ANC's Thoko Didiza elected new National Assembly Speaker
ANC national executive committee member Thoko Didiza was on Friday elected as the new Speaker of the National Assembly.
Didiza, who is also a former Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, was elected during the first sitting of the National Assembly.
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo presided over the sitting, which took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday.
She was nominated by the party’s outgoing chief whip, Pemmy Majodina.
Didiza came up against the EFF’s national chairperson Veronica Mente, who was nominated by ATM President Vuyolwethu Zungula, and seconded by UDM President Bantu Holomisa.
Mente has been the EFF MP since the party was first elected to Parliament in 2014.
She has been a member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
Zungula and Holomisa are part of the newly formed Parliamentary grouping, which calls itself the ‘Progressive Caucus’.
The caucus was formed by aggrieved parties which believed that the ANC was not open in their negotiations for a government of national unity.
Didiza received 284 votes, while Mente received only 49.
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