Cope: ‘What kind of mothers and sisters are the Women’s League?’

The brave women who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 against the Pass Laws must be turning in their graves.”

That’s how the Congress of the People greeted the news that the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) planned march “to the same Union Buildings to protect Jacob Zuma” on Friday.

The protest‚ the ANCWL said‚ against the “denigration of the image of President Zuma by so-called artists”.

Most recently‚ artist Ayanda Mabulu portrayed Zuma being fellated in a painting called Pornography of Power.

“While the country is burning because of a lack of funding for higher education‚ the ANCWL is busy protecting their president whose time has expired‚” Cope said.

“It is the very ANCWL which less than a year ago declared that there was no woman ready to take over as the president of the country.

“It is very clear that the ANCWL has long lost direction and that this new ANCWL exists solely for its own interests and not for the interest of women of our country. Women are the ones who really struggle to make ends meet just to make sure that their children go to school.”

Cope also attacked what it said was the league’s reticence on the student protests.

“On Thursday‚ October 23‚ unarmed students marched to Parliament. The police brutally assaulted and manhandled them. This action was widely condemned.

“Only the ANCWL kept eerily quiet about it. Children’s lives were in danger and yet they said absolutely nothing. What kind of mothers and sisters are they?”