By Chisomo Phiri
South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday February 16,2023, announced the resignation of his vice David Mabuza.
Ramaphosa thanked Mabuza for his unwavering supported he had been showing over the last five years.
The country’s local reports said the news about Mabuza’s resignation not came as a surprise as he had already announced earlier this month that he would be stepping down.
His resignation comes in light of the government’s need to show that it has solutions to the country’s economic issues and rolling blackouts.
However, it is said Mabuza will stay in the post until President Cyril Ramaphosa announces his successor, widely expected to be new African National Congress ( ANC) Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
Born on August 25, 1960, Mabuza is a South African politician who has been Deputy President of South Africa since February 2018.
He was the Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC) from December 2017 to December 2022 and was previously the Premier of Mpumalanga from 2009 to 2018, throughout the presidency of his former political ally Jacob Zuma.
As a teacher by training, Mabuza’s initial engagement in politics was through the Black Consciousness movement, while he was a student, and then through teachers’ unions.
He was chairperson of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, an affiliate of the influential Congress of South African Trade Unions, from 1988 to 1991.
After the end of apartheid in 1994, he joined the Mpumalanga provincial legislature as an ANC representative and took up a series of ministerial posts in the Mpumalanga Executive Council.
He was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee for the first time in 2007 and was ANC provincial chairperson in Mpumalanga from 2008 to 2017, throughout his premiership.
