Karima Brown
31 August 2007
Johannesburg — THE African National Congress (ANC) yesterday announced a shake up in its parliamentary caucus when it appointed former Johannesburg mayor Isaac Mogase as the party's new chief whip.
The move by the ruling party is the surest sign yet that any last-ditch efforts by disgraced former chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe to have his dismissal from the party reversed and to regain his post will now be futile, despite having won the right to have an appeal against his dismissal heard by a new ANC ad hoc disciplinary committee.
Goniwe was expelled from the party for three years - for sexual harassment - by the ANC's national disciplinary committee in December.
Goniwe appeared before the ANC's ad hoc disciplinary committee for most of this week, which was constituted to hear his case again.
The ruling party yesterday also announced a raft of changes in its caucus, which saw Fatima Chohan removed as chairperson of the portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development.
Chohan is now the chairperson of the portfolio committee on public enterprises. She swapped positions with former public enterprises chairman Yunis Carrim.
The changes also affect Parliament's portfolio committee on communications, which is deliberating on new appointees to the SABC board. Former chairman of the committee Godfrey Oliphant has been moved to science and technology, while Ishmail Vadi will take his place. This means the new chairman will not have been party to the extensive deliberations over which candidates to appoint to the SABC board.
Mogase, the ANC's new main man in Parliament, will have his work cut out as ANC backbenchers continue to flex their muscles at the executive, especially in the run-up to the ANC's all-important elective conference in December.
He will also be expected to restore credibility to the caucus after the damage done as a result of several ANC MPs being linked to Parliament's R17m Travelgate fraud scam.
Mogase, a former mayor of Greater Johannesburg, has been an ANC MP since 2004. He has served in the portfolio committee on provincial and local government.
Mogase cut his teeth in the civic movement in township politics.
Andries Nel, who acted in the position after Goniwe was fired, will continue to serve as deputy chief whip of the ANC.
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