Gwede Mantashe used crude language to dismiss allegations of municipal officials demanding sex for jobs.
Picture: Gallo Images/Luba Lesolle
The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) has called for formal internal disciplinary action against ANC National Chairperson Gwede Mantashe.
The organisation demanded that Mantashe issue a public apology following explicit and controversial comments he made when asked about allegations of sex-for-jobs exploitation while on a campaign trail in North West this month.
The backlash stems from a media exchange in which a reporter questioned Mantashe regarding reports that a municipal councillor in a mining town had allegedly solicited sexual favours from women seeking work.
Vulgar remarks trigger strong rebuke
In a widely circulated video recording of the encounter, Mantashe dismissed the issue as a personal affair rather than a systemic or party concern.
“Don’t involve me in issues of asking for a vagina. This person asked for his vagina from a person that he encountered. This can’t be an ANC issue,” Mantashe said.
He further distanced the party from the official’s alleged conduct.
“If councillors, once elected, try to use their position to sleep with people, just know that the man is behaving badly and is going around sleeping with people. That’s not an ANC thing,” he said.
Women’s League demands
The ANCWL openly condemned Mantashe, declaring his statement completely out of line with party expectations.
ANCWL secretary-general Nokuthula Nqaba labelled the remarks as “gratuitously improper”.
“Therefore, the ANC Women’s League apologises to the Newzroom Afrika journalist and calls on Comrade Gwede Mantashe to issue a public apology to both the journalist and the public for his inappropriate remarks,” Nqaba said.
League rejects age as an excuse
Beyond demanding a public apology, the women’s wing pushed for official organisational sanctions against the party chairperson.
“We also call for him to be subjected to organisational disciplinary action -in response to his repeated insults and attacks on women. The ANCWL reject the use of his age to excuse his dishonourable conduct,” Nqaba said.
The league urged top ANC leadership to take a firm stance against Mantashe’s behaviour, emphasising that seniority carries a responsibility to model ethical leadership.
“We call on the ANC leadership to reprimand Comrade Mantashe,” Nqaba said.
Appeals to historical and moral standards
The ANCWL stressed that Mantashe holds a national leadership role within a movement built on foundational principles of equality and human dignity.
“We also emphasise that the organisation’s founding values were rooted in Christian principles: it was established in a church and guided by men and women of the cloth,” Nqaba said.
The league said that maintaining ethical standards remains vital for all elected figures entrusted with leading society.
“Each generation of leaders of the ANC since 1912 has been tasked with the responsibility to uphold revolutionary morality and observance of moral regeneration,” Nqaba said.
“These principles have always been some of the defining features for those in leadership positions, especially in an organisation which has a revolutionary task to lead society,” Nqaba said.
