Ivy to leave soon?
A spate of resignations from the African National Congress (ANC), including the department’s director-general, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, came on the eve of the national convention to launch an alternative to the ruling party.
Shope-Mafole, who was elected to the ANC’s national executive committee at its Polokwane conference, relinquishes her post but remains a state employee.
Shope-Mafole is a member of the Shope family, considered ANC royalty. Her mother, Gertrude Shope, is an ANC veteran.
It is understood that Shope-Mafole was unhappy about ANC president Jacob Zuma’s leadership and took a dim view of his attitude to women which emerged during his rape trial.
Her resignation comes amid growing speculation that Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri is also on her way out.
While the minister’s office denied this on Friday night, ANC sources said that Matsepe-Casaburri had apparently informed senior staffers that she would be leaving soon.
The ANC will continue to haemorrhage MPs and senior members in the next few weeks, but not on the scale that was initially expected.
Former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota finally resigned from the ruling party on Friday after weeks of public acrimony with the party’s new leadership.
Several ANC leaders who backed former president Thabo Mbeki’s failed third term for the party’s presidency have resigned in recent weeks, including former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa and Willie Madisha, former Congress of South African Trade Unions president.
The former chairwoman of the ANC’s women’s caucus in Parliament, Kiki Rwexana, will be expelled from the National Assembly after she quit the party but failed to resign formally as an MP.
ANC sources in Parliament said action would be taken against her soon because SA’s electoral system does not allow for people who are not on party lists to serve in Parliament.
The finalizing of the Mosenke commission, which regulates salary packages for public representatives, has provided impetus for the resignations as it guarantees former MPs their pensions.
Many MPs and other public representatives are unsure of their future in the ANC, especially those who were not re-elected onto its national executive committee.
The breakaway group will need more than 300 candidates to contest next year’s election.
Ivy possibly leaving – give your views
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