KZN women crack the nod

425 Jackson Mthembu, Jeff Radebe and Jessie Duarte during a press conference at the ANC Policy conference at Gallagher Estate in Midrand 270612. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

425 Jackson Mthembu, Jeff Radebe and Jessie Duarte during a press conference at the ANC Policy conference at Gallagher Estate in Midrand 270612. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

Published Dec 5, 2012

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Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal ANC has nominated a significant number of women for the party’s national executive committee – the party’s key decision-making structure – going beyond the 50 percent currently recommended by the movement.

Of the 80 names on KZN’s list for positions in the NEC, 42 are women.

Also, Baleka Mbete and Jessie Duarte, who were nominated for a position in the party’s top six, the National Working Committee, push the women nominated by the province to 44.

Mbete was nominated for a chairmanship, while Duarte’s name came up for a deputy secretary position.

This move has received a positive response from the ANC Women’s League and gender activists, who urged the party to push for more women in key positions.

On Tuesday Genderlinks executive director Colleen Lowe Morna said it was unfortunate that women were still not considered for the top two positions in the party.

“The ANC in the lower echelons has been good, but the top leadership is still male dominated,” she said.

Pattern

However, this was not an unusual pattern as, globally, there were only a handful of female leaders.

She said there were very few men who had been exemplary leaders in South Africa and it was disappointing that the ANC Women’s League, in particular, had not come up with a strong female leader as an alternative.

South Africa lagged behind countries like Malawi, which had a female leader, she said.

ANC Women’s League KZN secretary Nonhlanhla Khoza said the move was in line with the policy of the party.

We are there to influence the policy of the ANC and we hope that, in the final nomination [at the congress], we will be able to achieve 50 percent and more.

“We would like to see women influencing decision-making processes.”

By having

women in key decision-making structures, issues affecting women would get more attention, she said.

Prominent among the nominated women are Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chairwoman of the African Union Commission; basic education minister Angie Motshekga; KZN Speaker, Peggy Nkonyeni, Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane and international affairs minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. - The Mercury

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