Cape Town – ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe has denied that former ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga had been demoted, following the announcement of his replacement on Thursday.

Motshekga was replaced as chief whip by Phumelele Stone Sizani.

Mantashe said the reason was that Motshekga was not a member of the ruling party’s national executive committee (NEC) – a pre-condition for being chief whip, which the ANC set in 2008.

“The reason for that is that we have always viewed it as correct to have the chief whip sitting in the NEC as part of the decision-making structures,” Mantashe told a media briefing at Parliament.

He said it was essential to keep a direct line of communication between top party structures and Parliament to resolve problems that arose in the legislature as soon as possible.

Motshekga – the ANC’s longest serving chief whip to date – failed to make it onto the NEC at the ANC’s elective conference in Polokwane in December.

Asked why the decision to replace him came only six months later, Mantashe responded: “One thing that we don’t do when we run an organisation is to take decisions in a rush.”

Motshekga to remain MP

Motshekga was not at the news briefing, but said afterwards he would remain an ordinary MP.

“I will be here,” he told reporters, and later congratulated his successor during the sitting.

In a statement, the ANC thanked Motshekga for his work and credited him with resolving the ANC caucus’s financial problems.

“Since 2009, caucus has achieved four consecutive unqualified audit opinions. He leaves a caucus that is stable, both financially and politically.”

Sizani served on the NEC and was chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on rural development and land reform.

He would be replaced in that post by ANC MP Jerry Thibedi.

The ANC said the new deputy chief whip would be Doris Dlakude, who replaces Nkensani Kubayi.

Mantashe also announced the ANC had confirmed the appointment of Annelize van Wyk as chairperson of the portfolio committee on police.

– SAPA