Emboldened ANC Women’s League Has Presidential Designs
South African Mail & Guardian
Can the ANC Women’s League play the role of queenmaker by deciding on party president Jacob Zuma’s successor at its elective conference in 2017?
Like the ANC Youth League, which effectively pushed for the election of Zuma in Polokwane in 2007, the women’s league could play a crucial role in influencing the leadership direction of the ANC in 2017.
The league’s newly elected president and social development minister, Bathabile Dlamini, has made it clear the league will support a woman to lead the ANC. This is a complete departure from the line taken by her predecessor, Angie Motshekga, who in 2012 said women were not ready to lead the party.
Traditionally, the ANC deputy president, currently Cyril Ramaphosa, is the frontrunner for the ANC’s top position. But the debate about a woman president gained momentum before and after the women’s league’s national conference, and the league now wants a woman president. And it wants one soon.
The newly revived league, under Dlamini, appears emboldened. They’re eyeing the ANC’s national general council in October this year as a proxy for the leadership battle in 2017.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian last year, Dlamini said she would like Zuma’s former wife and the African Union Commission chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, or the National Assembly speaker, Baleka Mbete, to replace Zuma. He himself said in May last year that South Africa was ready for a woman president.
If the women’s league is to succeed, it will have to go beyond its own structures and convince ANC branches to rally behind it. But given the ANC’s tradition to elect the deputy president, the league might just opt to support a woman for deputy president.
Two ANC leaders warned that a leadership battle could tear the league and ANC structures apart.
“These [Dlamini- Zuma and Mbete] are not the only two that are being pushed for president. But now that they have said, yes, we want a woman president … who are they going to choose then?” a national executive committee member of the ANC asked.
But the real power broker is not the women’s league. It is the “premier league”, the ANC’s provincial leaders – and they punted Dlamini to head the women’s league in the hope of getting the league on their side when succession is discussed.
– Qaanitah Hunter
Missing names are the real ANCWL story
August 16 2015 at 07:00am
By Jovial Rantao
Jovial Rantao writes that the real story about the recent ANC Womens League elections are the big names which were missing from the ballot.
Johannesburg - It is polite to congratulate the new leadership of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL). It is also polite to flash a smile, shake hands and wish Bathabile Dlamini well as she completes her first week as president of the women’s league.
Dlamini is, for the next five years, leader of all women – young and old – in the ANC. She is the torchbearer whose reign comes after legendary women leaders such as Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina Sisulu, Getrude Shope and Winnie Mandela.
There is no doubt her challenges are monumental. She has huge shoes to fill. Her challenges, however, do not end there.
As honest South Africans, true first and foremost to ourselves, we have to look ourselves in the mirror and make bold that:
* Dlamini’s election was marred by allegations, so far undisputed, that a delegate was caught with a bag of money for buying votes.
The allegation must mean that the election of the women’s league president was possibly not free and fair.
There is prima facie evidence that wads of money were doing the rounds to determine the result of an election whose outcome would reveal the most powerful woman in the ANC.
* The truth about the outcome of the election is not so much about Dlamini and her leadership, but more about the great and powerful woman politicians in the ANC.
The real story is about the big names who are missing.
We have to be fair and recognise that some of them might not have stood for election.
But why are these fantastic leaders missing from the leadership? Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor is arguably the most senior woman in the government and the ANC. The second most powerful woman in government is Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, one of the most experienced politicians, was once thought to be deputy president material. Then there are Environmental Affairs Minister and former North West premier Edna Molewa, Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters, future star and Deputy Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni, and Small Business Developmen Minister Lindiwe Zulu.
Perhaps Angie Motshekga did not have a great tenure as president, but her political experience and expertise cannot be ignored or discarded.
It doesn’t make sense that Susan Shabangu, the cabinet minister responsible for women, is not in the top leadership of the women’s league.
It just doesn’t add up that President Jacob Zuma thought she had the expertise to lead this portfolio, but her peers don’t think she is worthy of a place at the league’s top table.
It is also glaringly evident that some of the top ANC women in leadership positions in the private sector and academia are missing.
* The women’s league and the ANC itself would do well to interrogate the very relevance of the women’s body. One of the questions has to be what the true role of the women’s league is and why it has not been fulfilled.
The other has to be why the women’s league, with the depth and range of talent available to it, has been so badly managed.
Why, for instance, was the immediate past leadership of the league unable to hold the conference, as required by the constitution, to hold elections?
Why is it that the league has failed to raise enough money to sustain itself? Why is the league failing to attract multitudes of young woman ANC members, some of whom view it as a sanctuary for older cadres or a place where great minds go to retire or stagnate?
