It’s not only women who feel they are being excluded.
ANC first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane says her party has always been a male-dominated organisation.
This, according to Mokonyane, played itself out publicly when Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma contested the party’s presidency against Cyril Ramaphosa in 2017.
At the time, over 4 000 delegates voted, with Ramaphosa winning 2 440 votes to Dlamini-Zuma’s 2 261.
There were questions on the capabilities of women to lead the party, and Dlamini-Zuma’s relation to former president Jacob Zuma.
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Mokonyane used the incident as one that testified to the ANC’s sexism.
“There must not be an illusion that the ANC has never been a male-dominated organisation – very sexist. The question that arises is: Are women ready? Women have always been ready. All of us say the ANC was founded on the following values, the value of a non-sexist organisation was not a priority in the ANC,” Mokonyane told Sunday World.
“They demonised Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – the ANC. I don’t care about the people outside. The women themselves were not united, and there was also this issue about associating her with Jacob Zuma, which is so wrong. If there was somebody who could have gone and formed a party, it would have been her, not Jacob Zuma.”
ANC: Old vs young
It’s not only women who feel they are being excluded.
Last week, the ANC Youth League in Gauteng lamented the exclusion of young people by “old people” in the party.
Addressing a media briefing, Secretary Mpume Sangweni stated that the ANC’s argument that young people are not ready for leadership positions was invalid.
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“There appears to be a deliberate attempt to exclude young people in this province,” he said.
“Our impatience is that there are no responses, and we are starting to have problems. Generally, old people are starting to be allergic to the rise of young people in the province.
“There is an MEC who was an MEC when he was 26 years old. No questions were asked whether he was ready or not. Today, he’s the second senior MEC in the executive. They themselves were given an opportunity that they have; what then prevents them from giving the chairperson of the GP [Gauteng] youth league that experience? We don’t buy that explanation, and we have raised these issues with them.”
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