Cape Town — The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress - the party's highest body - has appointed an interim structure that will run its women's league (ANCWL) until the party's national elective conference is held later this year.

The NEC had asked the Top Six, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the National Working Committee, to work out the terms of reference and the members who would serve on the women's league national task team (NTT).

The ANC appointed Thandi Modise (minister of defence and military veterans),  Nathi Mthethwa (Minister of Arts) and Jenny Schreiner (correctional services commissioner) to the NTT, to assess the status of the women's league.

According to reports, the task team noted that the term of office for the ANCWL had ended in 2020, but that the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the league from holding its elective conference.

The ANCWL was dogged by many challenges, the most recent of which was Bathabile Dlamini's conviction in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court for perjury, stemming from her time as social development minister in 2017 when she lied at a Constitutional-mandated inquiry into the grants crisis at SASSA, where people were unsure of whether their grants and pensions would be paid.

Dlamini's efforts to keep the ANCWL afloat have failed.