Andisiwe Makinana|Published
ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has been criticised by gender activists and a language expert over his response to allegations of sex-for-jobs demands involving ANC councillors, with critics saying his remarks trivialised sexual exploitation and failed to address the abuse of power.
Mantashe, speaking in isiXhosa last weekend, told a Newzroom Afrika journalist who questioned him about allegations that ANC councillors were demanding sex from women in exchange for jobs that the journalist should not involve him and the ANC in issues involving people who were “asking for a vagina”. He used the term “isibumbu”, which some people regard as an offensive term for vagina.
In an interview with the SABC on Wednesday, Mantashe pleaded ignorance of the ANC Women's League's (ANCWL) demand that he apologise.
ANC directs Mantashe to apologise
ANCWL secretary-general Comrade Nokuthula Nqaba criticised Mantashe's response.
“Comrade Mantashe should not be allowed to vulgarise our language. Instead of acknowledging the need to apologise, he responded with theatrics, feigning ignorance of the reasons for doing so. This further reinforces his primitive and unrefined allusions to women,” Nqaba said.
In a statement issued by the ANC yesterday, spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the party and the ANC National Working Committee had held extensive discussions on the issue and directed Mantashe to offer a sincere apology, “and the matter is considered closed”.
“The ANC reiterates its firm policy position that women deserve respect, dignity, empowerment and the opportunity to realise their full potential. We recognise that unequal gender and power relations continue to expose women to sexual exploitation, including demands for sexual favours in exchange for employment and other opportunities. Such conduct constitutes a grave abuse of power and must be eliminated from our society.
“Leaders of the ANC carry a heightened responsibility to uphold these principles through their words and actions, confront discrimination and advance gender equality. This responsibility includes communicating with dignity and sensitivity, protecting women from exploitation and ensuring that access to employment and opportunities is never conditional on sexual favours. The ANC remains unequivocal in its commitment to building a society in which every woman can live and work free from coercion, abuse and discrimination,” Bhengu said.
Language expert weighs in on controversy
Dr Zoliswa Made, a senior lecturer in the department of languages and literatures at Nelson Mandela University, said the controversy surrounding Mantashe's use of “isibumbu” during a televised interview about alleged sex-for-jobs practices raised important questions about language, gender, power and public accountability.
“The issue should not be reduced to whether the word is vulgar; we must also consider the context in which it was used and its implications for discussing sexual exploitation,” she said.
Made said the offensiveness of a word depended partly on its meaning, context and social use.
Available linguistic sources did not provide sufficient evidence to classify “isibumbu” as universally offensive across isiXhosa-speaking communities, she said.
“However, Mantashe’s use of the term in a national interview about alleged sexual exploitation can reasonably be criticised as crude and inappropriate to the seriousness of the issue. It is important to distinguish criticism of a particular utterance from the stigmatisation of an indigenous language,” Made said.
She said public figures had a responsibility to communicate in ways that upheld dignity and demonstrated accountability. Informal or colloquial language was not inherently inappropriate, but discussions about alleged sexual exploitation required sensitivity and seriousness.
Gasa says Mantashe trivialised sexual exploitation
Culture, gender and political expert Nomboniso Gasa also accused Mantashe of reducing a serious matter involving exploitation to a private sexual matter between two individuals.
Gasa argued that, given his experience as a national leader, Mantashe should understand that he was not communicating only with people who understood his dialect or code. Some terms used among friends or comrades, she said, were not appropriate for broadcast television.
“Children are going to hear what he has to say. A lot of parents would not want their children to use isibumbu as a normal kind of word on any given day,” Gasa said.
She said Mantashe had failed to answer the question about the abuse of power for personal benefit and missed an opportunity to state the ANC's position on people who abuse their power to obtain sexual favours.
“He was dismissive and reduced it to an issue between two people. In the context that the journalist raised the question, it's not two equal people. It’s about jobs, sex for jobs, or favours, and he distances the ANC from that,” Gasa said.