The ANC Women's League has placed its president, Sisisi Tolashe, on a leave of absence while disciplinary proceedings against her proceed, but there's been no word about the fate of Maropene Ramokgopa.

The ANC Women's League (ANCWL) president, Sisisi Tolashe, is on "special leave" following her axing by President Cyril Ramaphosa as minister of social development, with secretary-general Nokuthula Nqaba assuming Tolashe's ANCWL functions on an interim basis until Tolashe's internal ANC disciplinary processes are concluded.

The decision, taken unanimously by the ANCWL's National Executive Committee (NEC) at a special meeting in Boksburg on Saturday and confirmed in an ANCWL statement on Monday, follows the ANC's highest decision-making body's endorsement of the party's Integrity Commission's findings against Tolashe and the referral of her matter to its National Disciplinary Committee.

It looks, on the surface, like accountability in action. But there is a question the ANC has not clearly answered: what has happened to the other minister, also prominent within the ANCWL, implicated in the very same Chinese SUV scandal that helped bring Tolashe down?

As Daily Maverick revealed in April, the minister of planning, monitoring and evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, is accused of accepting three BAIC X55 SUVs -- the same model at the centre of the Tolashe allegations -- from Chinese representatives in late 2023. As in Tolashe's case, these appear to have been intended ostensibly as donations for...