Concern over the state of the ANCWL

08/08/2015. Newly appointed ANCWL president, Bathabile Dlamini at St.George Hotel in Centueion during the ANCWL 12th National Conference. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

08/08/2015. Newly appointed ANCWL president, Bathabile Dlamini at St.George Hotel in Centueion during the ANCWL 12th National Conference. Picture: Thobile Mathonsi

Published Oct 8, 2015

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Johannesburg - Lindiwe Mkhwanazi’s cheerful demeanour was dampened by a hopelessness in her voice as she took to the stage at the ANC Women’s League consultative forum this week.

The platform was set up by the ANCWL to seek other women’s mandate to take to the ANC national general council – a mid term review gathering in Midrand.

It was a rare moment for a group of about 100 women from mostly non governmental organisations, churches and gender activists to throw their hat into the ring and hope it catches fire during the ANC gathering.

Mkhwanazi, chairperson of the league’s ward 65 in Joburg, is troubled by lack of empowerment for women, unemployment, gender based violence and even her own party paying lip service to the 50/50 policy of women representation in leadership.

“The so called 50/50 policy in the ANC must also extend to the government procurement processes. It must apply when tenders are issued in order to truly empower women,” she said.

“Every time we are told that we must form cooperatives as women to empower ourselves, but the government officials are simply ignoring us. We register them and their registration period lapse without being awarded a single contract or afforded help to remain working.”

Her despondency is amplified by other social ills in her community, including abuse of alcohol that contributes to violence against women, elderly women struggling to get ID books and service delivery failures that push women issues to the back of the queue.

In many ways, Mkhwanazi’s feelings resonated with those seated in the hall. In the main they felt that for a long time now, their voices of have been drowned out by political rhetoric.

They chanted “nothing for us without us” in unison.

Mina Malakwane used the platform to drive home service delivery problems plaguing those in her community in the Joburg inner-city especially poor women evicted from privately owned buildings.

In its resolutions, the Women’s League called on the government to come up with a Women’s Fund to respond to the needs of women and would use the NGC to review how far the process has gone.

ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini said the ANC was running a huge risk of pushing all gender issues to the women’s league while these were societal problems. The league would also call for the inclusion of women in BEE quotas to ensure the 50/50 policy of women representation extends to all operational levels.

But Dlamini admitted that part of the problems facing the league today is to work out a strategy that will take the women’s struggles beyond the goal of getting quotas.

“Gender is a social construct, so it’s the responsibility of the ANC to deal with the issue,” she said.

“We have to put much effort as women in the ANC in trying to ensure that decisions [we take] are implemented. Some of the issues that we‘re coming up with are challenges at societal level.”

Thokozile Xasa, a member of the ANCWL national executive, said the consultative forums were the beginning of the re-building of the women’s league to rediscover its lost voice in society.

“We have been so embraced by women in all walks of life and the interest shown by all has been amazing,” she said.

“The NGC is a perfect opportunity for us to reclaim our space in society. It no longer just us those in the league. We now have a mandate from women in all walks of life going there.”

Xasa conceded that the conspicuous absence of many white women in the forums may present the greatest challenge yet for the league to claim to represent all.

She said, however, that even during the historic 1950s march to the Union Building, many white women had initially been reluctant to join.

“We are still living in a racially divided country, but we are making a concerted effort to reach out to many white women in the country,” she said. “We have identified the groups we want to reach out to. We might have to hold high tea forums and open debates about women issues.”

Without the backing of a strong women’s lobby in civil society, Xasa cautioned that women emancipation will be a harder task and now was the time to take the stand.

The Star

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