Durban - Calls for a woman to take the helm as South Africa’s president in 2019 intensified on Thursday as eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede added her voice to the growing number of ANC leaders who support the recommendation.
Gumede, in her address at the Women’s Economic Empowerment breakfast, which formed part of the City’s Essence Festival, said: “This is a decade of women as declared by the African Union. I call on all women to remain positive and be inspired. The women of Africa and South Africa will support a woman president.
“As South Africans we are looking forward to seeing more women in power and we are more than ready to have a woman president.”
Gumede’s comments may be an important indication of the ANC’s plans for 2019, as she is regional chairwoman of eThekwini, the ANC largest region with the most number of branches.
Asked to clarify her comments, she told The Mercury women often lacked pride in who they were.
“I’m a woman chairperson of the ANC and the mayor of eThekwini. I’m quite confident that we are more than ready. As women we will fight for that. The fact is that if a woman is in power, things happen.”
Gumede’s comments come after Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - President Jacob Zuma’s former spouse and current chairwoman of the African Union - was earlier this month nominated to stand for the party’s presidency next year by the ANC Youth League in KwaZulu-Natal.
They cited issues of unity, her strong leadership credentials and her success wherever she has been deployed, as reasons for their nomination.
In September, the ANC Women’s League also called for three of the party’s six top officials - including its president - to be female.
This was an about-turn from their 2012 stance, when the organisation’s provincial secretary in Mpumalanga at the time, Clara Ndlovu declared the party and country were not yet prepared to have a female president.
Ndlovu said: “We are just not prepared for it now. We do not have capable leaders.”
When Gumede was asked if Dlamini-Zuma was her preferred presidential candidate, she said: “For now, I’m not going to be mentioning any names. The ANC co-ordinate ourselves through structures.We make sure before we pronounce our decision. For now, we are just dealing with the issue of principle.”
Political analyst Imraan Buccus said: “South Africa is ready for a female president. However, we should be careful that calls for a female president are not informed by the toxic machinations of our national politics.”
University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Lubna Nadvi agreed the country was ready for a female president.
“I would rather have a qualified candidate who is male, rather than an unqualified female leader who was elected to a position just for the sake of gender equality and meeting certain quotas,” she said.
On the reasons behind the nomination of Dlamini-Zuma to the ANC presidency, Nadvi said: “She has the capacity, qualifications and experience to lead. I can’t speculate if she is being nominated because she has leadership experience or whether she will also possibly represent interests of a certain group within government.”
Professor Maheshvari Naidu, a social anthropologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said South Africa was ready for a different kind of leadership. “The country is in some ways, more than ready for a female president, who might well enact her political leadership differently,” she said.
“South Africans want a president sensitive to the fact that a leader’s public face and image cannot be separated from their private image and life. This would mean a leader not taking on multiple spouses under the guise of culture and calling for the exile of pregnant girls in a bid to moralise’ them,” she added, alluding to President Zuma’s polygamy and his 2015 statements about young mothers.
Daily News