The ANC let women down, says a bitterly disappointed Bathabile

Bitterly disappointed, and not hiding it. That was how the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) president Bathabile Dlamini faced the press yesterday after Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as ANC president over the league’s preferred candidate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

“In the 105 years of the ANC as an organisation and a leader of society, we feel the ANC has failed the women of South Africa,” Dlamini said.

“We have to express our disappointment as members of the ANC because we are members of the ANC before we are members of the ANC Women’s League,” said Dlamini. To rub salt into their wounds, the ANC’s new top six boasts only one woman – deputy general-secretary Jessie Duarte.

Both Duarte and Nomvula Mokonyane served in the top six until the ANC’s 54th elective conference. “We fought a good fight and the struggle for emancipation of women must continue,” Dlamini said.

“The ANC must take a decision on how women are going to be affirmed.” The ANCWL has chosen its fights carefully in years past. At President Jacob Zuma’s rape trial, its members were vociferous in their support for Zuma, eventually leading to his accuser Fezekile Kuzwayo aka Khwezi going into exile.

Dlamini recently slammed Ramaphosa for saying he believed Khwezi had been raped. She also said Ramaphosa should come clean about the allegations of violence against women perpetrated by him.

The ANCWL were also silent when deputy minister Mduduzi Manana was found guilty of assault on three women in a Sandton night club. The league also never supported Lindiwe Sisulu in her bid for the deputy-presidency of the party.

“This was a history in making for women in the ANC. For the first time we had a woman on the ballot paper for a presidential candidate. The fight continues,” said Dlamini. “The ANC indeed has regressed on the issue of women … we can not be proud of this outcome.”

The league also received support from the youth league and the MK Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), who campaigned for Dlaminin-Zuma in the run-up to the national conference. – additional reporting by ANA

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