Resigned S. African MPs wanted cabinet job: Experts

JOHANNESBURG

Newly-elected lawmakers in South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) who resigned last week from the assembly had expected cabinet positions, political analysts believe.

"I think the former ministers and the parliament speaker decided to resign from parliament because they were not reappointed to cabinet," professor Dirk Kotz'e of the University of South Africa told Anadolu Agency.

Seven ANC MPs have recently resigned – most of them after President Jacob Zuma announced his new cabinet lineup last Sunday, one day after being inaugurated for a second five-year term in office.

One of the seven to resign was outgoing National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu, who did not keep his prestigious position in the new parliament.

The newly-elected assembly had elected ANC Chairperson Baleka Mbete as new speaker.

The outgoing minister of correctional services, Sibusiso Ndebele; tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk; and Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana all resigned from parliament.

The two others are Maria Ntuli, the former deputy social development minister, and Tito Mboweni, the former Reserve Bank governor.

MP Zizi Kodwa resigned after being appointed to the post of ANC national spokesman.

Political analyst Mzoxolo Mpolase believes some of the MPs had expected positions in the new government, which features 35 ministers and 36 deputy ministers.

The ANC, which has governed South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994, won 249 seats in the 400-member National Assembly in May polls.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), the country's main opposition party, secured 89 seats.

Benefits

Professor Kotz'e said some of the resigned MPs might have wanted to keep the pensions given to former ministers rather than those of ordinary MPs.

André Duvenhage, another political analyst at the University of the Northwest, agrees.

"I think they resigned after they were not appointed because they wanted to protect their pension benefits," he told AA.

Duvenhage said former ministers were entitled to certain pension benefits not available to ordinary members of parliament, without giving details or figures.

He voiced doubt that the recent raft of resignations would affect the ruling party.

"The ANC has many people they can replace in parliament," he said.

The ruling party, for its part, played down the issue.

"ANC members can exercise a choice to serve in parliament or they can withdraw that decision if they chose so," the party said in a statement.

Not all former ministers to have been excluded from Zuma's new cabinet have quit parliament, however.

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