ZANYIWE- The one who tries.
Two years post the death and silencing of a heroine and veteran against the struggle of inequality of man through racial lines, the exploitation of man through the biased class struggle, and ultimately the further triple oppression through the gendered and intersectional struggle of women, Zanyiwe is still trying.
Nomzamo Zanyiwe Winnifred Madikizela Mandela, an anti-apartheid political activist, Former President of African National Congress Women’s League, and a great leader, whom we have known to be the mother of the nation was laid to rest 18 April 2020. Her life dedicated to the cause and realization of a democratic and equal Nation is one which we ought to draw strength and meaning to the current structural and harsh inequalities still prevailing at the majority of the South African populace.
The current dynamics in the socio-economic and political sphere now more than ever contend the need for the mass mobilization of women across all relations, on a common basis, as outlined by Ray Alexander, as self- distinctive and self- conscious mass. It is, therefore, a moral obligation to conscientize women to draw reflections and lessons from the undying yet multiplied spirit of Zanyiwe Madikizela. As a point of reference, the life and times of this heroine are greatly characterized by a severe patriarchal and social suppression of the views she held. Views of a socialized society one which deemed and acknowledged the rights of women. Views echoing the freedom of choice and self-determination of women to work and subsequently equal pay as a result. Zanyiwe stayed true and a testament to women’s emancipation of the old laws and patriarchal relations which had a sole intention to keep women in a position of inequality as compared to males. These views sought to seek women in the frontlines of leading and waging relentless wars of the Mass Democratic Movement which instead saw the eminent erasure of those efforts and the pivotal role played by women in the attainment of socialist, democratic, and equal South Africa.
Married to a leader in his own right, the struggle to draw a dialect from only being regarded as a submissive wife, a supporter of the Mandela, to bear children as prescribed by a patriarchal society, had become a norm. A reality of today has since not progressed as women in political, work, economic, religious, and traditional spaces still are such that women need to work and prove themselves tenfold as opposed to the flawed reality of a male. The historical battle within the political space to ascend to positions of power, influence and decision making remains a critical and unstable reality as the inception of the ANC in 1912 has since failed to duly elect women in influential positions such as President and Secretary-General. The reasoning thereof would not be substantive or adhere to the adopted gender policies thereof. The task and duty to reverse and subsequently right the wrongs remains a collective task of the Mass Democratic Movement regardless of gender, class, race, or factional arrangements.
As I write this article women across the MDM bear the same fate of being undermined for positions of leadership with the misconstrued narrative that capacity thereof lies on the basis of gender, males to be explicit.
It is in this day and age where the oppression of women through gender-based violence and patriarchal narratives, the role to speak up and against these dire realities is still outsourced to women and women’s organizations such as Women’s League as opposed to a holistic approach of males speaking up. Women are not a separate class, which can be organized against men. Women are not exempt from the class struggle but are as divided by class as men are, and further divided by the gender struggle and exploitation thereof.
Two years post the death and silencing of Zanyiwe Winnifred Madikizela Mandela is not sufficient to say enough is enough? Is it not sufficient to take up arms and rebel against this system? Lenin in his address at the Soviet Union Conference of working women,1912 contends that “laws alone, of course, are not enough, and we are by no means content with mere decrees.” And by this, I am for the first time inclined to agree with the rhetorics of a male.
Rest in Revolutionary Peace Zanyiwe. Your life has indeed multiplied.
Thembeka Damane is a Unisa student in Politics, Philosophy and Economics,
Current SASCO Chairperson Sol-Plaatjie Branch writes in her personal capacity.