Ncumisa Chwayita Kondlo

Ncumisa Chwayita Kondlo grew up in the rural village of Peddie in the Eastern Cape.

Kondlo was politically active from an early age. In her student days at Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape she was active in the Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO) and later the South African National Students Congress (SANSCO) where she served in the regional structures of these organisations. She later moved to Rhodes University, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape where she was also active in the Black Students Movement in the 1980s.

Kondlo joined the South African Youth Congress (SAYCO) and was elected to its National Executive Council (NEC) in 1989.  

She was active in a broad range of structures of the mass democratic movement and workers’ movement, including the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) and South African Domestic Workers Union (SADWU).

Kondlo a dedicated human rights and gender activist, was a member and leader of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and a Member of Parliament.

Kondlo was part of the interim SACP leadership core in the Border region in 1990, and was elected onto the first Provincial Executive Council (PEC) when provincial structures of the SACP were formed. In 1998, she was elected onto the Central Committee of the SACP as well as being elected onto the SACP’s Politburo in 2001 and in 2007 she was elected as the National Deputy Chairperson of the SACP.

She contributed selflessly to the formation of the teachers’ union in the Border region and subsequently in the establishment of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU).

Kondlo was a former Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Welfare in the Eastern Cape Provincial government.

Her contribution to the South African women’s struggle earned her an award from the Swedish Society Party.

At the time of her passing, Kondlo was the deputy chairperson and a member of the Central Committee of the SACP. She was also a member of the National Executive Committee and National Working Committee of the ANC and the chairperson of the ANC caucus in Parliament.

Ncumisa Chwayita Kondlo passed away on Monday, 24 March 2008. She is survived by her son and three sisters.