A South African Member of Parliament has been arrested for the alleged murder of his 31-year-old wife at their North West home in November last year and faces being hit with the ANC party’s set-aside rule.
The 34-year-old man was arrested in Klerksdorp on Friday morning.
“The incident happened on November 27 2022 at the home of the suspect in Kanana township. The suspect faces a charge of murder and will appear before the Orkney magistrate’s court on Monda,” said police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe.
TimesLIVE knows the identity of the man but cannot publish his name before he appears in court.
The ANC in parliament said they would await his court appearance on Monday before initiating the step-aside process which was guaranteed should he be charged.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina told TimesLIVE they were saddened by the incident which happened during the gender-based violence awareness period.
“The incident happened in November — unfortunately at the start of the 16 days of activism 9 [campaign] . We as the caucus, we are saying he’s appearing in court on Monday. Once he has been given charges on Monday surely the organisational processes are going to kick in and if he is charged criminally he is going to have to step aside,” said Majodina.
“We are very much aware but we want to allow the law to take its course, we don’t want to prejudge before the law enforcement agencies are done with their work.”
Majodina said she visited the family before the funeral last year and encouraged them to provide any information they had to the police.
“Immediately after the incident I went to the family to meet them and to say let’s allow the law to take its course and whoever has information must co-operate. That was my general message to all family members,” she said.
Majodina said it was concerning that a lawmaker was facing such serious allegations.
“These allegations are serious and they make us feel very bad. We are lawmakers and we are supposed to be defenders and protectors of our family members,” she said.
