ANC chief whip Stone Sizani has resigned from Parliament with immediate effect, the party said on Wednesday.

An ANC MP, who spoke off the record, said Sizani was heading to Germany, where he would be deployed as an ambassador.

Sizani would be temporarily replaced by deputy chief whip Doris Dlakude, said spokesperson Moloto Mothapo.

He did not say where Sizani would be going.

“The National Executive Committee of the ANC will make a decision regarding the replacement when it meets for its regular sitting in a few weeks’ time,” he said.

Sizani was appointed to the position in 2013.

The MP said the party had found out at an urgent caucus meeting, called on Wednesday.

Sizani‚ who spent nine years on Robben Island for fighting apartheid‚ said the people “who stole our land‚ built the economy for themselves and used black people to work for them still did not feel they owe us something”.

“That makes my blood boil. They do not understand the hate put into us. This notion that we must give them the other cheek is wrong and must come to an end.”

Sizani’s wife‚ Portia “Pankie” Sizani‚ was last month acquitted on five counts of money laundering in the Port Elizabeth Commercial Crimes Court. But she will face her biggest legal challenge when she returns to court on June 26 to fight the bulk of the charges that still stand.

She is accused of defrauding the Eastern Cape Department of Education through the creation of “ghost” teachers. It is alleged that she laundered salaries through the bank accounts of some of the teachers before pocketing the cash.

Sizani was employed as coordinator of the department’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme at the provincial education department at the time of the alleged fraud. The ECD provides for the appointment of Grade R teachers.

[Source: News24 / Times Live]