Frene Ginwala, who has been Speaker of the National Assembly for the past 10 years since democracy, got the axe on Thursday from ruling African National Congress MPs.
The speaker will be replaced by the Deputy Speaker, Baleka Mbete, who has served in that position since the first Parliament after the former deputy speaker, Bhadra Ranchod, then from the National Party, became the ambassador to Australia.
The new speaker will be formerly elected on Friday after new MPs have been sworn in.
Members of the media — who have been served notice to vacate their offices by the Secretary to Parliament, Sindiso Mfenyana, on the instruction of Ginwala — were told the news about the outgoing speaker after ANC MPs emerged from their parliamentary caucus meeting on Thursday afternoon — the first after the national election.
The decision by the caucus apparently was “overwhelming” according to one source. The national working committee of the ruling party — chaired by President Thabo Mbeki — apparently took the decision to replace Ginwala on Tuesday night, which was ratified by the caucus.
The parliamentary press gallery has been fighting to keep its office space after a protracted battle with the outgoing speaker — who earlier this afternoon said she did not know of an agreement reached late last year to allow the media to stay in the central precinct of Parliament. Ginwala wants the media to move across the road from Parliament to a building called Parliament Towers.
It is not clear what role Ginwala will have in the new Parliament — elected on April 14 — but she will remain an MP for the foreseeable future.
Earlier sources indicated that Mbete would go to the National Council of Provinces as chairperson, but it is now clear that the ANC will need to find a new deputy speaker and a new chairperson for that chamber — as it is believed that Naledi Pandor will also not resume that position.
Ginwala originally became speaker in a tight contest with Pravin Gordhan, then a KwaZulu-Natal MP, shortly after the 1994 election. Gordhan subsequently became Commissioner of the South African Revenue Service. — I-Net Bridge