Senior African National Congress (ANC) member Susan Shabangu has lamented the growing racism in the ANC.
Shabangu was speaking on behalf of the governing party at the memorial service of anti-apartheid activist Stephanie Kemp who died earlier this month at the age of 82.
A white Afrikaaner girl born in the Karoo, Kemp joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) as a student at the University of Cape Town in the midst of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and political turmoil in the country.
She was arrested and tortured for sabotage before going into exile where she worked in rebuilding the underground and military structures of the ANC and SACP.
Shabangu says it is pitiful that many do not know the contribution made by people like Kemp who turned their backs on the privileges they enjoyed to achieve freedom for all.
“It is time we wake up before it is too late, the fight to renew an ANC that is non-racial non-sexist classless must be intensified. Celebrating women in our struggle is rare and few and far between worse still celebrating women in the ANC of today has totally excluded women from the White community, Indian community and indeed from the Coloured communities.”
