'Sexism to blame for attack on minister'

ANC national chairman Baleka Mbete has come to the defence of the embattled minister of women, youth, children and the disabled, saying she was being singled out "because she is a woman".

Mbete said the attacks against Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya for non-performance were unfair, because her ministry was one of several new departments still getting off the ground.

"I feel that this particular minister has been focused on negatively because she is a woman.

"Sometimes we tend to be (too) hard on our own instead of finding ways of giving them support. What I see is a destructive way of dealing with concerns," Mbete said.

Mayende-Sibiya has been under fire from the ANC Women's League and other critics who say her ministry is ineffective.

They accuse her of failing to fill important posts, which has weakened the ministry and left it unable to respond to the challenges faced by women and other vulnerable groups.

ANCWL president Angie Motshekga recently said her organisation had offered its help, but had been ignored.

Mbete, who also leads the Progressive Women's Movement - an umbrella body for various women's formations - blamed the ministry's weakness on the fact that it was new.

Mayende-Sibiya was appointed to President Jacob Zuma's cabinet on a Cosatu ticket, even though she is also a member of the women's league.

But Mayende-Sibiya has not had good relations with the league, whose leaders believe she is unsuitable for the post.

Mbete said she had spoken to the minister about the problems in her department in June, and there were encouraging signs it was turning the corner.

The ANC chairman said she had wanted Mavivi Myakayaka-Manzini, a member of the women's league's national executive committee, appointed as the department's director-general. However, the ruling party had already decided to make Myakayaka-Manzini - whose husband, it was reported last year, beat her for failing to cook for him or iron his clothes - South Africa's ambassador to Namibia.

Mbete said: "The ANC sent Myakayaka-Manzini to study gender. When I think of her knowledge, she would have been perfect (for that department)."

Last month, The Times reported that Mayende-Sibiya, who has been in and out of hospital, had fired or seconded at least seven senior managers and allegedly failed to deliver progress reports.