S. African women's league worried about female inclusion in party leadership

JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) Women's League on Tuesday said while they welcome the party's newly elected top six, they are not happy with its women inclusion.

Lindiwe Zulu, Small Business Development Minister, made the comments addressing the media at the ANC national conference taking place in Johannesburg.

The ANC elected the top six leaders to lead the party for the next five years on Monday. Only one woman, Jessie Duarte, was elected to the top jobs as deputy general secretary.

"This is a step back. In the last top six we had two now we have one. The braches have spoken and we have to respect that. We have to go back to the drawing board as women and see how we can take the struggle for women emancipation forward and how to strike patriarchy down," Zulu said.

The previous top six has two women, Baleka Mbete as ANC chair and Jessie Duarte as deputy secretary general. Zulu said they will continue pushing for inclusion of women in the top leadership of the party, country and society. Enditem