The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) is refusing to back down in its demand for a proper apology from ANC National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe, despite his claim that he has apologised and ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula declaring the matter “closed and final”.
The standoff has highlighted tensions inside the governing party over gender-based violence, language and accountability, just two weeks before the 4 November Local Government Elections where women make up the majority of registered voters.
Mantashe sparked outrage during a live interview on national television when he responded to allegations about sex-for-jobs with remarks that have been widely condemned as inappropriate and disrespectful.
A clip of the interview went viral, prompting the ANCWL to issue a scathing statement censuring its own national chairperson.
In the clip, Mantashe refers to a woman’s private parts, saying the party has nothing to do with intimate relationships between two people.
On Monday, the ANCWL initially called for Mantashe to apologise and for disciplinary action to be taken. However, it had to reiterate its stance on Thursday.
In a statement on Thursday, the Women’s League said Mantashe “failed to articulate the ANC’s long-standing policies and principles on the emancipation of women, the dismantling of patriarchal power structures, and the protection and preservation of women’s dignity and rights.”
“Once again, the ANCWL considers it necessary to help Cde Mantashe understand why he should apologise to the female journalist from Newsroom Afrika and the nation at large. He fell short in explaining the ANC’s policy positions on women’s emancipation, instead reduced the issue to language, culture and linguistics,” the League said.
“The ANC is a non-sexist organisation, committed to fighting all forms of violence against women and children in our country.”
The League linked Mantashe’s comments to a broader crisis facing women, warning that demanding sex in exchange for employment “is a reprehensible abuse of authority and it exploits vulnerable individuals, infringes on their dignity, and is a serious violation of labour laws.”
It added: “The demand for sexual favours in exchange for employment and sexual harassment are unacceptable abuses of power that must be condemned in every sector of society. Such conduct undermines women’s dignity and equal rights, and is especially concerning amid the ongoing crisis of gender-based violence and femicide.”
But Mantashe, who is also Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, has offered what amounts to a non-apology.
Confronted by SABC News in Cape Town this week, Mantashe said he did not even know what he was supposed to apologise for and insisted that Xhosa linguists had vindicated him.
“No, the first thing is that the Women’s League has not spoken to me. And my expectation was that the Women’s League will talk to me. And I would understand exactly what is it that I should apologise for. Is it Xhosa as a language? Is what is it that I am apologising for?” he said.
“Now I’m apologising for something I do not know. I don’t know what I should apologise for. But I’m expected to apologise. I’m asked by everybody to apologise. But all linguists, linguists, Xhosa linguists, agree with me that there’s nothing wrong that I have said that requires an apology.”
Pressed on whether he was offering an unconditional apology, Mantashe fumbled: “I’m unconditional – this apologise. No I’m apologising. Eh I don’t know what I’m apologising for. That’s conditional. That is not conditional. I don’t know. Nobody spoke to me and said this is what you should apologise for.”
His attempt to reduce a national debate about women’s dignity to a linguistic argument is precisely what infuriated the Women’s League.
In a bid to contain the fallout, Mbalula on Wednesday told a media briefing at Luthuli House that the matter was settled because Mantashe had apologised, even if he did not understand why.
“Now the issue of national chair is settled. He has apologised. And all what he was explaining he was explaining that he doesn’t understand what he must apologise about but he’s apologising. Now that particular matter is settled. The officials and the NWC reflected on it and then called for apology on this particular issue. So it’s closed,” Mbalula said.
“Is closed. We can debate linguistics and all of that and so on and that’s not where we are now. So just polish the language. That’s what is important.”
Mbalula admitted Mantashe may be technically correct but politically tone-deaf.
“So comrades what they are saying is that yes you might have said something right but it doesn’t land well broadly in society. It is as though you are too rough… We love our national chair. He’s doing very well and he likes to put things the way they are,” Mbalula said.
“So the Women’s League was as women did not did not like that. And they expressed their view even publicly. We have settled the matter now. It is closed. Unless there’s some people who still want to debate it and all of that. But in as far as the ANC is concerned that matter is closed and it is final.”
That finality is not accepted by the ANCWL. In its statement, the League insisted that Mantashe as a senior leader in both party and state “has a responsibility to uphold the values and the principles of the organisation and the code of conduct,” and said his response was “both inappropriate and insensitive, as it failed to reflect the seriousness and empathy required when addressing allegations that undermine the dignity of women.”
The League pointedly reminded the ANC that women are the majority of South Africa’s population and of voters in the upcoming local elections, yet continue to face high unemployment and “the devastating scourge of gender-based violence and femicide” – a crisis President Cyril Ramaphosa has now declared a National Disaster.