The ANC Youth League has warned some of its leaders against manipulating the 50/50 gender quota for their personal leadership interests.
The league appeared to be taking a swipe at President Thabo Mbeki’s call for the next president of the country to be a woman.
The current gender quota in the ANC calls for 30% of leaders to be women although the party adopted a 50/50 quota when selecting candidates for the local government elections held last year.
The party is currently debating whether to entrench the 50/50 representation in the party constitution.
Youth League president Fikile Mbalula said ANC leaders should be elected using the criteria of time-tested leadership and track records, rather than elevating token women.
He added that the 50/50 ratio should not be used to determine leadership in the ANC. ‘We will not elect a leader simply because she is a woman. It must be deserved.â€
Mbalula cited Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who had been placed ahead of Mbeki when provincial ANC lists were being compiled before the 2004 national elections, as an example of a woman who acceded to leadership not because of her gender but because of her abilities.
‘The 50/50 quota should not be used to win seats without an accompanying programme to empower women. Certain quarters of the movement are using this not as a principled stance of the ANC, but to create patronage for themselves,†Mbalula told the Mail & Guardian.
In a report tabled at the ANC Women’s League’s national general council, held a month ago, the league said: ‘We also need to understand that no one is doing us any favours when we are put in these positions. We owe it to ourselves and the heroines who fought tirelessly for our emancipation. People must not use this as patronage, we must refuse patronage with the contempt it deserves, because it may create conditions for a backlash and we will never be able to free the women of this country from the bondage of patriarchy.â€
Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League has called for the decriminalisation of traffic fines, saying people unable to pay traffic fines should not be sent to jail.
‘You currently find drivers sitting in jail because they cannot afford bail for several traffic offences. The law must be tightened to ensure that people who are not incorrigible should not be sitting in jail. Taking people to jail must be the last resort,†Mbalula said.
Instead, he supported the endorsement system, in which bad drivers gradually lose points and have their licences confiscated if they are repeat offenders.
‘That [endorsement] system ensures that driving becomes a privilege for good citizens and poor people are not sent to jail where they could be turned into hardened criminals only because they owe traffic fines.â€