We feel that the ANC has failed the women of South Africa: Dlamini

The ANC Women’s League says the outcome of the ANC’s top six results reflects how entrenched patriarchy is in the society and in the organisation.

Only Jessie Duarte made it to the Top Six as she managed to get re-elected Deputy Secretary General.

Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma lost the President position to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, while Maite Nkoana-Mashabane lost the position of Treasurer-General to Paul Mashatile.

Women’s League President Bathabile Dlamini says, “We feel that the ANC has failed the women of South Africa. We have to express our disappointment. The ANC indeed has indeed regressed on the issue of women, we cannot be proud of this outcome. Patriarchy has once again reared its ugly head. We are the majority in the ANC and in the society and we cannot celebrate the outcome that undermines the power of women in the ANC.”

The ANC Women’s League says it will seek to regain lost ground through the election of its members onto the party’s National Executive Committee on Tuesday.

Delegates at the ANC Elective Conference are currently voting for the 80 additional members of the NEC.

Only one woman, Jessie Duarte as Deputy Secretary General, made it to the party’s Top Six. This, despite the fact that three women were vying for the position of president of the party.

Speaking on behalf of the ANC Women’s League, Lindiwe Zulu says, “We need to then go back to the drawing board because when delegates also have a mandate that mandate starts at grassroots level. Branch level must have that understanding that we need women in key decision-making structures of the ANC. We respect what has happened now because that is how they have voted, but there are caucuses that are ongoing and the women have made it clear that we must not lose what we have lost.”