S.Africa's ANC drops parliament chief whip

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - With around a year to key national elections, South Africa's ruling ANC party announced Thursday it had sacked its chief parliamentary whip.

African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe said Mathole Motshekga had been removed because he no longer sits on the party's supreme decision making body, the national executive council (NEC).

Motshekga, who was appointed four years ago, had been the party's longest serving chief whip.

"We have always viewed it as correct to have the chief whip sitting in the NEC as part of the decision-making structures," Mantashe said.

Motshekga failed to make it back into the NEC at the party's last elective conference in December. He has been replaced by a senior ANC official Phumelele Stone Sizani.

Motshekga's tenure in parliament was fraught with complaints both from within his party and outside.

The opposition Democratic Alliance said he repeatedly missed crucial parliament meetings.

Prince Mashele, political analyst with the Centre for Politics and Research, said Motshekga's departure would be welcomed in many quarters.

"Parliamentarians have been raising some concerns over his leadership style, that he was not uniting the party in parliament. He was actually a source of division," said Mashele, executive director of the Centre for Politics and Research.

"He is not a respected leader in the ANC," he said.

Motshekga was previously removed from his post as premier of Gauteng province, the country's economic hub.

"He is a guy who really can't lead anything. It's actually good riddance for the ANC," said Mashele.

His replacement in parliament has a tainted background, accused of corruption and involvement in factional politics in his home province of Eastern Cape.

"I don't think Stone is going to do a better job compared to Motshekga," said Mashele.

ANC's former chief whips in parliament include Tony Yengeni, who was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to four years in jail.