Mammoth task ahead for Back to trenches new leaders, says Mandla for ANC women
NEWLY elected ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and deputy president David Mabuza have the mammoth tasks of uniting the party – and restoring the standing of the ANC in the eyes of the electorate with Election 2019 beckoning, ANC MP Mandla Mandela said.
“President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s famous quote‚ ‘and I smiled because every day South Africans are building a new dawn’‚ is very apt today,” he said.
“This newly elected leadership has an opportunity to restore faith in the movement and its ability to be the vanguard of change and radical economic transformation.
“Upon its shoulders rests the task of leading South Africa into a new future – one of optimism and a better life for all.”
This‚ he said‚ presented one of the most critical challenges for those serving the party over the next five years in their term of office.
“We call on all organs of civil society‚ faith based, non-government and communitybased organisations to keep the spirit of democracy healthy and not step back from holding elected leadership accountable for their actions.” – TimesLIVE THE lack of gender equality in the party’s newly elected top six shows that the ANC Women’s League still has a long journey ahead of them and they will have to make up for having only one woman representative, Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu says.
Zulu said that although she was disappointed with the election outcome‚ there would be a concerted effort to get more women in the national executive committee‚ which is required to achieve 50-50 gender parity.
“We go back to the trenches to see where it is that we didn’t do right in ensuring that we’ve got more women, because we had two women in the previous official structure and now we have one.”
Although the league’s preferred candidate‚ Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma‚ did not win the presidential race‚ they would rally behind new president Cyril Ramaphosa and his top structure, she said.
Zulu said women’s struggles in the ANC failed to gain traction because they were reduced to issues of representation in party structures. – TimesLIVE