The newly appointed co-ordinator of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) task team, Maropene Ramokgopa has dismissed claims that she, as President Cyril Ramaphosa’s adviser, was appointed to the position to do his bidding before the party’s internal leadership contest in December.
As co-ordinator of the ANCWL task team, Ramokgopa has the task of ensuring that the structure is rebuilt. This comes after a panel headed by ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Thandi Modise this year recommended disbanding the Women’s League because it was found to have no functioning branches, regions and provincial structures in most provinces.
Ramokgopa, alongside former National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete, will take over from perjury-convicted Bathabile Dlamini and will be in charge of taking the structure to its elective conference within the next 12 months. As co-ordinator of the task team, Ramokgopa is in charge of the heart of the task team’s operations.
The women’s league counts as a province at the ANC’s December conference so its support is crucial for Ramaphosa who is seeking support to secure a second term.
“I cannot deny the fact that I am the adviser to President Ramaphosa ... but I think the issue is that people don’t know who I am [...] I am a member of the organisation with my own credentials,” she told Business Day.
“People must give me an opportunity to actually run the organisation. Maybe after three months or so they can [decide] if I am here to fight battles of one individual or to rebuild the organisation.”
Ramokgopa has served in various leadership roles in the ANC, including previously being part of the party’s youth league NEC led by EFF leader Julius Malema. After the league’s disbanding in 2012, Ramokgopa was part of the task team appointed by the ANC NEC to rebuild the youth league and has also served as the co-ordinator of the ANCWL’s young women’s desk.
In October 2021, Ramaphosa appointed her as part of the five-member team of special envoys to Eswatini which had been rocked by pro-democracy protests against the monarchy.
“I am not new, and it’s not like I fell from the sky because the president needed someone to come and fight whatever people think needs to be fought,” Ramokgopa says.
Her appointment to the women's league task team follows the appointment of Gwen Ramokgopa (no relation), who is regarded as an ally of Ramaphosa, as the co-ordinator of the newly created unit in the ANC secretary-general’s office. The office is in charge of the ANC’s daily operations and determines which of the ANC’s 4,000 delegates are eligible to vote at the party’s elective conference in December.
The secretary-general’s office had previously been vacant after the suspension of Ace Magashule and his deputy, Jessie Duarte, who is on sick leave.
The task team is scheduled to meet for the first time on Monday since its appointment earlier this month to chart the way forward and to deliberate on the Modise report (on the state of the Women's League) as well as to elect chairs of subcommittees.
Dlamini along with the Women’s League former secretary-general Meokgo Matuba and former ANCWL NEC member and deputy communications minister Pinky Kekana form part of the league’s task team.
Dlamini, largely believed to still have influence in the league as its former president, is still eligible to contest a leadership position within the league despite her conviction. This is because the ANC’s step-aside rule which stipulates that criminally charged leaders cannot contest party positions does not affect Dlamini, as her paying of the fine is seen as her having served time for her crime.
“The previous members of the [ANCWL] NEC [...] are not coming in as a structure, they are not coming in as a unit but individuals ... All of us have interests as individuals. I don’t think they [former ANCWL NEC members] will have interests as a group ... we will always subdue our individual interests under the organisational interests of the ANC,” Ramokgopa says.
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