ANC Women’s League disbandment was unlawful, says Lindiwe Sisulu

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ANC presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu has called into question the right of the party’s task teams to vote in the upcoming December conference. 

The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) member also questioned the dissolution of the league, previously led by Bathabile Dlamini, alleging that it was disbanded “to ensure that it doesn’t nominate a female candidate come the December conference”.

Sisulu was responding to written questions from Mail & Guardian. 

She said the disbandment of the women’s league was “illegal and manipulative to achieve a particular conference outcome”.

This sentiment has been supported by Dlamini, who was elbowed out of the ANC power talks when the league was disbanded. 

Although Sisulu has relied on the support of the women’s league to run her campaign machinery in the provinces, she failed to get a nomination from the league’s task team. Instead, it opted to support president Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term and chose Thandi Modise as his deputy. 

Modise, a former deputy secretary general, had, until this month’s endorsement by the league, shown no interest in the December race.  

In a strongly worded response to the M&G’s questions, Sisulu said there was a mistaken belief that all interim structures had nominating and electing powers while they themselves were not elected, but appointed. 

She said the appointed task teams meant the individuals are beholden to the appointer, unlike those who are elected. 

“Now you need to teach me something here, where do all national task teams of the ANC derive their power to elect, from which part of the constitution?” Sisulu asked.

She said the interim provincial committees running provinces were not making pronouncements on behalf of branches, yet the task teams from the leagues were being allowed to do so.

“Which ANC rule permits this?” she asked. 

Sisulu argued the ANC had no power or authority to disband the women’s league, adding that the league is an affiliate of the ANC. 

“Only the women’s league can disband itself. Someone must have thought the league is subordinate to the ANC; it imagines that women are inferior and must be subordinated to the ANC. The league was formed to respond to particularly repressive laws targeting women out of urban areas. 

“The partnership was inevitable but the subordination was not part of the deal. When the women marched to the Union Building [in 1956] they did not need the permission of the ANC. It was the conditions of exile that made it necessary that all sectors have centralised coordination but the ANCWL consists of its own full authority and the sooner the ANC understands that it will stop thinking it has the authority to disband.” 

But according to the ANC’s constitution, the national executive committee (NEC) must appoint an interim structure during the period of suspension or the dissolution

of the executive committee to fulfil the functions of the committee. The NEC has the powers to oversee the work of the veterans’ league, the women’s league and the youth league.

The women’s league was disbanded in April after the ANC accepted the recommendation by Modise. 

Modise was appointed by the NEC to head a panel to evaluate the status of the league ahead of its elective conference, which is expected to take place later this year.

This came after Dlamini was found guilty of perjury in March for lying under oath during an inquiry about her role in the 2018 South African Social Security Agency grant payments debacle. Dlamini was the minister of social development at the time. 

In an extended national working committee meeting in April, Dlamini fought to be positioned as the task team convenor, but this was rejected, with Ramaphosa’s allies arguing that she would probably use the task team to ensure she emerges for another term. 

Dlamini, whose influence on the structure is still strong, has said that she is willing to return for another term. 

In recent ANC provincial and regional conferences, the leagues have been integral to the slates that have ascended to the top five positions.

In March, the M&G reported that the women’s league appeared to have found no inspiration to actively campaign for candidates seeking office. This was before it was disbanded for failing to hold its conference.

An organisational report, presented by then league president Dlamini during a national working committee meeting, said there was general fatigue among members and the politics of patronage had neutralised and dampened women’s spirits. She added that ANC leaders often chose women leaders who favoured them, as a way to get women’s votes.

Dlamini said there was also concern that women in cabinet positions were not driving the agenda for women.

Regarding the December conference, the women’s league task team has opted to focus on claiming the entire ANC secretary general’s office for women.

It was wrong to move intelligence 

Sisulu, a former intelligence minister and now the tourism minister, also criticised last year’s decision by Ramaphosa to move the State Security Agency (SSA) into the presidency, calling it “wrong”. 

Sisulu served as minister of intelligence during Thabo Mbeki’s term as president. She said the country’s intelligence service was “amateurish”, adding that it had regressed to tapping phones of political opponents.

“You need well trained people, someone who understands it. It’s even wrong to attach it to the presidency. It is meant to protect the country. The work of intelligence is inextricably linked to socioeconomic stability of the country,” she said.

“Look at the economic performance of the Mbeki era and the kind of intelligence that was backing his administration, currently the bar is abysmally low there. Foreigners are doing as they please, especially from Europe, and yet our intelligence is there.” 

Ramaphosa moved the SSA to the presidency ministry about a month after deadly violence in July last year — termed a failed insurrection by the president — ripped through KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng, ostensibly triggered by the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma on contempt of court charges.

Land must be returned

Sisulu said that if she were elected president, she would pursue the land issue, because returning the land “to its original owners” was “non-negotiable”. 

After a decision taken at the ANC’s 2017 conference, the party began the process of amending section 25 in 2019 to allow for expropriation of land without compensation. 

The ANC’s expropriation bill has been unable to move in parliament because of disagreements with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on the wording.

The decision to implement the resolution was seen as a strategic move to counter the EFF ahead of the crucial 2021 local government elections. The EFF had dominated public debate at the constitutional amendment review hearings on land.

Soon after the December 2017 conference some ANC leaders, including Ramaphosa, appeared to be taking a softer stance by saying the Constitution did allow for land expropriation without compensation.

“This [the land issue] is something I would really like to pursue if I can be elected. Land will go back to its people, there is no doubt about that, that includes the transformation of the judiciary,” Sisulu said.

“For me those are non-negotiable because that is exactly where we are losing the battle to change our people’s lives. It’s like the scrapping of BEE [black economic empowerment]; that to me is absolute nonsense. Black people deserve better in this country. Most of the people who tamper with the aspirations of our people are those who never fought or go to jail for this country. Try me, make me a president, all black people will thank me one day,” she said. 

The new regulations applicable to the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, recently raised concern because it was interpreted as the scrapping of the state’s BEE policy. 

In the ANC statement following its ordinary national executive committee, acting secretary general Paul Mashatile said the ANC affirms its position that broad-based BEE remains one of its key policy instruments, and urged its deployees to ensure that this principle is sustained.

“The ANC through its economic transformation committee will monitor progress in government and continue to engage with stakeholders, especially black business and professionals,” he said.