Poor leadership in the national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC Women’s League as well as a surge of ”careerism” in its ranks are to blame for the 11th-hour switch in the league’s allegiance to support ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, ANC insiders said.
Although the NEC was convinced it could unite the league’s vote behind President Thabo Mbeki, it did not do the necessary work to convince the provinces to follow its lead.
”They didn’t keep in mind that the people come from the provinces with their own mandates. These people are councillors and have positions in the provincial governments. They were told in the provinces that if they do not come back with the Zuma vote they would lose their jobs,” a key member of the Mbeki camp told the Mail & Guardian.
Thenjiwe Mtintso, South Africa’s ambassador to Cuba and a member of the league and the ANC NEC, said the move came as a shock because she hoped the league would nominate a woman candidate.
”I was shocked that women can sit in their own conference without having any problem and nominate a man. It’s really a sad day for us that we are not able to lead the pack.”
She said she wondered if the notion that women lack capacity and need to mobilise support for men was responsible for the decision.
When the nominations process began, Mtintso argued that the league should uphold its responsibilities and demonstrate its intentions to other ANC structures by nominating women for leadership positions.
Another ANC insider said the campaign to oust Mbeki was orchestrated by Bathabile Dlamini, the league’s secretary general and a known Zuma supporter.
”If you look at the voting dynamics, there are young politicians who see their future in government beyond 2009 and feel Mbeki cannot do anything for them. They are positioning themselves for the future,” said the insider.
Dlamini, meanwhile, said a democratic process was under way in all the structures of the ANC and the league had followed that process by nominating Zuma.
The league’s NEC decided at a meeting in October that it would back Mbeki because he would, as a trade-off, ensure that Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would become the national president when he steps down in 2009.
The league decided to wait until the last day on which nominations could be forwarded to Luthuli House before holding its extended NEC meeting focusing on the issue. The decision dramatically altered Mbeki’s prospects. He received 25 votes, while the ANC’s deputy president secured 29 votes and the nomination.
The remaining nominations for the top six officials were a copy of the Zuma list, with Kgalema Motlanthe for deputy president, Dlamini-Zuma for chairperson, SACP chair Gwede Mantashe for secretary general and National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete as his deputy. Matthews Phosa was nominated for treasurer general.
Mbeki is said to be ”extremely disappointed” about the league’s nomination of Zuma. ”He is really hurt. The ANC is trying so hard to fight against chauvinism and now the women voted in this manner. It is a setback for female emancipation,” the insider said.
The league’s support of Zuma also came as a shock to those outside the political field, especially activists fighting women and child abuse.
Women and Men Against Child Abuse described the move as a setback for women’s rights. ”Historically the ANC Women’s League has fought against discrimination and the abuse of women and championed the rights of the girl child in South Africa. That is why we find it extremely disappointing and worrying that the league supported Zuma [in his bid to be] the ANC presidential candidate.”
Director of the organisation Miranda Friedmann said: ”It goes against the league’s own resolution, taken at its general council earlier this year, that a woman should be elected as ANC president. If gender is not one of the prime issues for the ANC Women’s League, then what is the purpose of its existence?
”It has been the case for quite some time that we haven’t seen the league out in full force against issues such as violence and rape against women.”