ANC chief whip Stone Sizani has resigned with immediate effect to take up another post, his office confirmed on Wednesday.
“Yes, he has resigned,” spokesman Moloto Mothapo told ANA, after an ANC caucus meeting.
In a statement, the chief whip’s office added: “Because of the urgency with which he is required in the new deployment, Comrade Sizani has thus resigned from Parliament with immediate effect.
“The National Executive Committee of the ANC will make a decision regarding the replacement when it meets for its regular sitting in a few weeks’ time. ANC deputy Chief Whip, Comrade Doris Dlakude, will in the interim act as chief whip.”
Mothapo said the ANC caucus had congratulated Sizani and paid tribute to “his excellent leadership” of the ruling party in Parliament.
Sizani, a former ANC leader in the Eastern Cape, has held the post since 2013. His appointment as chief whip was seen as an attempt to unite a then fractious caucus.
The resignation comes a week after the State closed its case against Sizani’s wife Portia, known as “Pankie”, who is accused of defrauding the Eastern Cape Education Department of more than R1.2 million by processing several fraudulent applications for Grade R teaching posts.
-African News Agency (ANA)
