Following a meeting on Monday the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the African National Congress (ANC), having noted that Meriam Ramadwa has resigned as Speaker of the Legislature, took a decision to lift her suspension with immediate effect.
The disciplinary process instituted against her will however continue and ANC Provincial Secretary Nocks Seabi, on behalf of the PEC, said the council shall await the report thereof.
Ramadwa was suspended in August following her refusal to be removed from her position as Speaker of the Legislature. She was appointed as MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture in July 2013, but not re-appointed after the 2014 elections but redeployed as Speaker of the Legislature instead.
Ramadwa has put up a brave fight since May 2015, as she refused to budge to African National Council pressure to resign from the position to make place for the new Speaker, Polly Boshielo. The ANC in Limpopo then took a decision to temporarily suspend the membership of Ramadwa as a member of the ANC pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing and the notice of suspension was served on her on 15 August 2015.
The implications of the suspension were that her ANC membership was temporary suspended, she could not act as a member, including at a branch, and could not represent the ANC in any capacity including as a public representative. The reasons for her suspension were cited to be failure/refusal to work with the deployees of the ANC in the Legislature, placing the ANC in Limpopo in disrepute and gross insubordination to the ANC’s structures in the province.
Story: NELIE ERASMUS
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