If the ANC Women’s League genuinely want a female president for the governing party, they should work for it, said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is the rumoured preferred candidate for the top post as President Jacob Zuma’s successor.
After initially avoiding the question, Dlamini-Zuma, the chairperson of the Commission of the AU, later opened up during an impromptu media briefing yesterday with local and international media on the sidelines of the Africa Editors Forum in Pretoria.
“That is not on the AU's Agenda 2063. You don’t seriously want me to discuss rumours, but what is on Agenda 2063 is that women need to take their rightful place in society. They need to be in leadership, the economy, academia and the judiciary,” she said.
“As a principle, if the Women’s League want a female president, let them work for it. Let us work for it. Why not? Women are part of this country, so if the Women’s League wants that, I don’t see anything wrong.”
Last month, the ANCWL said it will not back down on its campaign to have a woman elected as ANC president.
“We are not backing down on our mandate that the next president of the ANC must be a woman,” league secretary-general Meokgo Matuba told journalists after a meeting of the national executive committee of the ANCWL.
Asked why the league was reviving its call for a woman president, ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini said a capable woman would unite South Africa and the party.
“The reason we are announc- ing that we still want a woman president is that we don’t want anyone to be confused. Much as we are threatened, we are still committed to having a woman as the president,” Dlamini said.
“A woman who is going to be able to unite firstly the country, to unite the ANC and be very decisive – to take action where she is supposed to take action. We think there are many women in the ANC who are equal to that.” – ANA