Cape Town - Enbattled provincial ANC leader Marius Fransman has insisted his resignation on Friday from the provincial legislature is due to chaos within the party and not the millions of rands for which he was previously called to account.
Fransman resigned from the legislature a day after the Western Cape High Court dismissed his application related to the spending of nearly R330m on consultancy projects.
He had been summoned to account for this to the provincial standing committee on public accounts.
DA chief whip Mark Wiley said on Friday Fransman’s resignation came as no surprise.
He described Fransman’s failed application to the court as an attempt to avoid appearing before the standing committee “for his dealings into massive irregularities and gross mismanagement of public funds under the previous ANC administration”.
But Fransman would still have to answer to the standing committee, Wiley said.
Fransman has denied this matter had anything to do with his resignation.
He said on Friday he was leaving the legislature after 17 years of parliamentary service.
“My decision, in 2013, to return to the Western Cape to fight alongside the poor and the downtrodden and to address the imbalances between the haves and the have-nots in creating an inclusive society, is being curtailed by the ongoing ANC internal turmoil, infighting and factions, makes it near impossible to execute my duties to ensure the upliftment of my constituents,” he said.
“I can no longer justify a salary without the mechanism to deliver on my calling.
“When we have internal strife, it’s ultimately the people who suffer.”
It appeared on Friday that aside from the dismissal of his court application, more of Fransman’s past was coming back to haunt him.
In January Fransman was asked to step aside pending an investigation after his former personal assistant Louisa Wynand accused him of sexual harassment.
A daily publication reported Fransman would on Sunday and Monday appear before the ANC’s national disciplinary committee in respect of this accusation.
But Fransman on Friday denied he would be appearing before the committee.
National ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
Provincial ANC chief whip Pierre Uys told Weekend Argus Fransman had last been in the legislature in December.
Weekend Argus