ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged the women’s league to aid the ruling party emerge victorious at the 2024 polls.
Ramaphosa, who gave closing remarks at the ANC Women’s League 13th elective conference held in Nasrec, reminded the structure of the critical role that it needs to play in the movement.
“As women you have an important role to play also in the forthcoming elections. I will be relying on you to ensure that you raise the voice, the campaign and the presence of the African National Congress right throughout the country.“
“As we go around campaigning, we will find you in the front line. And this time around, you are also going to be joined by the ANC Youth League because the Youth League is awake... the young lions are going to be roaring... and are going ensure an ANC victory in the next coming elections,” he said.
He further said: “More women are registered to vote than men and voter turnout among women is noticeably higher.
“As we approach the 2024 elections, the Women’s League has an important task to mobilise women throughout society behind the ANC,” he said.
He said the Women’s League was an army of the ANC and therefore had to lead not through slogans and shouting but through the content it has.
He reminded the women that they were gathered at the conference because of a “generation of South African women who refused to remain silent in the face of injustice.”
“It is because of their struggles that our country is today a democracy with a constitution that guarantees equal rights for all.”
He called for the league to be united and really behind the newly elected leadership saying factionalism and divisions had to stay at the conference because if they remain they will weaken the ANCWL.
Ramaphosa also highlighted that it was time the ANCWL was left to deal with its own challenges.
“Men must not interfere in the affairs of women.”
Speaking on the issue of gender equality and the emancipation of women, Ramaphosa reminded women that despite making in roads they still had a long way to go.
“You are therefore called upon both as members of ANCWL and the broader democratic movement to achieve nothing less than the equality for women in every sphere of life. Our efforts must be focused on economic and social empowerment of women," he said.
Part of the fight against their challenges, he said, included women owning land, title deeds, having equal rights and employment opportunities in workplaces and societies, education and training opportunities, as well as having access to financial services.
WATCH: Ramaphosa calls for ANCWL members to rally behind new leadership
He said the Women’s League occupied a unique position within the women’s movement to lead the fight against patriarchy.
He urged both members of the Women’s League, ANC, and broader democratic movement, to support women to achieve nothing less than equality for them in every sphere of life.
Ramaphosa shared a 10-point list which he said the league had to foster going forward.
This, he added, includes the education and skills development of women saying they have to be provided with quality education so as to ensure they are able to participate meaningfully in the economy.
He also called for women to be given a platform to play a critical role in agriculture and equal employment opportunities for the country's women saying the Women's League needed to insist on "equal pay for equal work."
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