A local community leader lamented what he saw as a loss of humanity in the ANC Youth League, painting a picture of the organisation as being rife with hostility and self-serving tendencies.
A local community leader lamented what he saw as a loss of humanity in the ANC Youth League, painting a picture of the organisation as being rife with hostility and self-serving tendencies.
Scara Njadayi, the Provincial Deputy Secretary of the ANC Youth league, was speaking at the memorial lecture for Oscar Dondashe, the murdered former secretary of the ANC Youth League in the Cacadu region, and his remarks came by way of contrast with the late youth hero.
“Oscar Dondashe was a selfless leader, who left us at the time when young people suffer from HIV/Aids and unemployment,” said Scara Njadayi, the Provincial Deputy Secretary of the ANC Youth league on Wednesday, when members gathered at the Indoor Sports Centre for the memorial lecture of the late Youth League regional secretary, Oscar Dondashe, gunned down in V Street in 2009.
Dondashe's family joined members of the ANC, the Youth league and the Young Communist League to share the good memories of their son. Njadayi said he and Dondashe had worked together through difficult times. “He was a disciplined member of the ANC and always took part in campaigns to change the economy of the country, and in the building of a non-racial and non-sexist society,” said Njadayi.
He said Dondashe grew up in the structures of the ANC and participated in the ANC programme at the age of 14. “At the age of 23 he was elected as the secretary in the Cacadu region. He never spoke ill of other ANC members and was never implicated in corruption,” he said.
Njadayi took a swipe at party members who assumed that their membership entitled them to self enrichment. “Humanity is diminishing, and animosity and hostility is rife in the ANC Youth league,” said Njadayi. He urged the youth to be in the forefront of the liberation struggle.
Dondashe's younger sister, Nomphelo Dondashe, described her brother as someone who did things with honesty and integrity. “He respected other people and the politics of his organisation. He listened to other people and never took things personally,” she said. “There are still days when we just wanted his presence, because we knew we would be happy. He was easily accessible and this came naturally with him,” she said.
She urged ANC leaders to be visible to young people. “We no longer sit together as young people. There's nothing bringing us together. We need you to give us directions, we are here, we want to work, but we don't know where to go,” said Dondashe.
The man who killed Dondashe, Zolani Myeki, is serving a life sentence.
