Pretoria – The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) will formally back Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed her ex-husband President Jacob Zuma as ANC president as well as South African president, the league said on Saturday.
In a statement issued after its extended national executive committee (NEC) meeting held at Irene on Friday and Saturday, the ANCWL said that “after careful consideration and opening our eyes as wide as possible”, Dlamini-Zuma “is the only suitable candidate at this point in our history to lead the African National Congress in December 2017”.
“In line with the 50/50 representation in the officials, the ANCWL has resolved to lobby for comrade Baleka Mbete, cde Jessie Duarte, cde Nosiviwe Mapisa – Nqakula, cde Lindiwe Sisuslu, cde Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and cde Nomvula Mokonyane to be considered in the other five of the six official positions of the ANC in December 2017. Of importance is the decision that cde Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is a presidential candidate of the ANCWL and nobody else,” the statement said.
Dlamini-Zuma’s “legacy and influence is known and well documented throughout the history pages of the republic and beyond”. The ANCWL had satisfied itself that Dlamini-Zuma “not only meets, but is an embodiment of leadership as espoused by ‘through the eye of a needle’. She grew organically within the structures of the movement, the ANC”.
“We are also aware that only one individual can carry the magnitude of a task at a time and as the ANCWL we have searched through the structures of the ANC and have found cde Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to be ready to lead the collective leadership of both the ANC in 2017, and the republic in 2019 as the president,” the league said.