Ailing Turok to retire after election

ANC veteran MP Ben Turok will retire from parliament after the elections.

Professor Turok, 86, who co-chairs the joint committee on ethics and members' interest, said yesterday that his decision was in part as a result of his heart condition, for which he was recently discharged from hospital.

"But it also arises from a feeling that 20 years is enough in that position," said Turok.

The former anti-apartheid activist - who wrote the clauses on the economy in the 1955 Freedom Charter - made headlines last year after he was assigned bodyguards following death threats against him. The threats were related to the parliamentary investigation into misconduct charges against former communications minister Dina Pule.

In 2010, Turok's allegiance to the ANC was questioned when he strayed from the party line by refusing to vote for the controversial secrecy bill, but last year he said he would vote for the bill.

ANC chief whip Stone Sizani wished Turok a speedy recovery following his recent discharge from hospital.

Caucus spokesman Moloto Mothapo said the stalwart and veteran MP had been in and out of hospital since October.

"The office of the chief whip had been in close contact with him and we are pleased with his recovery process. He is expected back in parliament in March," Mothapo said.

Once he had retired from parliament, Turok said he would work full-time as the editor of the New Agenda SA Journal of Social and Economic Policy.

"I am also publishing a further autobiography following my Nothing But The Truth several years ago," he said.