo and the Free State were affected by faction fighting, rifts in the Eastern Cape had sprung along ideological lines, says the report.
The report was presented at its fourth national conference in Johannesburg, which ended last weekend.
And, it appears that the league’s national executive committee has its own set of problems. Former president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has kept her grip on the organisation’s grassroots.
The most telling sign of Madikizela-Mandela’s influence was the remarks directed to her by the league’s incoming president, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, in her address at the close of the conference.
Soon after the delegates had trooped into the conference hall at Nasrec singing songs in praise
of Madikizela-Mandela, Mapisa-Nqakula said in her acceptance speech: “There is no separating the ANCWL from this great leader to whom we owe so much as an organisation and as a nation.”
Given that Mapisa-Nqakula was seen as the favoured candidate of President Thabo Mbeki the remarks are, at the very least, ironic. Mbeki and Madikizela-Mandela have had at least one very public spat, when he physically warded off her attempts to embrace him at a rally.
And, two years ago, Madikizela-Mandela created a stir by denying in a letter that she had accused Mbeki of having affairs with five women, including three members of the Cabinet. According to some senior officials in the league, none of the women Cabinet ministers who were also members of the league’s national executive have played an active role because of the tense relations with Madikizela-Mandela.
Most of the female Cabinet ministers found themselves back in the national executive of the league last weekend, prompting members to question the lack of representatives from the rank and file of the league in the highest decision-making body of the organisation.
A senior official of the league remarked: “When the names of the national executive were being announced on Sunday, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was already off opening a centre and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was also absent. So how effectively will they represent the interests of the women at the grassroots?”
Unhappiness was also expressed about the ANC leadership’s perceived attempt to install its own candidates in the top positions of the league.
“They [the leadership] succeeded 100%. From Mapisa-Nqakula to Mavivi Mnyakayaka-Manzini, elected as the deputy president and Bathabile Dlamini as the secretary-general,” said a senior ANC woman member.
Dlamini dismissed the claims and said: “If there were people going around asking the branches to vote for Mapisa-Nqakula, it was still their [the branches’] prerogative to vote for whoever they wanted as the organisation’s president.”
It is understood that the outgoing deputy president of the organisation, Thandi Modise’s remarks at the conference about supporting the women of Zimbabwe who were suffering under the Robert Mugabe regime did not go down well with the upper echelons of the ANC. Modise was the other contender for the top position.
A senior ANC woman member said: “I feel she was manoeuvred out by the leadership as being too independent-minded.”
In her speech Mapisa-Nqakula mentioned addressing the suffering of the women of war-ravaged Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.