Cape Town - Sonke Gender Justice (SGJ) has questioned the ANC’s commitment to stemming the country’s gender-based violence (GBV) scourge by allowing the re-election of former Higher Education and Training deputy minister Mduduzi Manana – who was convicted of assaulting women – onto the national executive committee (NEC).
In September 2017, Manana pleaded guilty and was convicted on three counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after he “attacked” three women at a nightclub in Joburg a month before.
Manana, who stressed his rehabilitation to the Cape Argus, was elected by the ANC branches at the 55th elective conference – barely three days after the end of the 16 Days of Activism against GBV campaign that runs from December 1 to December 16.
Non-profit organisation SGJ co-executive director Bafana Khumalo said Manana’s re-election onto the ANC NEC “proves once more” that the ANC “does not take GBVF (gender-based violence and femicide) seriously”.
“This, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary,” Khumalo said. “It is thus not surprising that GBVF remains stubbornly high in our country, because those in leadership simply do not take accountability on GBV seriously.”
He said quarter after quarter, Police Minister Bheki Cele, who will sit with Manana on the new ANC NEC, delivers crime data that shows an increasingly brutal pattern of men’s behaviour towards women.
Khumalo said powerful figures were handed “free rein” even as they violated “key principles in gender transformation”.
He said it gave “an incentive” to abusers that they can also commit GBV and get away with it.
Khumalo added: “The struggle against GBVF continues. But we know that the ruling party cannot be counted on as a reliable ally.”
Manana - who accumulated 2 152 votes for a seat on the prized National Executive Committee of the ANC – said: “It’s outrageous that some people choose not to believe in the rehabilitation of those who would have committed mistakes in the past.”
The ANC Women’s League provincial task team (PTT) backs Manana.
“A person cannot be persecuted in perpetuity even after he/she has made tremendous amends, showed remorse and took responsibility for his/ her actions. That would be a sick society,” Manana said.
He said he has a good record of work he has been doing as a “reformed person and now patron of anti-GBV”.
Manana said: “This record was appreciated by branches of the ANC and delegates to the 55th National Conference, majority of whom were women. I will take any anti-GBV activist to court for defamation of character as that alone defeats the end of justice.
“The criminal justice system has adopted an approach to punishment that not only seeks to deter the offender from committing further crimes, but also to bring about reform.”
He said sentencing is intended not to “condemn” the offender but to “reform” them, ensuring that the offender reintegrates into society as a law-abiding person.
“Incorporation back into society invariably means that the individual concerned should be able to assume employment or take up public office,” Manana said.
“It is therefore my submission that the overwhelming number of branches that have nominated me demonstrate that the masses of our people have accepted that I have rehabilitated and have, in turn, shown confidence in my leadership.”
He requested the contact details of the activists who spoke out against his re-election. “... After all, they are not a law unto themselves. You can’t build and heal a society by refusing to accept a reform process and rehabilitative means.”
ANC Women’s League Western Cape spokesperson Vuyokazi Malafu echoed Manana on the criminal justice system being corrective.
She said the system doesn’t isolate “people who would have been offenders”.
“As a country we believe in the reforming and the correction of previous offenders.
“But this is not to say we don't hold accountable our leaders,” Malafu said.
She said when the women reported the incident, the ANCWL “rallied behind the victims” to ensure “that comrade Mduduzi Manana accounts for his actions and is held accountable and also complies with the findings that would have been found against him for his actions”.
She said Manana was eligible to be voted into the NEC as a criteria that was put in place by the ANC didn’t exclude him.