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Ahead of women’s month next month, the ANC has announced that its national executive committee has introduced a sexual harassment policy.
The highest organ of the ANC between national conferences also instructed Gauteng Premier David Makhura to drop one male member from his executive committee in order to achieve an equal gender ratio in his cabinet.
This was announced by the party’s secretary-general Ace Magashule on Tuesday as he revealed the resolutions of the ANC’s NEC meeting held in Pretoria over the weekend.
He said the meeting concluded that Makhura had to replace one of his male executives with a female executive to achieve a 60/40 gender representation in line with the party’s policy.
In May, the ANC Women’s League in Gauteng expressed concern that Premier David Makhura disobeyed the ANC national executive committee’s instruction to ensure his provincial executive comprised six women and four men.
“The ANC as a leader of society is the only party with a gender parity policy, and which integrates non-sexism in all its policies, leadership structures and programmes,” Magashule said.
Makhura failed to abide by the NEC’s requirements in the appointment of executives. After elections the decisions that all provincial government should integrate more women as members of the executive council was made by the NEC.
Women’s league president Bathabile Dlamini in May expressed concern that women were not granted positions in high structure even though they were capable and available.
Magashule said that the ANC would continue to tackle gender-based violence and continue to empower women.
He said they would do this by continuing to dismantle patriarchy and misogyny.
“We must tackle gender-based violence, economic and social exclusion of women, equal pay for equal work and the empowerment of women in all spheres of society,” Magashule said.
In the national executive committee meeting the ANC agreed to adopt a wide-ranging sexual harassment policy.
Magashule said it was the party’s plan to integrate non-sexism in all its policies, leadership structures and programmes.
Last year, Dakota Legoete promised that the party would develop a sexual harassment policy as recommended by a grievance panel after national spokespersons Pule Mabe and Zizi Kodwa were accused of sexual harassment.
Last year, Mabe took special leave after a former employee claimed he assaulted her on three different occasions and cut her salary when she spoke out.
Read: R50 000 for Pule Mabe’s sexual harassment accuser
Kodwa was accused by a woman of drugging and then raping her and a friend at a Sandton Hotel in 2018.
She sought to have Kodwa pay her a “settlement”, according to a letter she wrote to him, which has been widely circulated. Kodwa has denied the allegations,
Both men were later acquitted of these claims because of lack of evidence and participation by the accusers in the disciplinary process.
Read: ‘I’m out’: Zizi Kodwa’s rape accuser withdraws complaint
At the time Legoete said the party would have to have a sexual harassment policy within the next three month.
Magashule said the ANC adopted a policy on sexual harassment in the work environment, “and also agreed to adopt a broader organisation-wide sexual harassment policy.
