The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) has formally drawn battle lines ahead of the ruling party’s next leadership contest, saying it was time for them to campaign for a woman president.
Speaking at the league’s umanyano gathering at the Covenant Fellowship Church in Rustenburg on Thursday, ANCWL president, Sisisi Tolashe, said the organisation was reclaiming its historical role as a driving force within the ANC by pushing for women to be president.
“This year will be a turning point,” Tolashe told delegates.
“We want a woman president of the ANC. Women must be recognised and must take up strategic positions.”
The party is expected to host its conference in 2027.
Her remarks has signalled the women’s league intentions to play an assertive role in shaping the ANC’s succession debate, despite resistance within parts of the party.
Tolashe said the league would no longer wait for consensus from sceptics and would press ahead with its agenda.
“It is upon us in 2026 to ensure that the total liberation and emancipation of women is realised in our lifetime,” she said. “We cannot suspend this battle. We can no longer ignore it.”
The ANCWL has long argued that women remain underrepresented in senior political leadership, despite decades of struggle credentials and policy commitments to gender parity.
At the Rustenburg gathering, several speakers echoed the sentiment that women were not only ready to lead but had consistently demonstrated the capacity to govern at all levels of the state.
Tolashe urged members to confront what she described as an “uncomfortable reality” within the movement, saying structural barriers and internal resistance continued to block women from top leadership roles.
Drawing on the league’s history, she said the organisation would rely on the same collective strength shown by earlier generations of women activists.
“Women will be moving this year. Women are going to take their rightful positions,” she said, invoking the legacy of the 1956 women’s march against apartheid laws.
The renewed push comes amid growing speculation over potential female candidates within the ANC.
National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza has emerged as a possible contender, reportedly enjoying support from senior party leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Didiza previously served as the ANC’s mayoral candidate in Tshwane in 2016, though the party lost control of the capital.
At the ANC’s National General Council (NGC) in December, former home affairs minister and former AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma reaffirmed that women had an unquestionable right to contest the presidency.
Dlamini-Zuma lost to Ramaphosa at the ANC’s 2017 elective conference.
Addressing the same gathering immediately after Tolashe, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula joked that the league could be referred to the party’s disciplinary committee for prematurely opening the succession debate.
In the same breath, it acknowledged the legitimacy of its concerns.
Mbalula is one of the ANC leaders who are vying for the presidency.
Senior ANC figures, including Mbalula, Didiza, deputy president Paul Mashatile, Ronald Lamola and Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa – are increasingly being touted as possible contenders to succeed Ramaphosa
Politics
