CAPE TOWN, April 3 (Xinhua) -- South African National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula resigned Wednesday amid investigations into corruption allegations against her.
"Today, the 3rd of April, I have submitted to the Acting Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Lechesa Tsenoli, my letter of resignation as both the Speaker of National Assembly and a Member of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa," Mapisa-Nqakula said in a statement. "The resignation is effective immediately."
"I have made this conscious decision in order to dedicate my time and focus to deal with the recently announced investigation against me by our country's law enforcement agencies," she said.
Mapisa-Nqakula, a 67-year-old veteran of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, has been facing corruption allegations that she solicited a cash bribe of about 2.3 million rands (about 120,000 U.S. dollars) from a former military contractor while she was defense minister between 2016 and 2019.
The speaker took a "special leave" from her parliament position on March 21 after an early morning raid by a special investigations unit on her Johannesburg home.
Last week, she launched an urgent court bid to block her possible arrest, but a judge at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria dismissed her application Tuesday. ■
