In a trailer for the ANC’s 54th conference, the eNCA news channel interviewed a broad spectrum of South Africans on what they know about Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma (NDZ), who lost narrowly to Cyril Ramaphosa in the race for president of the ruling party this week.
Almost all of them referred to her as Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife. One or two said they thought she was connected to the UN (she served as chairperson of the AU Commission).
No one mentioned her having been South Africa’s Minister of Health, Foreign Affairs then Home Affairs. Her claim to fame remained in the public mind her association to President Jacob Zuma, whom she divorced more than 20 years ago.
The trailer is a telling reminder of one of our biggest, unmet challenges - the patriarchal ideology that permeates society and relegates even the most prominent and successful women to an appendage of a man.
On the face of it, the ANC elections are a victory for democracy. Discontent with Zuma and his association with the billionaire Gupta family that have “captured the state” expressed itself in Ramaphosa’s win, though he inherits a crown of thorns with three out of the new Top 6 officials (deputy president David Mabuza, secretary- general Ace Magashule and deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte) in the Zuma “camp”.
But with only one woman (Duarte) in the line-up, serious questions must be asked about what has gone wrong with the ANC’s feminist agenda, if ever there was one beyond the policy positions on gender parity in all its ranks and endeavours.
Just as the Guptas have captured the state, patriarchy has captured many in the ANC, including many of its women cadres.
First to answer should be NDZ herself. In one telling interview with Independent Media, she expressed her frustration with the constant association with her polygamous ex-husband. She noted that in so far as they share children, they have conversations beyond politics but that she had no special place in his sprawling Nkandla home (another source of the corruption charges hanging over him when he vacates the presidency in 2019).
Yet in her campaign NDZ failed dismally to distance herself from Zuma after he publicly endorsed her, and happily drew on all his support bases, notably in their KwaZulu-Natal home province that became a litmus test for the heart and soul of the ANC.
Dlamini Zuma, the seasoned minister who banned smoking in public places, led the delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, cleaned up the messy Home Affairs ministry, and profiled South Africa on the African and global stage; had the perfect opportunity to make a clean break with the family dynasty politics that worry this young democracy.
Yet she carefully side-stepped the issues in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s “State of Capture” report. The burning issues of corruption that featured ever more prominently in the Rampahosa campaign barely featured in hers.
In response to criticism that she seemed to have no clear agenda, NDZ came out blazing in the final days of the race on “radical economic transformation” that seemed more a call to populism than a well thought through agenda.
Gender equality, it must be said, was not a prominent feature in the campaign of the first would-be woman president of South Africa.
Also needing to introspect, are NDZ’s enthusiastic backers in the ANC Women’s League found huddled in a meeting in the media centre after the announcement of the Top 6.
They are led by Bathabile Dlamini, the minister of social development, under whose watch there have been many scandals relating to mental health and social grants. She has survived in the post thanks to Zuma’s patronage, and despite several calls for her removal.
Not so long ago, the ANC Women’s League announced that we were not ready for a woman president. The Women’s League changed tack after Zuma endorsed Dlamini Zuma.
One of the greatest ironies of the ANC’s claim to the high ground on gender equality is that its Women’s League has been among the most enthusiastic backers of Zuma, who was acquitted of rape charges but found sorely wanting in his behaviour towards women shortly before he became president in 2009.
So vitriolic was the response to his late accuser (dubbed Khwezi) that she spent most of her remaining years in exile, with no support from the struggle organisation that she grew up in, let alone its women.
Sadly, it must be concluded that the only reason the Women’s League supported Dlamini Zuma was the Zuma name, not the promise of a woman president.
Indeed, if that were the agenda, why did the league not equally support Lindiwe Sizulu (who ran on the Ramaphosa ticket) for deputy president? Respected analyst Justice Malala says “it was never a principled campaign”.
Ramaphosa, who in all likelihood will become the fifthpresident of a democratic South Africa in 2019, also has some reflection to do.
Mandela’s favourite to succeed him (put aside due to party pressures to make Thabo Mbeki his deputy), Ramaphosa is a seasoned trade unionist, chief architect of the constitution and negotiator turned businessman.
But he comes with his own baggage - the Marikana Massacre in which 34 striking miners were gunned down by police at his Lonmin mines, and leaked e-mails of inappropriate relationships with female students he is said to be sponsoring, that hit the headlines during the ANC leadership race.
Much as the latter were probably politically motivated, Ramaphosa failed to use the platform to put forward a clear agenda on appropriate conduct of powerful men towards less powerful women, the heart of the #MeToo campaign.
There are examples globally of new age male presidents who have put forward feminist agendas - Justin Trudeau in Canada, for example.
Amid the minefield that Ramaphosa must walk to restore democratic values, there is an opportunity for the new ANC leader to go beyond numbers in the ANC’s gender equality agenda.
With the new deputy president of the ANC (Mabuza) also a man, we seem to be further away from a woman president.
Is it too much to hope, in the short term, for a feminist male president who will begin to get gender discourse back on track?
* Lowe Morna is chief executive of Gender Links, a Southern African NGO that promotes gender equality and justice