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YOUR STORY
ANCWL in the spotlight
05/12/2007 15:09 - (SA)
Singabakho Nxumalo, News24 User
There has been a cloud (which also includes a march) organised by certain individuals about their disappointment at the ANC Women's League after failing to nominate a female candidate.
The first question would be - merely because it's a women's league - was it therefore a must that they had to nominate a woman? The most definite answer is no.
Surely a lot went through during the women's league caucus and viewed all people who were willing to lead the African National Congress. There is no doubt that the women's league firstly looked at home to see if they had someone who could represent them effectively.
The women's league had necessary power to nominate a woman as their preferred candidate. For the league to go for Jacob Zuma, says the league is comfortable with him.
Yes, there has been enormous talk about Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma being ready to run for the presidency. However, Dlamini-Zuma has never come out and expressed her desire of wanting to serve as the president of the ANC. This says that the women's league had no clear-cut person they could push to lead the ANC. The results are a true reflection of the above seeing that the difference of votes between Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki was not massive.
The criticism labelled at the women's league for nominating Jacob Zuma is totally unjustifiable considering the fact that no-one stood up and showed interest in the position. Perhaps the same could be done to the youth league pushing it to nominate a youth candidate to be the president of the ANC.
A third candidate?
This has opened up worms and opportunistic comments in dragging the Jacob Zuma name in the mud as a monster to women. Listen to some of the views being made by certain individuals about Zuma being nominated by the women's league - it is totally disgusting to crucify a man whom the court proved innocent.
Something new is emerging where the electoral commission in the ANC has hinted a possibility of a third candidate in Polokwane to run for the presidency competing against Zuma and Mbeki. With no doubt, there are a couple of names that the conference may put forward. However, in politics, that might be a game on its own geared to disturb the race between Zuma and Mbeki.
A number of people are caught in between not knowing whether they must go for Mbeki or Zuma. Such people's votes are the ones that matters the most. We may call them descending votes, which will mean a lot either to Mbeki or Zuma to win the elections.
This might be a game envisaged to widen the gap between Mbeki and Zuma. The race is at the advance stage. No one in his right mind will want to join it at such a late stage with hope to turn the tables. The only ideal situation will be to push for a compromise candidate while pushing both Mbeki and Zuma out of the race.
Unfortunately, convincing both Mbeki and Zuma to step down from entering the race in Polokwane will be too late considering that both of them are more than committed to fight this battle till the end.
Although Dlamini-Zuma has been tipped as one person to emerge as the president of the ANC should both Mbeki and Zuma decides otherwise, Dlamini-Zuma still needs to do more in making it apparent to South Africans that she is interested in the job.
Her capabilities and skills are not doubted and she is trusted by many as a woman of hope. Pity, she has decided to play the game very quietly by keeping her cards closer to chest. As a result, the race is now too far away from her for her to catch up.
Amazingly, we have a woman who is the current deputy president, Phumzile Mlanmbo-Ngcuka. Not much has been said about her running as the ANC's president after Polokwane. One would have thought that those pushing women's league to nominate a woman should have included her in their wish list. As the deputy president, surely Mlambo-Ngcuka should have positioned herself better as an emerging force to represent women.
Nominations a true reflection
A lot has happened in the ANC which led to the party to break to various fractions aligning to certain camps. Surely structures like the youth league and the women's league fell in the same cradle. Nominations were not going to mend all the relations and allow such fractions to be mended and automatically agree on whom to support for the presidency. Nominations were a true reflection of how divided the ANC currently is.
As much as there has been talks about expecting the unexpected in Polokwane, nominations did make the statement. It will be up to those with more power than others to change the look in Polokwane using whatever is in their disposal to push for the man they want.
The women's league needs to be respected in its choice and the public must accept that this is a true reflection of what is happening in the ANC.
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