THE VOCAL MBOKHODO RE- ELECTED
By Eugene Dube and Thulane Madalane
Middelburg – Democratic Alliance Leader in Mpumalanga Jane Sithole has been re-elected unopposed to another term during party’s provincial congress on Saturday in Middelburg.
She has been serving as member of the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature since May 2014 under the Mpumalanga Democratic Alliance.
The outspoken Sithole joined the Democratic Alliance in 1999 while it was known as the Democratic Party.
Sithole had served as a councillor of both the Emalahleni Local Municipality and the Nkangala District Municipality from 2000 until 2014 and also served as Chief Whip of Emalahleni Caucas from 2007 up to 2014.
She was elected to the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature in 2014 to 2019 and was appointed to the position of Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance caucus.
Before being elected provincial leader, Sithole served as Provincial Chairperson for the Association of Democratic Alliance Councillors (ADAC) from 2005 to 2011 and was elected to the position of Provincial Deputy Leader in 2012 until 2015.
In 2015, Sithole was elected to the position of Provincial Chairperson of the party and in 2018 was elected unopposed as the provincial leader of the Democratic Alliance in Mpumalanga on 3 March 2018, succeeding James Masango.
On 20 September 2018, Sithole was announced as the Democratic Alliance’s Mpumalanga Premier candidate for the 2019 election.
Sithole was re-elected unopposed as provincial leader in October 2020 and again on Saturday she got reaffirmation to lead the party for another three years.
She shook the establishment, when she exposed the former Head of Department of Mpumalanga Department Education Mahlasedi Mohlabane who lied that learners had recieved textbooks in schools. She challenged the issue and took it to the Human rights commission in South Africa. Mohlabane got fired, “After a lengthy investigation, the Auditor General found that Mhlabane deceived the department by reporting (in an official report) that 63 per cent of learners in the province received study materials, only to find out that only 36 per cent had actually received the material. The above actions by Mhlabane have portrayed both the provincial government and the Department of Education in a negative light and exposed them to scrutiny. Hence the premier had no choice but to fire Mhlabane.” Sithole told Mpumalanga News at that time
She saved pregnant women who were not given quality healthy care by nurses in Mapulaneng hospital and the implicated nurses were expelled.
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