Quotas aimed at increasing women's representation, as implemented by the ANC, do not guarantee true gender equality.
The ANC's quotas and gender-based Affirmative Action legislation and policy actually communicate to young girls that they are not good enough; that they do not have equal rights; that they need laws and legislation to help them get a job or a bursary.
This ANC-approach is wrong. Women are equal and do not need quotas to move forward in society. Women must be appointed based on merit. That is the FF Plus's fundamental policy and it promotes the notion that all people must have equal opportunities.
South Africa, however, is not focused on ensuring an equal future and equal opportunities for all. We are not teaching our young girls to be strong and independent, to work hard to achieve what they really want.
We are teaching them to hide behind their gender, an approach which demands equal outcomes instead of equal opportunities.
We should be teaching girls not to look for a hero, but to be the hero. We should teach our girls that they should never doubt that they are valued, strong enough and that they deserve every opportunity that the world has to offer. Women must support one another and be there for one another; but we must at the same time also guard against blindly supporting mismanagement and other misconduct simply because it was committed by women.
The recent events in the Mangaung Metro serve as a shining example of this as the Mayor, Olly Mlamleli, was removed from her position by an FF Plus motion of no confidence, but now the ANC Women's League has demanded that she must be re-instituted.
It will not do women nor equality any good; in fact, it is actually negating the struggle for gender equality. We are calling on the ANC Women's League and all women in South Africa to be the women that they want their daughters to be.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, female leaders across the world set an excellent example for how to handle the pandemic. Not in South Africa, though. The female leaders in the ruling party instead implemented draconian, illogical measures that caused much greater damage to the economy than the virus ever could.
They are quotas and cadres and are not doing women any favours. We expect more of our female leaders, particularly when they are filling prominent positions in the ruling party.
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