ANC women bemoan domination of men

The ANC Women’s League has once again bemoaned the low number of women who are elected as leaders in the party.

League secretary-general Meokgo Matuba said on Sunday this indicated women still had a long way to go to achieve 50-50 representation in the ANC.

Matuba was speaking after the conclusion of two ANC provincial conferences at the weekend, in which only two women were elected for 10 top positions available.

KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Nomusa DubeNcube and Gauteng legislature chairwoman of committees Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko were the only two women elected to the male-dominated ANC top five of their respective provinces at the conferences.

While Nkomo-Ralehoko was elected deputy provincial secretary in Gauteng, Dube-Ncube was elected treasurer in KwaZulu-Natal.

“It is so disappointing,” Matuba said. “We are more than men [in numbers] but we are still ruled by men. We must use our power to change the status quo. Women can lead and are capable,” she said.

Matuba blamed the failure of women to make it to top positions in the ANC on women not supporting each other.

“We are losing it as women. Part of the thing is that we are not united as women.”

Women also did not contest positions at conferences.

ANC Youth League Gauteng secretary Bones Modise said delegates at the Gauteng conference followed a Nasrec-style leadership in which there was no outright winner. “The outcome of this conference is relatively what happened [at the national electoral conference] in Nasrec [in December], where comrades rejected slates and opted for [a] unity approach with relation to the leadership of the ANC,” he said.