Mopani District Municipality Executive Mayor Pule Josiah Shayi has resigned from his position with immediate effect, according to a letter addressed to the Speaker of the municipality.
The resignation brings an abrupt end to Shayi’s tenure as the political head of the Limpopo district municipality, a position he has held since June 2019.
In the letter, addressed to the Speaker at the municipality’s offices in Giyani, Shayi does not provide a reason for his decision.
Instead, he thanked the council, municipal officials and communities of Mopani for the opportunity to serve as executive mayor.
The letter reads:
“Honourable Speaker, Please accept this letter as formal notice of my resignation as the Executive Mayor of the Mopani District Municipality, effective immediately.
“I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Council, the municipal officials, and the
communities of the Mopani District for the opportunity to serve in this capacity. It has been a privilege to contribute to the development and service delivery of this municipality.”
Shayi was first appointed executive mayor of Mopani on 7 June 2019, after previously serving as mayor of Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality from 2016 to 2019.
He was subsequently re-elected to the Mopani mayoral position in November 2021.
His official municipal profile lists him as having served as executive mayor from June 2019.
His departure comes as Mopani enters the final months of the current municipal electoral cycle.
The municipality’s official website currently lists Shayi as its executive mayor, while the national government directory also identifies him in that position.
Shayi has also held senior political and local-government positions beyond the mayoral office.
According to his official municipal profile, he was elected deputy provincial secretary of the ANC in Limpopo in March 2026 and serves on the national executive committee of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
His political and public-service career has included positions in local government, organised labour and government administration.
Before becoming Mopani executive mayor, he served as mayor of Ba-Phalaborwa and held senior positions in government, including within the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency.
The resignation letter itself, however, gives no indication of what prompted Shayi to step down or what his next move will be.
The municipality will now have to deal with the vacancy created by his immediate resignation.
The municipality’s own explanation of the executive mayoral system states that where the office of executive mayor is vacant, the deputy executive mayor exercises the powers and performs the duties of the executive mayor.
At the time of publication, no reason for Shayi’s resignation had been stated .