Johannesburg - The ANC Women’s League wants discussions on gender to become the business of the ANC as a whole, and not be relegated to women only.
“The time has come for women’s leadership - in the ANC and the government - to be acknowledged and recognised, in a hint of the succession debates being held in the governing-party.
“We are not asking. We are saying the time is right (for more women leaders). We will lobby, we will campaign, we will do this through our branches,” ANC Women’s League NEC-leader, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said.
“There is no other country, I know (this) as a diplomat, that has done more than South Africa has done in 21 years,” she said.
The ANC National General Council (NGC) that begins in Midrand on Friday, will review the party’s preparedness for next year’s local government elections.
“Reversing this skunk called apartheid that was there for than 400 years (leads to) our (citizens) demand more services from our government,” Mashabane said.
“Our problem (with protest) is the style. Why do we burn a library to get a road? Where do we get the next library,” Mashabane said.
“Women in South Africa have received a lot of support. We know it’s not enough but we know this government has done a lot. We were born in rural areas, so we know what it is to fetch water from a water wells.”
More than half of the country’s citizens now get water from taps. But those who do not, she said, have not lost hope or confidence in the ANC-led government.
ANCWL head of communications Toko Xasa, said the league doesn't want to see reversal of female progress.
The league will “definitely form a programme” towards the ANC’s next national conference in 2017, where its next national leader will be elected.
“We have to (more immediately) make sure the ANC succeeds at next year’s local government,” Xasa said, however.
The statements come as there is speculation the ANCWL will support African Union head, Nkosazana Dlamini, to be the ANC’s next president.
Labour Bureau