Siphokazi Magadla, SACSIS
“All we are asking is
that he pay back the money, why are we getting thrown out?” was the question
that came from a parliamentary member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF),
who was identified in a Voice of America news report, as “Female EFF member” on
21 August, the day the EFF chanted “pay back the money”, to a humiliated and
ill-looking Jacob Zuma. Right before Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, the EFF spokesperson
started chanting, I hoped for a longer exchange between parliamentary speaker,
Baleka Mbete, and the “Female EFF member”.
Although visible in their
domestic worker attire, the female leaders of the EFF have only been appearing
in the background of escapades initiated by their male comrades that have
awaken parliament, as a site of political theatre. From Julius Malema accusing
the ANC government of the murder in Marikana in his response to the State of
the Nation address, to a near fistfight between Andile Mngxitama and Pieter
Groenewald of the Freedom Front Plus, to the recent heated exchange between
Floyd Shivambu and former Minister Charles Nqakula who called him a “silly
boy”.
Not just in parliament,
the men of the EFF are unmasking the work of parliament on various platforms.
Ndlozi has taken the debate about the use of Die Stem in our national anthem
outside the portfolio committee on communications to a broader national
audience. Mngxitama, the EFF’s land commissar, has done the same with his
audacious open letter to Richard Branson who acquired a vineyard in the Western
Cape some months back. It is striking how the big personalities of the EFF men
have managed to accommodate each other’s individualism, thus demonstrating that
the EFF is not leader-centric in the way that AgangSA was. AgangSA’s public
image didn’t extend beyond its leader, Mamphele Ramphela.
Yet, the last public
reference to one of the women leaders of the EFF was when Primrose Sonti, an
activist from Marikana, was appointed as EFF member of parliament (MP)
responsible for the Public Works portfolio. If not to extend on the debates in
her portfolio, what does Sonti make of the performance of the Farlam Commission
thus far? As someone whose son was initially arrested for the murder and
attempted murder of the miners, what does she make of Cyril Ramaphosa’s
insistence that South Africans must take “collective responsibility” for the
deaths of the miners in Marikana? Why is Sonti silent on these issues?
Magdalene Moonsamy, who’s
been described as the “EFF’s secret weapon” is also striking in her silence.
The former ANC Youth League spokesperson and current EFF representative for
international relations, is perhaps the one woman in the party who I most
expected to step into our public space with greater enthusiasm. In 1993, Nelson
Mandela wrote, “human rights will be the light that guides our foreign
affairs.” With the Dalai Lama denied a visa to visit South Africa for the third
time, what does Moonsamy think South Africa’s role should be in international
relations as the country celebrates 20 years of democracy after a global
struggle to end apartheid? Sure, she did take to Twitter to tweet at Clayson Monyela,
the spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation,
about the Dalai Lama’s visa, but why isn’t Moonsamy leading us into a public
discussion about how to reimagine South Africa’s place in Africa and the world?
Academic and gender
specialist, Shireen Hassim recently argued in the Mail & Guardian that the
ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) has been reduced to a “gatekeeper”. She contends
that its role is to ensure that “reliable” ANC women are “appointed to
parliamentary committees, government departments and parastatals” for
appointments, which are “driven by considerations of party loyalty and
political mobility rather than by a track record in gender activism.” In this
age, when women’s access to political institutions is reduced to ticking party
quota obligations, which gives a small group of elite women political access,
to what extent are the women in the EFF offering a different form of
participation beyond descriptive representation?
On August 30, the women
of the EFF had a gathering for the purpose of “charting the way forward for
women in SA”. In its aftermath, there have been no further reports from the EFF
about the ways in which the women of the EFF envision championing the interests
of women in the legislature and elsewhere. Of course, we also have to ask to
what extent the EFF’s organisational culture demonstrates potential for the
flourishing of individual women and to what extent this can be harnessed into a
collective voice that can reinvigorate women’s participation in party politics.
Is it a coincidence that
some promising female voices have already exited the EFF while the male voices
are seemingly thriving?
The history of the ANCWL
reminds us that South African women’s participation in the national liberation
movement stemmed less from the invitation of men. The lack of appreciation of
the intersections of gender and economic inequality are evident in the ANC’s
performance in government. Hassim points out that part of the ANCWL’s current
inadequacy also stems from the fact that the ANC’s constitutional commitment to
gender equality is not matched by genuine “political and theoretical
leadership” that takes gender seriously.
Has the EFF leadership
demonstrated something different besides a rhetorical commitment to gender
equality?
For some time Helen Zille
and Lindiwe Mazibuko of the Democratic Alliance (DA) offered a possible
alternative for what strong opposition party female leadership could look like.
It is easy to forget that it was Lindiwe Mazibuko’s bold leadership as DA
parliamentary leader that pushed then parliamentary speaker, Max Sisulu, to
form a special parliamentary committee to consider the Nkandla Report. This is
the kind of clear leadership that is slowly slipping away from the DA under
Mmusi Maimane’s leadership.
How do we read the
media’s own lack of interest in the actions of the EFF women? There was
certainly a lot of fascination with Mazibuko’s manoeuvres in parliament.
When I look at the
bravado of the EFF men, I see at work the creation of a new heroic masculinity.
These new “heroes” are inviting us to reinvigorate our claims to the nation and
to accept the radical choices we will have to make in achieving a greater kind
of freedom. Academic and gender specialist from the UK, Elaine Unterhalter in
her work, “Heroic Masculinity in South Africa Autobiographical Writing of the
Anti-Apartheid Struggle”, reminds us that the trouble with heroic masculinity
is that:
“…in the discourse of heroic masculinity women may be un-gendered equal comrades, they may be heroines who inspire, but somehow do not live the struggle. They may be the wounded, or the innocent supportive relatives. In all of these guises they have no autonomy, no different political interests, and no struggle. Their views are always expressed or interpreted by men”
The demise of the ANC
Women’s League already alerts us to the dangers of this kind of masculinity.
The women of the EFF better have something up their sleeves!
