African National Congress Women's League | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | ANCWL |
| President | Sisi Tolashe |
| Secretary-General | Nokuthula Nqaba |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Headquarters | Luthuli House 54 Sauer Street Johannesburg Gauteng |
| Website | |
| womensleague | |
The African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) is an auxiliary women's political organization of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa.[1] This organization has its precedent in the Bantu Women's League, and it oscillated from being the Women's Section to the Women's League from its founding, through the exile years, and in a post-apartheid South Africa.[2][3] After women were allowed to become members of the ANC in 1943, the ANCWL was created as the means by which Black South African women could contribute to the national liberation struggle by channeling Black women's political activity into the ANC by way of the ANCWL.[3]
From its founding until the present the organization's structure, internal debates, and activity have been influenced by critical events in the national liberation struggle and by the ultimate authority of the ANC.[3] Although the ANCWL was established as a way to incorporate women and their issues into the ANC, there are conflicting accounts over the extent to which women and their issues were represented by this organization, the degree to which organizational autonomy was desired, and the organization's relationship with feminist politics.[3][1] After the ANC was allowed to return to South Africa in 1990, the ANCWL returned to being a formal organization within the ANC.[3]
The most recent president of the ANCWL was Bathabile Dlamini, who held the office from 2015 until April 2022, when the entire national executive of the league was disbanded by the National Executive Committee of the mainstream ANC.[4]
- ^ a b Brown, Julian (2 July 2016). "Diversity without Unity: Fragments of the History of the ANC". South African Historical Journal. 68 (3): 464–478. doi:10.1080/02582473.2016.1224269. ISSN 0258-2473. S2CID 151917818.
- ^ Ginwala, Frene (1990). "Women and the African National Congress 1912-1943". Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity (8): 77–93. doi:10.2307/4065639. ISSN 1013-0950. JSTOR 4065639.
- ^ a b c d e Hassim, Shireen (2006). Women's organizations and democracy in South Africa : contesting authority. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-21383-8. OCLC 229432968.
- ^ Makinana, Andisiwe (30 June 2022). "ANC appoints Baleka Mbete to lead women's league task team, excludes Bathabile Dlamini". Sowetan. Retrieved 27 November 2022.