Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille named a national shadow cabinet on Thursday, and said her party would never subscribe to a ”narrative” on gender quotas.
In naming the shadow cabinet, which includes nine women, Zille said quotas had nothing to do with gender issues in South Africa.
”In everything we do, we focus on the fitness for positions,” she told journalists at a media briefing in the DA’s parliamentary offices in Cape Town.
”We had to look at preferences, abilities and others duties in the party. We have named a shadow cabinet because we want one-on-one correspondence between the government and the opposition.”
Zille, who has been involved in a spat with the African National Congress over her all-male executive in the Western Cape, said a ”narrative” existed in South Africa that quotas took precedence over all other considerations.
”This is not the DA’s narrative. It has nothing to with the real oppression of women in South Africa. It has nothing to do with gender equity and the advancement of women. It has to do with women who are owed political favours.”
Zille named the DA’s leader in Parliament, Athol Trollip, as shadow minister for the presidency.
Dion George will shadow the minister of finance, Dianne Kohler-Barnard the minister of police, Juanita Terblanche the minister of home affairs, Dene Smuts the minister for justice and constitutional development, and Kenneth Mubu the minister of international relations and cooperation. Ryan Coetzee will be the shadow minister of economic development.
Other shadow ministers include Juanita Kloppers-Lourens for basic education, James Selfe for correctional services, and Mike Waters for health.
”The people who are here are here because they want to work, not because they want pomp and ceremony and status,” Zille said.
Her party would focus on justice, education and health, because these were ”the pillars on which society is built”.
Zille’s spat with the ANC took a vicious turn earlier this week when, responding to criticism from the ANC on her all-male Western Cape executive, she claimed President Jacob Zuma was a womaniser who had put his wives at risk of contracting HIV.
The ANC Youth League, in response, accused Zille of keeping concubines and having sex with the men she had appointed to the provincial executive council.
Zille however, insisted her comment about Zuma was used out of context, and claimed she had never intended to attack the ANC.
She said she had sent comments to a Cape Town newspaper about her all-male executive, but these were sent out as a press statement, without her knowledge.
”There was one sentence in a response I gave to the Argus that was taken by others newspapers and used out of context,” she said.
Zille said she respected the office of the president, and would act politely and properly towards Zuma.
”I will call him president. I will respect the office of the president. But that does not mean I will buy into the dominant narrative.”
Zille had sharp words for the Gender Commission, which has threatened to take her court over her all-male executive.
The commission ”ignores every key gender issue facing South Africa”, she said.
It was fascinating that gender bodies, which had been criticising her recently, had nothing to say about the ANC Youth League and ANC military veterans’ comments about her, including saying she had sexual relations with the men in her executive.
Zille said the DA, which won the Western Cape in the April election, had committed the cardinal sin of defeating the ANC at the polls.
”From that moment, the ANC has been talking about making the Western Cape ungovernable,” she said.
The ANC had been looking for a ”stok” since the election.
”The stok they have been using is the gender composition of the provincial cabinet. I expected that,” Zille said.