The premier's supporters accuse her critics of being 'haters'.
Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba. Picture: Gallo Images/Philip Maeta
Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba’s reshuffle of her provincial Cabinet on Wednesday was met with mixed reactions from two ANC bodies and saw the premier’s supporters close ranks.
The ANC Women’s League [ANCWL] in Limpopo was the first to criticise Ramathuba, saying it was unhappy that women did not make up 50% of her Cabinet.
The new executive council has four women and six men. The previous composition had five male MECs and six female MECs, including the premier herself.
ANCWL wants equal representation
“The ANCWL Limpopo is disappointed in the regression of women’s representation in the provincial executive council,” ANCWL Limpopo provincial secretary Tebogo Mamorobela told The Citizen on Thursday.
Mamorobela said gender parity required serious reflection, particularly given the ANC’s long-standing commitment to gender equality.
“It is on this basis that the ANCWL will immediately seek an audience with the premier, who is also the provincial chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo, to engage further on the issue of gender parity and the need to safeguard the gains made in the representation of women in her previous executive council. We remain resolute in ensuring equal representation of women in leadership positions,” she said.
Criticism from ANC Veterans League
The ANC Veterans League echoed this in the province.
Through its provincial secretary Sechaba Nkoana, the veterans league said it is alarmed by Ramathuba’s reconstituted executive council. He said the regression in gender parity appeared to be centred on tensions between gender quotas and deep-seated structural patriarchy.
“The genesis of this tendency was the composition of the ANC PEC top five, which regressed from two female officials to just one official. The extended ANC PEC meeting, supported by the ineptitude of the provincial list committee, on 15 August 2026 also dismally failed to balance the candidate lists that were heavily packed with male ward councillor candidates for purposes of achieving gender parity,” he said.
Nkoana explained that the ANC mandates a strict 50% gender parity rule on all its organisational structures. The veterans league is now baffled about developing tendencies to exclude women from key decision-making structures and reduce them to traditional gender roles.
“The ANC has been consistent that political liberation could not be achieved without women’s emancipation. The ANC has defined the intersectional nature of colonial and apartheid oppression as predominantly racial, class and gender in character,” he said.
Ramathuba’s critics are ‘haters’
But Ramathuba’s supporters could not agree.
“Ramathuba is the only woman in all the provinces who understands the language of gender parity to the letter,” said a source at the Limpopo provincial government in Polokwane on Friday.
“Remember when she was elected premier in June 2024, she appointed four more women in her Cabinet as MECs, two women to lead the Limpopo Provincial Legislature as speaker and deputy speaker respectively, had a woman police provincial commissioner and went on to appoint a woman as chief of staff at the premier’s office.”
The source added that the premier appointed MECs on merit.
“Remember, the premier does not appoint people based on gender; she appoints people based on merit, skill and the capability to deliver the task with precision and distinction. She believes those appointed have exactly that.
“Those who accuse her of turning a blind eye to women’s emancipation are haters who would do anything to discredit her exuberant work at every turn,” the source said.
Ndavhe Ramakuela, the Limpopo provincial government spokesperson, declined to comment, saying that it was a subject the ANC needs to respond to.
“Please allow the ANC to respond to such. Their spokesperson Ernest Rachoene is best placed to speak to such.” Rachoene was not available for comment at the time of publication.
