NDZ a ‘sacrificial lamb’, says Khoza

Defeated ANC presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was a sacrificial lamb for a “patriarchal” ANC, said the party’s former MP Makhosi Khoza.

Reflecting on the outcomes of the ruling party’s 54th national conference this month, Khoza said many decisions were an indictment on the status of women and leadership in the party.

“The ANC is really undoing the women’s struggle and that is one of the reasons I left because I could already see that this is where things were going. Even the fact that you choose Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to run, knowing you are going to sacrifice her.

This is a woman who has credentials in her own name and women rally around her saying she must be president, already you are compromising her,” she said, speaking to The Citizen yesterday.

But she added that Dlamini-Zuma should have known she was being used and should have used her influence to empower younger female leaders, instead of running herself.

“She has damned her own legacy because she could not let go and say, Makhozi, I will be behind you. I want you to lead, I am going to support you and show you how it is done. She wanted to be on top until the grave.”

The leader of the newly formed feminism-centric party African Democratic Change (ADeC), Khoza warned that the ANC was missing the mark with its newly-adopted “populist” policies, criticising them from adopting what she called EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) policies.

During the conference earlier this month, the party sent shockwaves with the announcement it had adopted a policy to enact land expropriation without compensation and the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank, policies which would necessitate changing the Constitution.

“They want to nationalise the Reserve Bank? How when you failed to run Eskom, SABC, Prasa, Transnet? And taking land without compensation? We need to have land redress, but you can’t come with a policy that is permitting anarchy.”

Khoza castigated the election of five men in the ANC’s top 6 National Executive Committee. “The ANC is really undoing the women’s struggle,” she said.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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