Fikele Mbalula and 2 Other Former ANC Ministers Resign As MPs After Cyril Ramaphosa's Cabinet Reshuffle

• Former ministers Fikile Mbalula, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Nathi Mthethwa have said their final goodbyes to SA Parliament
• Former ministers who President Ramaphosa showed the door in the Cabinet reshuffle will be settled with a pension payout and out-of-office benefits after resigning
• Ex-tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu is expected to follow suit and has indicated that she will make her exit soon

CAPE TOWN - It's out with the old and in with the new in South Africa's Parliament after three African National Congress ministers resigned as Members of Parliament earlier this week.

Fikile Mbalula, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Nathi Mthethwa handed in their resignation after they were shuffled out of various portfolios in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent Cabinet shake-up.

According to EWN, The former deputy water and sanitation minister Dikeledi Magadzi has also decided to take a bow.

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Resigning MP's given golden handshake of huge pension payouts and out-of-office benefits

The resignations were expected as it was understood that the politicians who were removed from Ramaphosa's Cabinet would give up their seats as opposed to becoming backbenchers.

The resignation doesn't come without some perks, though, because the former ministers will cash out on considerable pension payouts and loss-of-office benefits to the tune of millions in exchange for vacating Parliament.

Nkoana-Mashabane was the first to make an exit; Parliament anticipates Lindiwe Sisulu's resignation

The former minister in the presidency responsible for women, youth and persons with disabilities, Nkoana-Mashabane, was the first to make her parliamentary exit.

Despite initially agreeing to be redeployed to a portfolio committee, Nkoana-Mashabane instead resigned.

Other former ministers, including former tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu, are allegedly also considering resigning, TimesLIVE reported.

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Sisulu reportedly told ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina that the party shouldn't redeploy her to a portfolio committee because she planned to resign. However, Sisulu has yet to hand in her letter.

South Africans believe the former ministers' resignations are long overdue

Citizens celebrated the former ministers' resignations. Below are some comments:

@donald_lolo1 commented:

"There is a big difference between these three people. Two of them they're jobless and Mbalula is working at ANC."

@peterthomas661 celebrated:

"Good riddance to bad rubbish."

@Sirngov1 speculated:

"Making the way for new elite eatists."

@tumelonkosi1 added:

"This was long overdue."

Ronald Hlatshwayo asked:

"Mbalula is understandable, but I'm not sure about Maite and Nathi's resignations. Are they angry or are they opening for new blood??"

National Assembly criminalises hate speech and hate crimes, sparks mixed reactions: “Watch how it gets abused”

In another story, Briefly News reported that the National Assembly has passed a bill that criminalises hate speech and hate crimes. The move has been years in the making.

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The bill aims to address the increased number of hate crimes and incidents of hate speech while assisting victims. It has also put measures to prevent and combat those offences in place.

The need to implement the hate crimes bill came against the backdrop of needing to sustain campaigns against racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. According to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, a person will be found guilty of a hate crime if the court finds them prejudiced or intolerant.

Source: Briefly News