Communist league, ANCWL in verbal sparring

Picture: Simone Kley

Picture: Simone Kley

Published Sep 20, 2016

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Johannesburg - The oral warfare between ANC alliance partners over who should succeed President Jacob Zuma as the ruling party leader rages on, despite a ban on the debate.

On Monday, ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini blasted the Young Communist League of South Africa, accusing it of disrespecting women and failing to understand gender issues.

She said the ANCWL had been on the receiving end of the YCLSA’s insults since the women’s league elective conference last year.

“The YCLSA has been attacking us a lot. They never asked for a meeting. Their behaviour shows that they don’t respect women. They don’t understand issues of gender. The whole thing has become personal,” said Dlamini on Monday, addressing the media in Joburg.

Dlamini, who is also the social development minister, berated the “abuse” they were suffering at the hands of the young communists and characterised its leaders as suffering from “verbal diarrhoea”.

She said the women’s league would not be sidetracked by people who did not know what they wanted.

Dlamini was responding to the YCLSA’s stance that it would not back any candidates supported by the ANCWL, Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association or the ANC Youth League to succeed Zuma as ANC president in December next year.

YCLSA national secretary Mluleki Dlelanga hit back, saying it was not the league but Dlamini who failed to grasp issues affecting women.

He accused her of undermining women.

“She (Dlamini) seems to be suffering from political malnutrition. Her comments are unfortunate and infantile. She’s proving us right that her level of arrogance shows that her main responsibility is to liquidate the ANC. We will never support any candidate they come up with.”

The ANCWL is believed to want AU Commission chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed Zuma.

Dlelanga said the communist league wanted candidates with principle, who would unite the ruling alliance movement and make sure “that the ANC regains the confidence of the masses, and that it deals with issues of corruption and state capture”.

Looking rather annoyed, Dlamini said: “South Africa has capable women who are leaders of the ANC in their own right. Some occupied very important positions in the country and some outside the country.”

On Sunday, the YCLSA said the ANC’s dismal performance in the municipal elections had spurred it on to intensify its resolution that the SACP contest state power in 2019.

“It’s about time the SACP leads the poor working class,” it said.

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The Star

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