The symbolic handover of the baton at the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) by the outgoing male chairperson to a female successor during the Standard Bank Sikuvile Journalism Awards recently, made me wonder as to whether South Africa is ready for a female president.
Outgoing chairperson Sbu Ngalwa said in jest that his was a smooth and seamless handover of power to Nwabisa Makhunga.
Though gender has never been an issue at Sanef, the symbolic public transfer of power from a male to a female candidate sent a powerful message.
Makhunga is not the first female to lead Sanef, a lobby group of editors, journalists, academics and media trainers. Mahlatse Mahlase has formerly held the reins with aplomb.
It is the kind of lesson even purported trendsetters such as the US need. We recently witnessed a near-senile incumbent forced to make way for a woman as his potential successor to the White House.
Democrat Joe Biden has made way for his vice-president Kamala Harris, a black woman. She now faces Republican and former president Donald Trump, who will set a new record as the oldest American president by the time he sees out his second term as president should he win.
Trump ascended to the White House as the 45th president of the US after he went head to head with former first lady and then secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Now Harris is in the picture but it remains to be seen whether America is ready to cross the last great barrier in voting a woman, let alone a black one, into the presidency.
Harris’s sudden elevation could prove to be the tonic needed, throwing the spanner in the works of what would have been a romp to the White House by Trump.
During his first tenure Trump treated the media with contempt and journalists as scum bags who needed to be embarrassed at any given point during White House media briefings.
In a recent interview with ABC news correspondent Rachel Scott during the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Trump was, as usual, combative and condescending.
Harris might have entered the race through the proverbial backdoor but she’s a breath of fresh air that the world needs.
The world is crying out for credible and competent women to dismantle debilitating masculinity that has been a lot of humanity since the birth of time. South Africa, may I add, is no exception.
As the country celebrates Women’s Month 30 years since the dawn of the democratic dispensation, the issue of us having a female president should be high on the agenda.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka remains the only female to serve as high as the deputy presidency in our history, from 2004 to 2008. We can do better.
The best chances we had of a woman president perhaps rested with the ANC but the ANC Women’s League ironically became the stumbling block as they would often throw their lot with men to the detriment of any woman rising to the top.
Those from other political parties who looked poised to enter the ring including the likes of Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Dr Mpho Phalatse and Lindiwe Mazibuko were viciously mauled by forces opposed to such progress.
In Africa, Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made history by becoming the continent’s first elected female president in 2005. Dubbed “Africa’s Iron Lady”, stepped down in 2018 at the end of her second mandate. The renowned economist, a former international civil servant and finance minister, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the same year she won her second term.
Joyce Banda became Malawi’s first female president in 2012, stepping up from vice president to the position after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, and according to the Associate Press, she left the country in 2014 under a cloud, having lost the presidential election with questions asked over a corruption scandal. She returned to Malawi after four years in exile.
It’s sad and painful to observe how women, especially within the ANC wake up on the eve of elections to raise their hands to be elected as president on a “victimhood” ticket instead of their stature, credibility and ability.
The question is, will there ever be a strong female contender to the throne in South Africa?
Men have had at their time.
- Sepotokele is a journalist, communication strategist, media trainer and journalism lecturer
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