Ministry to Cope without DG

LYNDALL Shope-Mafole resigned as director-general of the department of communications yesterday to focus her attention on campaigning for the ANC breakaway party, the Congress of the People.

LYNDALL Shope-Mafole resigned as director-general of the department of communications yesterday to focus her attention on campaigning for the ANC breakaway party, the Congress of the People.

Shope-Mafole, the most senior civil servant to reveal a decision to join Cope, said she had given her resignation to her minister, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, who had accepted it.

"I have no regrets. It was an honour to have served in this office," Shope-Mafole said.

She told The Times that she had asked the minister to shorten her employment contract to give her time to concentrate on her political work. Shope-Mafole's contract was due to end in 2010.

The department of communications said yesterday that Matsepe-Casaburri and Shope-Mafole had "mutually agreed" on her departure.

Shope-Mafole said there had been no political pressure on her to resign and that she left with a clear conscience.

"I have grown in the department and have reached a ceiling, but now I will concentrate on my political work," she said.

Shope-Mafole, who was elected to the ANC's national executive committee, comes from a family of political activists.

Her father, Mark Shope, was a long-standing member of the Congress of Trade Unions and of the World Federation of Trade Unions, based in Prague. Her mother, Gertrude, was chief representative of the ANC in Lusaka.

Joe Makhafola, spokesman for the department, said: "The minister thanked her for her contribution . and wished her well in her new endeavors."

Sapa reports that the Free State MEC for education, Casca Mokitlane, a former deputy chairman of the ANC in the province, joined Cope, the new party said yesterday.

The party also introduced four former ANC councillors from the Motheo district municipality and from Mangaung local municipality (greater Bloemfontein area) who joined the party yesterday.