Durban — In what has been hailed as a big move to dismantle patriarchy within the ANC and the country in general, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Lindiwe Sisulu have agreed to team up and contest the president and deputy president positions under one banner at the upcoming ANC conference in December.
The chief campaigners for both senior Cabinet ministers and national executive committee members of the party met last week and in principle agreed that the two must work together following their snubbing by the “male-dominated” regional and provincial leadership of the party for these two senior positions at the coming conference.
The agreement, which has been dubbed “women on top”, was initiated by Cosatu’s powerful affiliates which included the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union.
The unions are said to have been instrumental in influencing delegates at the Cosatu congress last week to dump the ANC in the 2024 general elections.
Although both groups wanted their principals to stand for the president position, the final agreement was that whoever received more branch nominations than the other would be the face of the campaign and contest for the presidency.
Amathole Samwu regional secretary Luthando Juju, who was part of a meeting on Friday, said after the meeting campaigners asked for time to report back to their candidates, and they had come back to inform them that they had agreed to the proposal.
The Amathole region encompasses six municipalities in the Eastern Cape and includes Mnquma Local Municipality in Butterworth. Juju said as workers they had agreed that since 1912 the ANC had been led by men, but now was the time for women to lead the movement.
Juju added that the two most senior women members were in a position to take the party and government to greater heights. He said the main aim of pushing the two to work together was to make sure that there was a 50-50 representation in the party’s top hierarchy known as the top six.
He added that the two had excelled in their deployment to the government as ministers and with them leading the party and the government the country would start experiencing changes, especially in the fight against gender-based violence, which he said was spiralling out of control under men’s leadership.
“We believe a female police minister would fight gender-based violence better than a male counterpart, so after 2024 we want a female police minister. But we must have a female president first,” said Juju.
Victor Totolo, who is Samwu deputy chairperson in the Amathole region and was also part of the meeting, said this was the greatest opportunity to dismantle patriarchy within the ANC and in society in general.
He said under Sisulu as Minister of Public Administration workers were treated better and with Dlamini Zuma’s experience in both the ANC and the government, the two would form a “great combination”. He said this was the reason they approached them not to campaign in silos.
Totolo said they had begun a massive consultative process with workers in the affiliates to buy into the project before they took it to Cosatu for adoption. He added that by booing the ANC national chairperson and voting not to support the party in the 2024 general elections, they were directing their anger at the current male-dominated top six, not at the entire ANC.
In 2017 Cosatu threw its weight behind President Cyril Ramaphosa but it looks like the biggest workers’ federation will now back a woman for president. Both Sisulu and Dlamini Zuma confirmed the meeting.
Mphumzi Mdekazi, who represented Sisulu, said his principal did not have a problem with the arrangement. He said in order to avoid tension between their candidates, they agreed that branches must decide who becomes president and deputy president, adding they would be numerically guided by who received the most nominations for president, and the one who received fewer would settle for the deputy position.
Mendy Wetsetse, who is Dlamini Zuma’s lobbyist in the Eastern Cape, also confirmed the meeting.
Wetsetse said she was campaigning for Dlamini Zuma in the Eastern Cape and was busy engaging with all eight regions in the province to back the two female leaders.
Daily News