Former ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini is cleared to try again when the structure convenes its national conference next month.
This is according to ANCWL national task team leadership that briefed the media at the governing party’s head office in Joburg CBD on Thursday.
The task team’s coordinator Maropene Ramokgopa, accompanied by fundraisers MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae and Pinky Kekana, briefed the media on the state of readiness for the national conference. The conference date has been confirmed for 17-19 June this year.
Quizzed about Dlamini’s eligibility to stand for a leadership role in the ANCWL, Kekana, and Ramokgopa said there was nothing that disqualified the former social development minister.
“Comrade Bathabile Dlamini like any other member of the ANC has every right to participate in the structures of the ANC. The ANC processed all things around Batha and the fact that she is sitting in the NEC of the ANC [proves that she is in the clear],” said Kekana.
“Remember you are first a member of the ANC before you are a member of the ANCWL. The fact that the ANC has dealt with the issue of comrade Batha means she can then fully participate. She went through the process. We cannot subject her to any isolation.”
Dlamini had a rough political year in 2022 when the ANCWL NEC she led was disbanded.
Not only that, but she was also a subject of epic confusion over the interpretation of the ANC Step Aside rule. This was when then-acting Secretary-General Paul Mashatile called on her to resign as ANCWL president after being found guilty of perjury and slapped with a suspended jail sentence.
As if that was not enough, days before the December 2022 national conference of the mother body, Dlamini was told by the ANC Electoral Committee that she was not eligible to stand for any position.
That was before the party made a dramatic U-turn almost at the door of the conference when Dlamini was suddenly cleared and thus was elected to the ANC’s highest decision-making body between conferences.
Lobbyists within ANCWL are said to be convincing her to stand for the position of Women’s League president next month to get back at the party’s hegemonic faction which disbanded her last year.
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