National executive committee member Thandi Modise
A recommendation that the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) be disbanded is said to have been fiercely debated during Monday’s extended national working committee (NWC) meeting, with league president Bathabile Dlamini winning this round.
According to sources with internal knowledge of the meeting, national executive committee (NEC) member Thandi Modise gave a “compelling” report, which highlighted the extent of the rot in the league.
However, the NWC is said to have recommended that the matter be debated at the next national executive committee (NEC) meeting, with some saying that Modise’s recommendation must be ventilated properly.
Modise was appointed last month by the NEC to head a panel to evaluate the status of the women’s league ahead of its elective conference, which is expected to take place later this year.
Two sources with intimate knowledge of the meeting confirmed that Modise’s report recommended that the league be disbanded altogether until a new structure is elected in the coming months.
This was fiercely rejected by Dlamini and Nomvula Mokonyane, who attended the meeting, sources told the Mail & Guardian.
The insiders said that, among some of Modise’s reasons, was the lack of functioning branches in the structure across all provinces, as well as the divisions in the league’s national executive committee.
In February, the M&G reported on how women’s league secretary general Meokgo Matuba delivered a damning report, revealing that the structure had no functioning branches, regions and provincial structures in most provinces.
Matuba is said to have highlighted that five provincial secretaries were not working full time and had instead been deployed to the government. Insiders said the NWC heard how branch audits on the readiness of structures for a conference were moving at snail’s pace because of the dysfunctional branches.
Matuba said that the mandates of the league’s structures had expired, that there was very slow intake of new members, and that many of its branches failed to reach quorum when they met.
“We don’t have an organisation throughout the country. Comrades are working but the problem is the good standing, the branches, the strength and vibrancy of the organisation. That mandate we want from the PEC [provincial executive committees] and RTT [regional task teams],” she said. “There is no organisation in [the] Northern Cape: we need to pull out and find comrades there. In Mpumalanga, there don’t have structures in good standing; we don’t even have structures that are acting. In KwaZulu-Natal, we have extended their mandate and the secretary continues to work.”
The two insiders said that while Dlamini was also fighting for her political life during the extended NWC meeting, she called out former ANCWL president Angie Motshekga — an ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa — as being the ringleader of the dissent within the league.
“In the heat of Covid-19, for two years this NEC has been scared to come out in the street. The women’s league was out in the street holding the fort. We get to the NWC and people want us to endorse the disbandment of ANCWL. Yet the other people whose term of office has come to an end have been converted into task teams. Why are you not converting the ANCWL?,” the insider said.
The party leader added that some of the objections that were made against the disbandment were over the Free State and the North West provinces, which have failed to go to conference after they were converted into task teams.
The party insider said that some in the meeting suggested that those close to Ramaphosa were allowed to continue without proper structures, while the ANCWL was targeted for its loyalty to Dlamini.
“We have structures in the North West because they are Ramaphosa. They were supposed to have a life span of six months and they are now four years and nowhere near to themselves. We thought it was Supra [Mahumapelo]. In the Free State these comrades have hardly moved an inch, we thought it was Ace [Magashule], so are you saying we must extend their term of office but disband their term of office? Comrade Bathabile was of the view that Angie is at the centre of it.”
The two provinces were dissolved after unrest and court rulings that resulted in Ramaphosa allies taking control. In the North West, Hlomani Chauke is considered a likely candidate to contest the provincial leader against Mahumapelo. Chauke is currently the provincial task team co-ordinator.
In the Free State, Mxolisi Dukwana — a former ally of suspended secretary general Ace Magughule who has since turned Ramaphosa ally — is likely to contest for the provincial chair.
The women’s league narrowly escaped being disbanded during an ANC national working committee (NWC) meeting on 28 February. The league last held a conference in 2015, where Dlamini was elected president.
The disbandment of the league to install a national task team was fiercely debated during the NWC meeting, where Dlamini’s camp trashed the proposal, claiming that it was fuelled by patriarchy.
During that meeting, the women’s league secretary general, Matuba, made it clear that there were challenges in almost all of its provinces.
Dlamini was responsible for mobilising the league to support Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (NDZ) in the ANC’s 2017 elective conference. Dlamini-Zuma lost her bid for ANC president to Cyril Ramaphosa.
In a previous interview with the M&G, Dlamini played her cards close to her chest on the matter of who she would endorse for this year’s elective conference in December, but added that she still believed a woman should ascend to the top position.
She said the biggest mistake at the 2017 Nasrec elective conference was showing the league’s hand to lobbyists too early.
She blamed her early endorsement of Dlamini-Zuma and other women leaders as having led to campaigns to destroy them publicly.
Dlamini also believed that her problems with the law started when she became vocal about who should lead the ANC before the Nasrec conference.
“I said to comrades, let’s have a meeting of all women in ANC and agree on who should lead us and then we will all move forward and we will support those proposed. This is where my problems started. I said we must do that because of past experience.
“In Mafikeng, we turned against Winnie [Madikizela-Mandela] and women were used to turn against women. In Polokwane, we said officials are not a structure so you don’t need zebra [during Jacob Zuma’s tenure there was a “zebra” principle to ensure 50/50 leadership participation]. In Nasrec, we took a decision to support NDZ, Jessie Duarte and Maite [Nkoana-Mashabane] and we never went out to talk to other structures.”
Dlamini added that the women they failed to speak to found expression of their issues in the male-dominated caucuses. This had been a lesson for her, she said.
Again she lamented the “push back by patriarchy” saying that although women do not have the financial backing, they are strong in mobilisation and community work.
“We still need a woman president and three officials because this is where many decisions are taken,” she said.
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