These and many other questions must be answered if the league is to restore the glory of a movement that withstood the worst that apartheid could offer and play a leading role in the liberation of South Africans.
The women’s league also has to confront the question that the outcome of its recent conference is more about the many strong leaders who are missing from the top leadership of the organisation.
The bigger and broader question is for the ANC leadership, which must truly be concerned about the state of the key structures that form the organisation. Serious interventions were required to get the ANC Youth League into a decent political formation, the women’s league has just stumbled past the finishing line, and many ANC branches and regions are struggling to maintain unity and hold conferences.
* Rantao is the editor of The Sunday Independent
Discipline & Unity are Trademarks of the Women`s Movement
28 July 2015
It is apt that the African National Congress Women`s League (ANCWL) has chosen the month of August to hold its 12th National Conference.
August is Women`s Month in South Africa; commemorated in honor of the pioneers who braved the icy steps of the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 to take on the might of the apartheid regime.
It is thanks to the actions of the women of 1956 that all South African women enjoy the freedoms we do today.
Countless women`s rights activists, including myself, were inspired by their example, for the Women`s March spurred on a movement that would ultimately culminate in the signing of our new Constitution on 10 December 1996.
It galvanized not just all women who suffered under the yoke of oppression at the time, but countless other strata of society who faced the indignity of being denied their basic rights.
Courage, together with selflessness and an unwavering commitment to the betterment of the lives of others typified the qualities of the activists of their generation.
They gave to the liberation movement, often at a great personal cost, without any expectation of position or reward. They are qualities all of us as gender activists seek to emulate today.
Which is why as President of the ANCWL, I am proud to announce that this upcoming Women`s Month, we will go to Conference confidently; mindful of the mantle of responsibility we bear: to ensure that the actions of the 1956 women marchers were not in vain.
The National Conference will be attended by 3000 delegates, 2700 direct representatives elected by the branches of the League, with the balance drawn from ANC structures, the Alliance Partners, the Progressive Women`s Movement, business, and the media.
This comes following the successful conclusion of Provincial General Councils (PGC`s) in each of the nine provinces, and of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANCWL having satisfied itself that reports from National Officials and the National Working Committee are indicative that the organization is fully prepared to hold this conference.
Aside from electing the 45 women who will make up the National Executive Committee (NEC) we will also look at how far we have come as women and what we still need to achieve with a specific emphasis on policy. We will also look at previous policy resolutions and look closer at how best to ensure successful implementation. Carving out effective policy positions will be the main focus of this conference.
We have not trodden an easy path.
But despite often trying circumstances, our membership has evidenced remarkable resilience, discipline, professionalism and an unwavering commitment to taking this venerable organization to Conference this year.
There have been many meetings, many hours spent squashed in cars, buses and taxis crisscrossing the country, many long nights, and many, many cups of coffee!
But finally we have reached the point where all outstanding process-related issues have been resolved. Closing any procedural and other loopholes in the lead-up to the National Conference have been critical to preserving the integrity of the organization.
In this the twenty-first year of our democracy: during which we consolidate our gains and chart the course of the next phase of the National Democratic Revolution - we should never lose sight of the bigger picture: to take forward the work for which brave women laid the first, solid foundations.
In this I refer specifically to Section 9 of the Constitution: that upholds the right to equality, freedom from discrimination, and the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of among others, race, gender, sex, sexual orientation.
The National Conference is expected to deliberate on the conditions facing South African women in the twenty one years since democracy, and developing policies that will change the lives of our people for the better; especially women.
It has been under the leadership of the African National Congress that dignity was restored to the lives of the majority of South African women. But as resolved at our National Policy Conference in December 2014, there remains the need to accelerate the advancement of the women`s agenda, if we are to fully realize the vision of a truly non-racist, non-sexist society laid out in our Constitution, in the ANC`s Strategy and Tactics document, and in the National Development Plan (NDP).
It is also the vision that is laid out in the Women`s Charter, adopted at the launch of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) on 17 April 1954. The provisions of this revolutionary document would be the bedrock on which subsequent constitutional provisions for women`s equality before the law would be built.
The ANCWL remains at the forefront of the women`s movement in South Africa. A women`s movement that is inclusive, all embracing, and visionary.
As we work towards the full realization of a truly non-sexist society I want to reaffirm the appeal of the Women`s Charter in calling on all South Africans to work with us: "We women appeal to all progressive organizations, to members of the great National Liberation Movements, to the trade unions and working class organizations, to the churches, educational and welfare organizations, to all progressive men and women who have the interests of the people at heart to join with us in this great and noble endeavor.
