‘Winnie could have been our first female president’

If Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had become South Africa’s president, she would probably have been able to prevent the myriad social ills facing the country today, according to ANC national executive committee member Lindiwe Sisulu.

She said this while delivering the party’s Winnie Madikizela-Mandela memorial lecture in Butterworth on Thursday.

Sisulu believes Madikizela-Mandela’s decision to decline nomination as the ANC’s deputy president in 1997 was a game-breaker.

Had the anti-apartheid stalwart contested the position against Jacob Zuma at the Mafikeng elective conference, she could have possibly won and later succeeded Thabo Mbeki as president, Sisulu said.

Sisulu, who is minister of human settlements, water & sanitation, was adamant that as the country’s first woman president, Madikizela-Mandela would have prevented the gender-based violence plaguing the nation.

Sisulu said “Ma Winnie” would also have prevented Julius Malema from forming the EFF, a development which happened after he was expelled as ANC Youth League president.

Madikizela-Mandela would have celebrated her 83rd birthday on Thursday.

Addressing about 500 ANC members and supporters at the Lindsay Secondary School grounds in Ngqamakhwe, Sisulu said: “Imagine if she had agreed to that nomination and won, she would have been the first elected female deputy president of the ANC.

“ Let us reimagine her impact on SA politics had she become the president after Mbeki, and perhaps Zuma after her. I am certain that the patriarchal tendencies in society and the organisation would have been attended to.

“She would not have allowed us to be where we are right now. Her instinctive feminism would have made sure that her presidency dealt with the rights of women.

“The constant violation of young women and the rising rate of rape. I am certain this would have been attended to,” Sisulu said to loud cheers.

“I am not implying that she would single-handedly have resolved such deep-rooted societal problems and the deeply entrenched power relations, but our children would not be in constant violation by young men and randomly die at the whim of men.”

Sisulu said the pain Madikizela-Mandela felt as a woman under apartheid, had made her extremely sensitive to women’s vulnerability, and it was essential that gender-based violence was defeated in Madikizela-Mandela’s name.

“Imagine further if she was the president of the ANC. Would there have been the creation of EFF?”

Earlier Sisulu, accompanied by Mnquma mayor Sithembiso Ncetezo, acting Amathole district mayor Zibuthe Mnqwazi, ANC Amathole regional secretary Teris Ntutu and ANC MPL Mziwonke Ndabeni visited a home in Lusuthu village, where they met relatives of three young women who were recently attacked in the area.