NomaRussia sees red over ANC voting image

Actress Vatiswa Ndara is furious and frustrated: the ANC used a picture of her in a social media post - declaring "I Vote ANC" - without her permission.

Ndara said she had been sent from pillar to post after the party's communications manager, Khusela Sangoni, told her the image had been posted by "interns".

The image used was that of Ndara's character NomaRussia from the Xhosa hit drama Igazi. It was distributed on social media at around the time the party was said to have approached entertainment personalities to take part in its local government election campaign.

Leleti Khumalo, Riky Rick, Thembi Seete and Zahara all appeared on the ANC's Instagram page declaring their devotion to the party - as did Ndara.

The actress said Sangoni had told her that interns wanted to test how the image would be received by the public and that when they saw its popularity, they decided to leave it up.

After several efforts to address the issue, Ndara said, she secured a meeting with ANC representatives at Luthuli House last Friday, but was stood up.

"To date, there is still no one who has followed up."

Sangoni told the Sunday Times she had asked Ndara several times "to detail how she wishes that we rectify this situation, especially given the fact that we have apologised profusely to her".

Said Sangoni: "As soon as she made us aware of it, it was immediately removed."

Ndara said she wanted the party to apologise on its Instagram account, which has about 59,000 followers.