Bullyboy MP to give up seat in Parliament
Disgraced ANC MP Mduduzi Manana will be stepping down from his role as a representative of the party in Parliament. Manana, a former deputy minister of higher education and training, was convicted of three counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm late in 2017.
Disgraced ANC MP Mduduzi Manana has resigned, a day before he was to face Parliament’s ethics committee.
Manana, a former deputy minister of higher education and training, stepped down on Tuesday, a day after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declined to prosecute him for allegedly assaulting his former domestic worker.
On Tuesday DA chief whip John Steenhuisen said Manana’s resignation was an attempt to evade accountability by not going before Parliament’s joint committee on ethics and members’ interests on Wednesday
“Manana has been defiant in his refusal to resign from Parliament since he was convicted in September 2017.
“If Parliament cannot hold Manana, a convicted abuser, to account, then it is up to his party, the ANC, to hold him accountable. If the ANC is truly serious about bringing an end to the scourge of violence against women and children, they must refer him to their internal ethics committee and remove him from all positions he currently holds in the party,” he said.
In November 2017 Manana was convicted of three counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for assaulting three women at a Johannesburg nightclub.
His resignation on Tuesday comes amid pressure from the ANC Women’s League, which has targeted him ahead of a planned march against women abuse. Manana, whose mother is a member of the league, remains a member of the ANC national executive committee.
In November, a court fined him R100,000 or 12 months in jail for the nightclub incident. He also paid the victims of the assault about R27,000. Earlier in 2018, Manana was accused of trying to push his domestic worker, Christine Wiro, down a flight of stairs. The charges were later withdrawn.
“The [NPA] has informed me of its decision to decline to prosecute on the assault case which my former domestic worker had opened against me…. I need to reiterate that the allegations against me were obviously frivolous…,” he said on Tuesday.
He said although there was mounting pressure for him to step down, this would have been premature as the matter was still being investigated.
“Now that the NPA has independently decided I have no case to answer … I have decided to voluntary withdraw my membership from the National Assembly…. This will give me ample opportunity to focus my energies on the work of my political organisation ahead of the 2019 general elections and my business interests.”