Langa Zita
Langa Zita (born 7 December 1967) is a South African politician and intellectual who represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1999 to 2009, serving the Gauteng constituency. A former regional organiser for the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and a former political education officer at the South African Communist Party (SACP), Zita has served all three wings of the Tripartite Alliance. He was a member of the SACP Central Committee from 1998 to 2002. After leaving Parliament in 2009, Zita served as a special adviser to Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson and then, from 2010 to 2012, as her Director-General in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. He left that position in September 2012. Early life and career Zita was born on 7 December 1967. He was formerly the regional secretary of COSATU in the Witwatersrand and by 1995 was the national education officer of the SACP. In 1998, Zita was elected to the Central Committee of the SACP, the party's executive organ. However, in his account, the leadership elected alongside him in 1998 – headed by Blade Nzimande – was dominated by "doctrinaire Marxist-Leninists" who were largely uninterested in promoting democracy or the