By Angie Motshekga
Can the ANC Women’s League play the role of queenmaker by deciding on party president Jacob Zuma’s successor at its elective conference in 2017?
Like the ANC Youth League, which effectively pushed for the election of Zuma in Polokwane in 2007, the women’s league could play a crucial role in influencing the leadership direction of the ANC in 2017.
The league’s newly elected president and social development minister, Bathabile Dlamini, has made it clear the league will support a woman to lead the ANC. This is a complete departure from the line taken by her predecessor, Angie Motshekga, who in 2012 said women were not ready to lead the party.
Traditionally, the ANC deputy president, currently Cyril Ramaphosa, is the frontrunner for the ANC’s top position. But the debate about a woman president gained momentum before and after the women’s league’s national conference, and the league now wants a woman president. And it wants one soon.
The newly revived league, under Dlamini, appears emboldened. They’re eyeing the ANC’s national general council in October this year as a proxy for the leadership battle in 2017.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian last year, Dlamini said she would like Zuma’s former wife and the African Union Commission chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, or the National Assembly speaker, Baleka Mbete, to replace Zuma. He himself said in May last year that South Africa was ready for a woman president.
If the women’s league is to succeed, it will have to go beyond its own structures and convince ANC branches to rally behind it. But given the ANC’s tradition to elect the deputy president, the league might just opt to support a woman for deputy president.
Two ANC leaders warned that a leadership battle could tear the league and ANC structures apart.
“These [Dlamini- Zuma and Mbete] are not the only two that are being pushed for president. But now that they have said, yes, we want a woman president … who are they going to choose then?” a national executive committee member of the ANC asked.
But the real power broker is not the women’s league. It is the “premier league”, the ANC’s provincial leaders – and they punted Dlamini to head the women’s league in the hope of getting the league on their side when succession is discussed.
– Qaanitah Hunter
Missing names are the real ANCWL story
August 16 2015 at 07:00am
By Jovial Rantao
Jovial Rantao writes that the real story about the recent ANC Womens League elections are the big names which were missing from the ballot.
Johannesburg - It is polite to congratulate the new leadership of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL). It is also polite to flash a smile, shake hands and wish Bathabile Dlamini well as she completes her first week as president of the women’s league.
Dlamini is, for the next five years, leader of all women – young and old – in the ANC. She is the torchbearer whose reign comes after legendary women leaders such as Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina Sisulu, Getrude Shope and Winnie Mandela.
There is no doubt her challenges are monumental. She has huge shoes to fill. Her challenges, however, do not end there.
As honest South Africans, true first and foremost to ourselves, we have to look ourselves in the mirror and make bold that:
* Dlamini’s election was marred by allegations, so far undisputed, that a delegate was caught with a bag of money for buying votes.
The allegation must mean that the election of the women’s league president was possibly not free and fair.
There is prima facie evidence that wads of money were doing the rounds to determine the result of an election whose outcome would reveal the most powerful woman in the ANC.
* The truth about the outcome of the election is not so much about Dlamini and her leadership, but more about the great and powerful woman politicians in the ANC.
The real story is about the big names who are missing.
We have to be fair and recognise that some of them might not have stood for election.
But why are these fantastic leaders missing from the leadership? Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor is arguably the most senior woman in the government and the ANC. The second most powerful woman in government is Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, one of the most experienced politicians, was once thought to be deputy president material. Then there are Environmental Affairs Minister and former North West premier Edna Molewa, Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters, future star and Deputy Minister of Communications Stella Ndabeni, and Small Business Developmen Minister Lindiwe Zulu.
Perhaps Angie Motshekga did not have a great tenure as president, but her political experience and expertise cannot be ignored or discarded.
It doesn’t make sense that Susan Shabangu, the cabinet minister responsible for women, is not in the top leadership of the women’s league.
It just doesn’t add up that President Jacob Zuma thought she had the expertise to lead this portfolio, but her peers don’t think she is worthy of a place at the league’s top table.
It is also glaringly evident that some of the top ANC women in leadership positions in the private sector and academia are missing.
* The women’s league and the ANC itself would do well to interrogate the very relevance of the women’s body. One of the questions has to be what the true role of the women’s league is and why it has not been fulfilled.
The other has to be why the women’s league, with the depth and range of talent available to it, has been so badly managed.
Why, for instance, was the immediate past leadership of the league unable to hold the conference, as required by the constitution, to hold elections?
Why is it that the league has failed to raise enough money to sustain itself? Why is the league failing to attract multitudes of young woman ANC members, some of whom view it as a sanctuary for older cadres or a place where great minds go to retire or stagnate?
