Leader slams chaos in ANC Women’s League

Presenting her organisational report at the 11th conference of the league in Mangaung, Free State, outgoing secretary-general Bathabile Dlamini said provinces were failing to organise regular meetings or convene conferences.

Despite the league having increased its membership over the past five years, disorganisation in provinces was trickling down to regions and branches, making it difficult for branches to raise funds and recruit members.

Dlamini said the lack of staff at provincial and regional levels had led to serious administrative weaknesses.

She said this could be rectified if all the provincial secretaries were appointed full- time and dedicated all their time to running the affairs of the league.

“In provincial offices the centre cannot hold because the Women’s League agreed to have secretaries that are not full-time.

“We have raised this matter with the previous and present leadership of the ANC,” Dlamini said. She added that there was general apathy in provinces and in regions, with members not showing up for meetings while others showed up just before conferences so that they could nominate leaders.

She admonished provincial and regional leaders for contributing to this apathy, saying people should not use the league just to advance their careers.

“Some comrades find it very easy to apologise or sacrifice meetings of the Women’s League, but at the same time want to be leaders in the league, and they want people to take them seriously when they cannot respect the very organisation that put them where they are,” she said.

The Women’s League has been able to raise its membership from 108 000 in 2003 to about 130 000 members.

The Eastern Cape and Free State, with 21 000 members each, are the biggest provinces along with KwaZulu-Natal, which has 17 000 members.

Meanwhile, delegates said they were surprised that Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was expecting to be elected as leader of the organisation purely on the strength of her popularity and had not deemed it necessary to influence any of the branches beforehand. Madikizela-Mandela was humiliated when she attempted to challenge for the position of president from the floor but failed to garner enough support from delegates.

Nominations from the floor have to be backed up by 25% of the delegates. Madikizela-Mandela needed 889 of the 3 600 delegates to back her challenge from the floor, but was left with egg on her face when only 427 delegates backed her.

A dejected Madikizela-Mandela quickly exited the hall after having this embarrassment.

A delegate from North West said Madikizela-Mandela had misread the mood when she entered the conference hall to great applause from the women.

“She wanted us to vote for her simply because we love her. Yes, we do, but we have mandates from our branches and we will not be deviating from them.”

Another delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said the former Women’s League president should have spread the word that she was available when nominations were being done at branch level. “Had she done that we would have ensured she was elected unopposed,” the delegate said.

Subscribe to the print edition of City Press