Cape Town - Since the last State of the Province Address (Sopa) by Premier Alan Winde, there have been a number of changes in the legislature’s personnel, from the speaker to the chief whip to a number of members of the House.
Former Western Cape Legislature speaker Masizole Mnqasela was suspended by his sponsoring party, the DA, in May, barely three months into the new term.
After wrangles with the DA which ended up in court, the party dropped him and in a surprise move picked erstwhile Mobility MEC Daylin Mitchell to replace him in December.
Mitchell himself had been plucked from the DA’s backbench in April and promoted to the MEC post in a reshuffle of the provincial council which also saw Reagen Allen appointed Community Safety MEC to replace Albert Fritz, who was fired by Winde on March 1.
Also securing a place in the provincial council was former chief whip Mireille Wenger who became Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC in May after David Maynier was moved to the Education portfolio to replace Debbie Schäfer, who resigned to take up a job in the UK.
Wenger was replaced as chief whip by DA MPL Lorraine Botha, who sadly died in August hardly four months into the job.
Botha’s replacement was Wendy Kaizer-Philander, who had until then been chairperson of the standing committee on health.
Winde’s former spokesperson, Cayla Murray, filled the empty slot on the DA benches left by Schäfer and was joined later in the year by former DA MP Christopher Fry, former DA permanent delegate to the National Council of Provinces, Isaac Sileku, and former George deputy mayor Gerrit Pretorius, who was sworn in this year.
On the opposition benches, former EFF provincial chairperson Melikhaya Xego was dropped by his party, and his colleague, Nosipho Makamba-Botya, was redeployed in the party’s national structure of the EFF, leaving the way clear for EFF provincial deputy chairperson Thembile Klaas and provincial treasurer Aishah Cassiem, formerly on the Cape Town City Council, to replace them as MPLs.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za.