Johannesburg - ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini has lashed out at patriarchy and sent a strong message to male leaders in the ruling party that they wouldn’t be allowed to dictate leadership issues to them.
Dlamini also called for strong, capable women leaders to avail themselves in order to ensure they achieved their target of 50/50 gender representation during what’s expected to be the most fiercely contested municipal elections since the dawn of multiparty democracy.
“We want 50/50 in wards. If we don’t get that in wards, then we go to proportional representation,” she told thousands of supporters, who had been bused in from around the country.
Dlamini, who serves as minister of social development, was delivering the keynote address at the interfaith prayer for free and fair local government elections at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Saturday.
“In municipalities, in our metros, we want 50/50; strategic districts 50/50; we know what we want to do.
“We want leadership in the women of South Africa. No one will ask us, ‘Are you ready to lead?’ We are ready to lead. The fact that we were able to call an event of such magnitude shows we know what we want,” she said.
The ANCWL, said Dlamini, would not allow anyone to elbow it into the periphery.
“We aren't about being millionaires, we're about improving the quality of life of our people; we're about being a caring organisation and society; we're about being a developmental state, and about ensuring young women take control of the country. Let’s not be weaklings. Let no man think they're going to control us.”
The league has had to do deal with harsh criticism levelled against it in the past for providing votes to male candidates for leadership positions in the ANC, and the country by extension - instead of backing a female candidate.
On Saturday, Dlamini assured party supporters that would be a thing of the past. “We do have our goals and our power. They must know our power goes with representation. It doesn’t go with just voting only. And they won’t choose for us the candidates they want. We do have our own leaders as women,” she said.
South Africa has two female premiers: Sylvia Lucas in the Northern Cape and Helen Zille in the Western Cape, the only province not governed by the ANC.
Contacted for comment on Sunday, ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the 50/50 gender representation was ANC policy, and “there’s no debate about that”.
The ruling party was holding its regional and provincial list conferences to select candidates for the elections.
“Half the regions and some provinces have already held their conferences. It’s an internal matter, that’s why you don’t hear about it,” he said.
He added that the ANC’s powerful national executive committee would sit at the end of the month, and that would be followed by the party's national list conference.
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The Star