ANC Doubles down on the Appointment of Xiaomei Harvard as an MP
- The ANC has defended its decision to appoint Dr Xiaomei Harvard as a member of Parliament
- ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina released a statement explaining that Xiaomei has lived in South Africa since 1994 and is married to a South African
- When the news broke that Xiaomei had been sworn in there was a massive backlash on social media
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Dr Xiaomei Harvard was appointed an MP to replace former minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu who tragically passed away due to Covid-19 complications.
Source: Instagram
When Harvard's appointment was announced there was a massive backlash on social media. Unfortunately, a number of the attacks were xenophobic in nature.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina released a statement that Xiaomei Harvard has lived in South Africa since 1994 and was married to a South African and has South African citizenship.
“In May 2019, she stood for elections on an ANC ticket having gone through a national list process and emerged as candidate 130 on the ANC national list as verified by the Independent Electoral Commission.
’’Her party, the ANC, included her name in the national list and her appointment meets constitutional muster and is allowed,” said Majodina.
Briefly.co.za ran a poll on people's feelings towards Dr Xiaomei Harvar being sworn in as an MP:
Earlier, Briefly.co.za reported that there's been an uproar on social media after news broke that Dr Xaiomei Harvard was sworn into parliament to replace the late Jackson Mthembu.
According to the African National Congress' website, Parliament welcomed the appointment of five new members to fill vacancies in the National Assembly. The new Members of Parliament were sworn-in on Wednesday, 27 January.
South Africans have started the hashtag #NoChineseInSAParliament on Twitter which is currently at the number 1 trending spot.
In other news, the Political Party Funding Act will become law on 1 April. President Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement earlier this week. The act which was signed last year had not been given a commencement date.
The act has been set up to create transparency around political parties, the donations that go into funding their campaigns, and also where the donations come from. The act now also prohibits South African political parties from receiving donations from foreign entities.
They have also been prohibited from receiving donations from a state-owned enterprise or organ of the state.
In other news, Mmusi Maimane and Fikile Mbalula seem to really be getting on each other's nerves lately and both are using Twitter to go at one another's throats. Most recently, Mbalula shared another clever retort with Maimane after Maimane tweeted:
“We are going to create jobs for the youth.” An #ANCProverb,'wrote Maimane, to which Mbalula responded:
"What did you say when you were very energetic leader of the DA?"
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Source: Briefly News
