JOHANNESBURG, July (ANA) - African National Congress (ANC) national executive council member Mduduzi Manana, who was convicted of assault, resigned from Parliament on Tuesday.
"Though there have been mounting pressure for me to step down as a Member of Parliament (MP), I felt that this would have been a premature step as the matter was still being investigated by law enforcement agencies and it would have most likely amounted to an admission of guilt," Manana said in a statement on his Facebook page.
"Now that the [National Prosecuting Authority] NPA has independently decided that I have no case to answer based on the police investigation, I have decided to voluntarily withdraw my membership from the National Assembly after almost 10 years of active participation in parliamentary politics."
Manana was convicted of assaulting two women at a Johannesburg nightclub.
Two months ago, Manana's then domestic worker Christine Wiro laid assault charges against him. An audio recording then surfaced in which Manana is heard offering Wiro R1,000,000 as "consolation" in exchange for dropping assault charges against him. The case is yet to be heard in court.
However, on Monday, the NPA said that that it declined to prosecute hIm for the alleged abuse of Wiro, saying they believed that there were no reasonable prospects for successful prosecution.
In his statement on Tuesday, Manana said that he needed to reiterate that the allegations against him were "obviously frivolous and were rooted in a politically motivated smear campaign" against him by his political opponents.
"I welcome the decision of the NPA which has cleared me of any wrongdoing and I feel completely exonerated," he said.
Manana said he would focus on on the work of the ANC ahead of the 2019 general elections, his academic commitments and his business ventures.
He said that he would donate R100,000 of his pension to the Khuluma Ndoda -- a men's social movement against gender-based violence -- which will be officially launched on August 1.
He will also donate R500,000 to the Nceduluntu Youth Foundation's "OneMillionPads" campaign aimed at distributing sanitary and dignity packs to 12 identified schools over a period of three years.
Manana also plans to make scholarship opportunities available to five men to enrol in gender studies at the University of South Africa, to "increase their capacity to analyse and critically reflect on their personal/local gender relations with the aim of engaging with the wider community as change agents for greater gender equality".
"I wish to indicate that the issue of sexual/gender-based violence is very serious as evidenced by the reaction of South Africans following my previous case of assault, for which I took full responsibility, and therefore must not be used to (a) advance selfish and narrow political ends and (b) solicit financial benefit by making false accusations as that would be a vicious assault on the efforts, for which I have now dedicated myself to, of eliminating gender-based violence wherever it manifests itself," the statement read.
On July 20, Manana was booed as he was introduced to delegates at the African National Congress (ANC) Gauteng held in Pretoria. No one clapped as provincial speaker Ntombi Mekgwe announced the presence on Manana upfront as he sat next to Minister in the Presidency, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. A section of the delegates booed when his name was called.
- African News Agency (ANA)
