ANC women angry over man as mayor
● The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal rejected a proposal to replace former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede with another woman.
Highly-placed insiders said members of the provincial executive committee (PEC), at a meeting where the decision to fire Gumede was taken, proposed the MEC for economic development, Nomusa Dube-Ncube.
But the majority chose her male colleague, former transport MEC Mxolisi Kaunda.
“Her name came up but the name that had maximum support was that of Kaunda,” one insider said.
Now the ANC Women’s League is seething and wants to know why Gumede was replaced by a man.
Though the ANC prides itself on its commitment to gender parity, women in the party have complained about being sidelined by powerful men when appointments are made to strategic positions.
After the elections in May, only two of the eight premiers named by the ANC were women. But the party appointed women as speakers in provincial legislatures.
The gender issue has also caused ructions in Gauteng, where premier David Makhura defied a directive from the national executive committee that 60% of the MECs in his administration should be women.
At the KwaZulu-Natal PEC meeting, the final choice between Dube-Ncube and Kaunda was made by provincial party officials, the party insider said.
Another PEC member told the Sunday Times that the party did not have any difficulty settling on Kaunda as the new mayor. “The work needs someone who has stamina and energy, it needs somebody who is fearless; that is what comrade Kaunda represents,” this source said.
But Women’s League secretary-general Meokgo Matuba said the league was not aware that Dube-Ncube had ever been an option. She said the league had pushed for a woman.
Matuba said it was no consolation that Kaunda’s deputy mayor was a woman, former MEC for finance Belinda Scott.
“We have been fighting for strategic positions,” she said.
“We are not discouraging women but we are saying women can do better than being deputies. That woman [Scott] also, having been an MEC, could have been elevated to the level of being mayor.”
Matuba said the league was pushing for a meeting with the ANC leadership to discuss deployments, particularly the issue of men being named to replace women before their
Women can do better than being deputies Meokgo Matuba
term in office had ended, as in Gumede’s case.
“In a true sense the organisation is letting us down, this is one of the burning issues,” Matuba said.
“It doesn’t only happen in KwaZulu-Natal, we cannot accept it.”
ANC provincial spokesperson Ricardo Mthembu denied that Dube-Ncube was ever an option to replace Gumede.
“The issue of the mayor was discussed by officials who then sent the appointments to Luthuli House. At no point did the PEC discuss any names for a replacement,” he said.
He said the women’s league had not communicated any disappointment to the provincial leaders.
“Decisions of the ANC are binding. We have replaced the eThekwini executive committee with two men and two women. We had to look at the capacity of leaders at our disposal and deploy accordingly.
“The women’s league has a responsibility to advocate for women. We accept it because they are a structure that serves women,” he said.
Dube-Ncube had not responded to questions by the time of going to print.
The ANC last week announced a new eThekwini executive committee after sacking Gumede over concerns that she was costing the party voter support.
Some insiders said Dube-Ncube would not have accepted the position of mayor because she believed it would delay her rise to even higher office.
“She said her career is on an upward trajectory,” one insider said. “She feels she served the city enough, and well, in the early 2000s as speaker.”
Those close to Dube-Ncube said she regarded the proposal to make her mayor as a ploy to prevent her from becoming premier of KwaZulu-Natal and the first woman to chair an ANC PEC.