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Magdalene Moonsamy

Hildegarde Arena
MAGDALENE Moonsamy is an Economic Freedom Fighters member and lawyer.

During this month when we celebrate women, the writer looks at some of the developments in the young woman, who has accused her party, the EFF of selling out when it aligned itself with the Mmusi Maimane/Helen Zille-led Democratic Alliance.

Is this political maturity on Moonsamy’s part, considering how she, Malema and others left the African National Congress?

By openly speaking out against the EFF’s coalition with the DA, is she also giving indications that she can quit the party and rejoin the ruling ANC?

What lessons can other women who enter politics and decision-making positions at an early age learn from Moonsamy’s actions and stance, considering that she seems to be managing very well, the criticism from her colleagues in the EFF?

Until they were fired from the ANC, Moonsamy was the spokesperson of the ruling ANCY Youth League headed then by Julius Malema.

They were an excitable group, full of zeal and sought change not just in South Africa, but in other Sadc member states.

In mid-2011, they made headlines when they were accused of wanting to effect regime change in Botswana.

The Malema-led ANCYL executive wanted to travel to Botswana to assist the opposition parties there to remove a constitutionally elected president (Ian Khama), from power.

According to reports, this Malema-led ANCYL believed that Botswana needed a strong leadership, while Khama reportedly called Malema an “ill-disciplined boy”, and wondered why the ANC was not reining him in.

The policy of non-interference was far removed from them, but their actions eventually cost them big, despite the pretence and hollow noise against the ruling party.

ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said then, “The ANC would like to totally reject and publicly rebuke the ANCYL on its extremely thoughtless and embarrassing pronouncements on ‘regime change’ in Botswana.” (Sapa)

In the same vein, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe bemoaned: “Unfortunately, when it comes to the ANC Youth League, we have had many incidents that show the desire to undermine the ANC leadership under the pretext (of) not understanding the relationship between the two (ANC and ANCYL).”

Julius Malema

Following the disciplinary procedures, the group was fired from the party in 2014, and they went on to form the Economic Freedom Fighters party. Moonsamy was not only among the co-founders, but the young, articulate lawyer also became its treasurer-general.

However, in September last year, Moonsamy who is an unapologetic proponent of gender equity and justice, and who has a “quote of the millennia” attributed to President Mugabe, together with his picture, on her Facebook page, quit her position, although she did not leave the party.

The quote reads: “If you are a married man and you find yourself attracted to school girls, just buy your wife a school uniform.”

When she resigned as treasurer-general, she said that she wanted to focus more on her legal practice, the allure of politics seems strong, and at the same time, she fights for women’s contestation in male-dominated spaces.

The past week has been heavy-going, but following her on social media, you see that she is managing the debate in a mature and intelligent way.

Some have gone as far as linking her to the so-called “state capture” by the Gupta family (just because she is of Indian origin), but she has not been deterred, as she maintains that her EFF colleagues have sold out to the people’s cause.

According to a March 20 report, Moonsamy had an exclusive interview with Jacaranda FM radio station, where she did not mince her words about the EFF’s coalition with the DA in last year’s local government elections.

She also maintains that the DA are defenders of “white monopoly capital.”

Moonsamy is quoted as saying in part: “The EFF sold out the African people when they voted with the DA. There is nothing right about that.

“It is painful for me to say it, but I needed to clarify that because I didn’t need to be dragged into this space. . . I was accused of being involved in those negotiations with the DA, don’t expect me to keep quiet when you open the door for a response. The EFF sold out, it sold out. It most absolutely sold out.”

She also claimed: “I will never be dragged into the historical blunder of having sold the blood and tears of our people.”

The interview also gives a hint that Moonsamy’s heart could still be with the ANC, considering that it might make history this year by electing a woman to lead the party.

Moonsamy told the radio station: “The ANC may now realise that the expulsion was wrong. Whether they realised it too early or too late, well, it’s just five years since (the ANC conference in) Mangaung.

“I commend (Mpumalanga Premier) DD Mabuza and (ANC chairperson in KZN) Sihle Zikalala for saying Julius Malema’s expulsion was wrong . . . I think that it is a big day for democracy, and it’s a day that we must acknowledge. We saw what expulsions have done to kill liberation movements. I think this call for Malema’s return will be tested within structures or party conferences.”

The praise singing for the ANC went on: “I think the ANC is that kind of party. It acknowledges when it is in a state of disarray, it acknowledges when it needs to correct itself.

“I believe that there should be a process of the party testing its ideas and its thoughts around the expulsion through its structures . . . You can’t achieve that with an incorrect tactical partner.

“You have created a partnership and relationship. The EFF must re-analyse who are the tactical partners that are going to advance interests of the African people. . . In the mayhem, poor decisions may have been taken.

“Pride should not be the reason why decisions of voting with the DA can’t be corrected either. Ultimately and fundamentally, our commitment must be to our people, not our political egos,” says Moonsamy.

South Africa goes to the polls in 2019. So, is Moonsamy strategically positioning herself? Her piece published by City Press on March 5, on the eve of International Women’s Day points to that.

She writes in part: “Be Bold for Change is the theme for International Women’s Day this year. The boldness that is necessitated, is a boldness to effect change in the state of mind. Patriarchy is the state of mind that dominates politics.

The change of mindset may afford victory to the feminist struggle; a victory of cumulative significance to the revolution of the oppressed and liberation of women from triple oppression.

“Mama Winnie Mandela makes an assertion: ‘While the ANC accords women equal status, it is highly improbable that under an ANC government, women will, in fact, enjoy equality of status with men, for equal relations emanate from a state of mind and not from laws.’”

She adds: “True revolutionaries will not flip-flop from time to time out of political expediency, but advance the feminist revolution as an equal pillar — politically, socially and economically — in the ambition to change the state of mind in the continent and on the globe.”