Eastern Cape SACP second deputy secretary Lazola Ndamase. Picture: Facebook
The South African Communist Party’s (SACP’s) deputy provincial secretary in the Eastern Cape, Lazola Ndamase, has resigned as a member of the ANC.
Ndamase, who was an ANC branch member and a former Sasco general secretary, said he was stepping down from the ANC due to his dissatisfaction with the direction the governing party has been taking over the years, after being rocked by corruption scandals and infighting over positions.
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But it is unclear whether he has also resigned from the SACP, which is in an alliance with the ANC and trade union federation Cosatu.
In his strongly-worded resignation letter to the ANC, dated 2 November 2021, Ndamase said he was part of the contingent of SACP and ANC cadres who campaigned for the governing party in this year’s local government elections.
He said they “threw themselves body and soul into the election campaign” because he knew very well that “the electorate had no reason to vote without being mobilised” due to the ANC’s failures in government.
The letter was addressed to the regional coordinator of the ANC in OR Tambo district, Hlokomelo Tsita.
Ndamase complained that since 1994, the ANC and its alliance partners had behaved in a manner that “left the majority of the population with no choice but to reject the entire electoral process”.
He said most South Africans were disillusioned about taking part in elections because they saw it “as a waste of time and only serves to help charlatans climb the ladder in alliance with the colonial settlers that took the land and wealth of the country”.
He said for many years, throughout the neoliberal policies adopted by the ANC, he held belief that it was possible for the ANC to turn around, but he does not think so anymore.
“My patience was tested during the Marikana Massacre when [the] upper echelons of the ANC turned the guns of the post-1994 state against black workers in defence of the property of the international bourgeoisie,” he said.
Ndamase slammed the current state of ANC, saying the “real ANC [had] long left Luthuli House”.
“Worse still, membership of the ANC has meant that many of us have had to paper over the cracks that have been caused by the fact that the real ANC long left Luthuli House and is found in taverns drowning their sorrows or turns to the church to numb the pain of bitter disappointment.”
He said even though the ANC continued to win the elections despite the decline in its electoral support, the message of the majority of voters was clear that they rejected the party.
“This is not because narrowly of corruption as the bourgeois media would like everyone to believe but because many have come to the stark realisation that the post-1994 breakthrough has been buried by the fact that the economic jewel of the country remains in the hands of whites while blacks must make do with crumbs,” Ndamase said.
He added: “I hope I do not have any property of the African National Congress, if I still do, please do not hesitate to contact me so that I can hand it over.”
Ndamase also shared his views about his resignation from the ANC on Twitter:
Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe
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