Former ministers resign as MPs

JOHANNESBURG - Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet reshuffle, several ministers have resigned from their seats in the National Assembly, after being axed from the national executive.

Yesterday, the office of ANC parliamentary Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina, told News24 that three ministers and a deputy minister were no longer part of the ANC’s caucus in the national Legislature.

The affected ministers will serve on ordinary portfolio committees, but it is clear that they have opted not to become backbenchers.

Another well-known point for former ministers is the loss of the benefits that come with being a minister and huge pension payouts.

Those who resigned include Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, who has taken up the fulltime role of ANC Secretary General following the party’s December 2022 conference.

Former Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa has also resigned.

He was supposed to serve on the Portfolio Committee on Social Development after his axing. He served as ANC chief whip in the National Assembly in 2008.

Mthethwa also served as police minister from 2008 to 2014 and as minister of Arts and Culture from 2014 to 2019.

Trained

Mthethwa was Police minister at the time of the August 2012 Marikana massacre, in which highly trained tactical police units gunned down 34 protesting mining workers in North West.

Another resignation is that of former minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Maite Mashabane. The ANC appointed her to take up a seat on the National Assembly’s Committee on Appropriations.

She was minister of Rural Development and Land Reform from 2018 to 2019. Before that, she served as International Relations and Cooperation minister from 2014 to 2018.

Mashabane was an MP between 1994 and 1995 and was later deployed to diplomatic missions in India, Malaysia and the Maldives.

Dikeledi Magadzi, who was removed from her position as Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, also resigned. She previously served as the deputy minister of Transport.

Magadzi is also a former Public Works, Agriculture and Safety and Security MEC in Limpopo.

Images) (Gallo Members of the executive (L-R) Dikeledi Magadzi, Nathi Mthetwa and Maite Mashabane, who were removed as ministers have resigned from the National Assembly.