ANCWL Secretary-General Takes Charge as Sisisi Tolashe Steps Aside

The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) has been plunged into a leadership crisis after its president, Sisisi Tolashe, was forced to take a leave of absence following damning findings by the ANC Integrity Commission.
This dramatic development has exposed deep fissures within one of the party’s most influential formations.
In a unanimous resolution adopted at a special National Executive Committee meeting held on 30 May at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Boksburg, the ANCWL NEC decided that Tolashe would step back from her duties pending the finalisation of ANC disciplinary processes.
Secretary-General Nokuthula Nqaba will now assume the functions of the president in terms of the party constitutions, which provide for such interim arrangements when both the president and deputy president are absent.
The decision marks a stunning fall from grace for Tolashe, who has been at the centre of mounting controversy over allegations that she received luxury vehicles from Chinese officials, vehicles that were allegedly neither declared to parliament nor properly accounted for.
The ANC Integrity Commission found her guilty of misconduct in public office and concluded that her actions had brought the party into disrepute.
The vehicles in question, two SUVs donated by Chinese officials, were allegedly registered in the names of Tolashe’s adult children, despite claims that they were meant for the ANCWL.
The controversy led to her removal from cabinet by President Cyril Ramaphosa in mid-May, even as she maintained she had explained herself to the relevant structures.
On 26 May, the ANC NEC fully endorsed the Integrity Commission’s report and recommendations, referring Tolashe and four other senior ANC members, including former police minister Bheki Cele, to the ANC National Disciplinary Committee. Unlike the Integrity Commission’s quasi-advisory role, the disciplinary committee has the power to impose formal sanctions, including suspension or expulsion from the party.
In her statement following the special NEC meeting, Nqaba was careful to balance compliance with ANC decisions while protecting Tolashe’s constitutional rights.
“The ANCWL reaffirms its autonomous status as a league of the ANC while also underscoring its obligation to comply with decisions and directives of the ANC NEC,” she said, adding that the league remained committed to “the principle of natural justice and the presumption of innocence as enshrined in Section 35 of the Constitution”.
Nqaba emphasised that Tolashe had not been subjected to the ANC’s controversial “step aside” rule, which requires members facing serious criminal charges or corruption allegations to temporarily relinquish their positions. Instead, she is facing a disciplinary process based on the Integrity Commission’s findings.
The ANCWL called on its members to observe discipline and allow the ANC’s constitutional processes to run their course, a clear attempt to prevent the kind of factional battles that have torn apart other ANC structures in recent years.
But the special NEC meeting did not only focus on internal turmoil. In a sign of the league’s determination to remain politically relevant despite its leadership crisis, delegates also adopted a raft of resolutions on the contentious issue of illegal immigration and rising tensions in townships across the country.
The ANCWL resolved to mobilise among communities confronting the influx of illegal immigrants and to lobby the government for an integrated, cross-sectoral approach to managing foreign nationals, irrespective of race, colour or country of origin.
The league committed to educating communities to counter what it called “the false narrative that only Black Africans are undocumented”.
It also pledged to engage progressive formations to mobilise against “the economic takeover of local businesses by undocumented foreign nationals” and urged relevant government departments to enforce legislation and bylaws regulating small businesses.
Significantly, the ANCWL said it would advocate sustainable pathways for women’s full integration into the township economy and meaningful participation in the local spaza shop economy.
The league also resolved to engage the government security cluster to conduct proper due diligence regarding what it described as “the rise of politically sponsored community protests”, a reference to growing concerns that some anti-immigrant demonstrations have been orchestrated for political gain.