Mduduzi Manana quits as ANC MP, commits more than R1.5m of pension to charity

Former deputy minister of education Mduduzi Manana on Tuesday announced through his foundation that he will voluntarily be resigning as a member of parliament for the ANC despite the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declining to prosecute him for assault against his domestic worker.

He said he had waited for his name to be “cleared” as quitting earlier would have been an “admission of guilt”, despite mounting pressure from even those within his own party.

Manana said the NPA’s decision left him feeling “totally exonerated”.

It was reported that his domestic worker Christine Wiro withdrew a case of assault against him after he allegedly pushed her down the stairs at his home. He was also caught on a recording offering her R100,000 as a “consolation” after she went to the police.

Wiro later explained that she didn’t want to pursue the case since Manana was a powerful man.

Manana said he had decided to resign after about a decade in the National Assembly so that he could focus on campaigning for the ANC, and on his business and academic interests.

He said that in the spirit of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Thuma Mina campaign he would be donating a portion of his pension to charity, with R1 million going to a men’s group fighting abuse, and another R500,000 to a group distributing sanitary pads.

He also committed to funding the Unisa studies of five students, to increase “their capacity” to understand local gender relations.

Manana concluded by committing himself to combating sexual and gender-based violence “wherever it manifests itself”.