Alleged ANCYL racist quits party

THE ANC Youth League member at the centre of an alleged racism scandal withdrew her membership, spokesperson Thulisa Ndlela told Independent Media yesterday.

ANCYL regional executive committee member Suzanne Govender, who is also the branch secretary of Chatsworth’s Ward 73, allegedly referred to a fellow branch member as a k ***** on WhatsApp.

In a WhatsApp conversation, which had been screen grabbed and posted on Facebook, Govender allegedly spoke about people who were out to get her.

“I got a feeling it’s those k ***** madirs frm wilbedacht (sic).” The other person in the conversation asks if it is “Thandeka?”, to which she responds “yes”.

Govender denied having used the racial slur, saying that while her phone was used to send the WhatsApp message, she did not send it.

She said the message had been deleted from her phone, and claimed that the incident had been done to remove her from her position in the branch.

Govender did not respond to calls or messages.

ANCYL eThekwini region spokesperson Ndlela said Govender has since withdrawn her party membership in the wake of the racial slur attributed to her, and that the region would no longer be pressing charges against her.

“We are determined to have a dialogue on non-racialism here in eThekwini, but we are still working on the logistics around that,” Ndlela said.

“We hope that different racial groups will attend this dialogue so that we can all engage.

“If there are differences we should fix them.”

He said they were striving for an environment in which different racial groups were able to co-exist.