Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s candidacy for Speaker meets stiff opposition

Cape Town – The African National Congress (ANC)’s move to nominate former defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as the next Speaker of the National Assembly, has reportedly been met with stiff opposition – not only from other political parties, but from civil society organisations as well.

EWN reported on Thursday that Parliament received a letter of demand to prevent Mapisa-Nqakula’s pending election as National Assembly Speaker.

The letter from Mabuza Attorneys represented political analysts JJ Tabane, Lukhona Mnguni as well as the New Nation Movement (NNM) organisation, the report said.

But the acting Speaker of the National Assembly, Lechesa Tsenoli, maintained that the secret ballot vote to elect a new national Speaker would go ahead on Thursday as planned.

The ANC announced last week that Mapisa-Nqakula was set to become the next Speaker of the National Assembly after the African National Congress (ANC) nominated her as its candidate.

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This came after she was axed as defence minister earlier this month when President Cyril Ramphosa reshuffled his cabinet. Ramaphosa indicated at the time that she would be “deployed elsewhere”.

She was replaced by former National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise.

According to News24, the Mabuza Attorneys said in their letter of demand that the decision to elect Mapisa-Nqakula was reportedly imposed on members of the ANC caucus by, among others, ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe.

“The actions of the president were widely welcomed by our clients because they believed that the removal and/or dismissal of Mapisa-Nqakula from the Cabinet was effected as a result of her long history of allegations of corruption and misgovernance, involving, inter alia, misuse of public funds and facilities, and nepotism, to mention a few.

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“The Joint Standing Committee on Defence is currently and/or is contemplating conducting an inquiry into further allegations made by a whistleblower, implicating Ms Mapisa-Nqakula in further and specific corrupt activities,” the letter read.

The National Assembly speaker is elected from its 400 members by secret ballot. With 230 members, the ANC’s candidate is most likely to succeed, the report said.

Mantashe told a special party caucus meeting last week that the ANC wanted Mapisa-Nqakula to be its candidate for the position, a Times Live report said.

Meanwhile, News24 said in a different report on Thursday that Mapisa-Nqakula was under investigation for allegedly receiving a R5 million bribe from a defence contractor, blowing R7 million on aircraft charters and living it up at luxury hotels.