Bathabile Dlamini content with being excluded from cabinet

The president of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL), Bathabile Dlamini is content with being excluded from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new cabinet, SowetanLive reports.

On Wednesday, Ramaphosa announced his new cabinet which saw Dlamini, who was the minister of women, excluded.

It was reported that Dlamini, a former social development minister, said considering that half of the cabinet was made up of women means women have been emancipated, adding that she was pleased that the gender parity is equally distributed in the new cabinet.

Dlamini was quoted as saying that considering that she still is the president of the ANCWL she would continue “to fight fiercely” because her “struggle is for the emancipation of women”.

The former minister said the league she headed would now gun for women to be deployed in parliament’s oversight committees.

Dlamini said it was the first time in South Africa’s history that the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) decisions for equal representation of genders are implemented.

With regards to provincial premiers, Dlamini said the push had been for a majority of women in the executive if the premier position was held by a man, as well as a majority of women as speakers and in the provincial legislatures.

However, she said the ANCWL was concerned that in some provinces this NEC decision had not been adhered to, adding that the league would hold these provinces accountable.

“It means that they do not understand that women play an important role in society. But also, it means they want to continue building a society [with] institutions of patriarchy and misogyny,” she was quoted as saying.

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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