The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys its heartfelt condolences to the family of anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist, Comrade Rita Ndzanga (17 October 1933 – 17 August 2022). 

The SACP also conveys its condolences to the entire trade union movement, the liberation movement, and the people of South Africa whom she served with integrity. 

Comrade Rita’s leadership in the union movement began in her youth. She was introduced into union work when, in 1954, she shouldered the responsibility of collecting and administering workers’ subscriptions at the Brick and Tile Workers’ Union in Johannesburg. 

From 1955, Rita Ndzanga became an organiser for the South African Railways and Harbour Union, responsible for typing and documenting the complaints of workers and collecting membership dues. There she witnessed first-hand the horrible working conditions that workers were subjected to. Most workers who got injured at work were not even compensated for their workplace injuries, while for those who received any compensation, it was nothing but a pittance.

Comrade Rita’s husband, Comrade Lawrence Ndzanga, was also an organiser at the Railway Workers’ Union, responsible for recruiting members for the union.

The Ndzanga family endured continuous persecution by the apartheid regime for their work in the trade union movement. The apartheid regime banned her in August 1964. The ban followed that of her husband in April 1964. On 12 May 1969, the regime arrested them under the Terrorism Act. In prison, the police tortured her and for six months, from the time of her arrest, denied her the right to change clothing. 

Represented by Advocate George Bizos, they were acquitted from their charges, but immediately rearrested.

Besides organising workers, both Rita and Lawrence engaged in community activism, organising against the apartheid system. They formed a local ANC branch, but had to go underground after the banning of the ANC. 

Comrade Lawrence died in detention in January 1977. Though devastated by her husband’s death, Comrade Rita was not deterred as she defied the apartheid regime and continued her fight for a free and democratic South Africa. 

Comrade Rita’s work in the trade union movement, in collaboration with other union leaders, led to the formation of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (Sactu) where she served as secretary. Sactu’s Inaugural Conference was held on 4 and 5 March 1955 in Johannesburg. It was succeeded by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in 1985. 

In 1956, Comrade Rita formed part of the historic Women’s March, marching against the cruel pass laws system imposed by the apartheid regime to restrict the development of Black people of South Africa. 

Together with Comrade Lawrence, her husband, Comrade Rita belonged to an underground cell comprising other two members. In total, the cell was made up of four members. It was part of the wider underground organisation of our movement. This was one pillar of our struggle to overthrow the apartheid regime and replace it with a democratic dispensation towards freedom. This was not the only time comrade Rita and Lawrence worked together in struggle. They were together in the Railway Workers Union and Sactu. Their family was a revolutionary unit itself. From its children, this unit produced combatants of the joint SACP and ANC military formation, uMkhonto weSizwe, the people’s liberation army. 

In 1980, she served as organiser for the General and Allied Workers’ Union. Her work in working-class organising led to the formation of the Federation of Transvaal Women. 

Comrade Rita served the country as a member of parliament of the democratic parliament, serving in the first, second and third democratic Parliament.

In 2004, the Presidency bestowed upon Comrade Rita The Order of Luthuli for her lifetime contribution to the struggle for workers’ rights and to the realisation of a non-racial, non-sexist, free and democratic South Africa. 

In memory of Comrade Rita, the SACP calls for the unity of workers, across union and federation affiliation. The struggle for the emancipation of women from class, race and gender oppression was at the heart of Comrade Rita’s struggle. The trade union movement, along with the rest of the progressive movement, has the responsibility to ensure that women’s rights are recognised and respected in the workplace and the community at large. 

The SACP also calls upon unions to intensify the political and ideological training of workers, particularly at shop-floor level, to deepen working-class consciousness in the struggle against capitalism in its imperialist stage.