These and many other questions must be answered if the league is to restore the glory of a movement that withstood the worst that apartheid could offer and play a leading role in the liberation of South Africans.
The women’s league also has to confront the question that the outcome of its recent conference is more about the many strong leaders who are missing from the top leadership of the organisation.
The bigger and broader question is for the ANC leadership, which must truly be concerned about the state of the key structures that form the organisation. Serious interventions were required to get the ANC Youth League into a decent political formation, the women’s league has just stumbled past the finishing line, and many ANC branches and regions are struggling to maintain unity and hold conferences.
* Rantao is the editor of The Sunday Independent
Discipline & Unity are Trademarks of the Women`s Movement
28 July 2015
It is apt that the African National Congress Women`s League (ANCWL) has chosen the month of August to hold its 12th National Conference.
August is Women`s Month in South Africa; commemorated in honor of the pioneers who braved the icy steps of the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956 to take on the might of the apartheid regime.
It is thanks to the actions of the women of 1956 that all South African women enjoy the freedoms we do today.
Countless women`s rights activists, including myself, were inspired by their example, for the Women`s March spurred on a movement that would ultimately culminate in the signing of our new Constitution on 10 December 1996.
It galvanized not just all women who suffered under the yoke of oppression at the time, but countless other strata of society who faced the indignity of being denied their basic rights.
Courage, together with selflessness and an unwavering commitment to the betterment of the lives of others typified the qualities of the activists of their generation.
They gave to the liberation movement, often at a great personal cost, without any expectation of position or reward. They are qualities all of us as gender activists seek to emulate today.
Which is why as President of the ANCWL, I am proud to announce that this upcoming Women`s Month, we will go to Conference confidently; mindful of the mantle of responsibility we bear: to ensure that the actions of the 1956 women marchers were not in vain.
The National Conference will be attended by 3000 delegates, 2700 direct representatives elected by the branches of the League, with the balance drawn from ANC structures, the Alliance Partners, the Progressive Women`s Movement, business, and the media.
This comes following the successful conclusion of Provincial General Councils (PGC`s) in each of the nine provinces, and of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANCWL having satisfied itself that reports from National Officials and the National Working Committee are indicative that the organization is fully prepared to hold this conference.
Aside from electing the 45 women who will make up the National Executive Committee (NEC) we will also look at how far we have come as women and what we still need to achieve with a specific emphasis on policy. We will also look at previous policy resolutions and look closer at how best to ensure successful implementation. Carving out effective policy positions will be the main focus of this conference.
We have not trodden an easy path.
But despite often trying circumstances, our membership has evidenced remarkable resilience, discipline, professionalism and an unwavering commitment to taking this venerable organization to Conference this year.
There have been many meetings, many hours spent squashed in cars, buses and taxis crisscrossing the country, many long nights, and many, many cups of coffee!
But finally we have reached the point where all outstanding process-related issues have been resolved. Closing any procedural and other loopholes in the lead-up to the National Conference have been critical to preserving the integrity of the organization.
In this the twenty-first year of our democracy: during which we consolidate our gains and chart the course of the next phase of the National Democratic Revolution - we should never lose sight of the bigger picture: to take forward the work for which brave women laid the first, solid foundations.
In this I refer specifically to Section 9 of the Constitution: that upholds the right to equality, freedom from discrimination, and the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of among others, race, gender, sex, sexual orientation.
The National Conference is expected to deliberate on the conditions facing South African women in the twenty one years since democracy, and developing policies that will change the lives of our people for the better; especially women.
It has been under the leadership of the African National Congress that dignity was restored to the lives of the majority of South African women. But as resolved at our National Policy Conference in December 2014, there remains the need to accelerate the advancement of the women`s agenda, if we are to fully realize the vision of a truly non-racist, non-sexist society laid out in our Constitution, in the ANC`s Strategy and Tactics document, and in the National Development Plan (NDP).
It is also the vision that is laid out in the Women`s Charter, adopted at the launch of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) on 17 April 1954. The provisions of this revolutionary document would be the bedrock on which subsequent constitutional provisions for women`s equality before the law would be built.
The ANCWL remains at the forefront of the women`s movement in South Africa. A women`s movement that is inclusive, all embracing, and visionary.
As we work towards the full realization of a truly non-sexist society I want to reaffirm the appeal of the Women`s Charter in calling on all South Africans to work with us: "We women appeal to all progressive organizations, to members of the great National Liberation Movements, to the trade unions and working class organizations, to the churches, educational and welfare organizations, to all progressive men and women who have the interests of the people at heart to join with us in this great and noble endeavor.
By Angie Motshekga
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