Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim will reportedly be resigning amid allegations that she had spent money from a charity on shopping in Dubai, said Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.
“At her request, I met her at the State House yesterday,” Jugnauth said in comments broadcast on Port Louis-based Radio Plus. “I met her again this morning. She said that she will resign. We agreed on the date.”
Jugnauth also said that she will step down from the largely ceremonial position after landmark celebrations to mark the nation’s 50th independence anniversary.
Gurib-Fakim’s resignation will feature in the list of top-ranking government officials on the Indian Ocean island nation who left the position for alleged corruption and improper behaviour.
In November, Deputy Prime Minister Showkutally Soodhun resigned for allegedly making inappropriate comments. While in September, attorney general Ravi Yerrigadoo left the office to allow an investigation into allegations of money laundering.
Gurib-Fakim, who is considered to be the first woman president in the nation, has reportedly shopped using a credit card given to her by the Planet Earth Institute, a non-governmental organization connected to an Angolan businessman and philanthropist.
Earlier this month, Gurib-Fakim said she’d paid back all money spent on the credit card. As Port Louis-based L’Express reports, she had spent Rs718,000 ($21,444) on duty-free purchases in Dubai, bought some jewellery in late 2016 and spent some more during trips to Sweden, England, India, and Italy.
The resignation appears to have been triggered by political manoeuvring in the ruling Militant Socialist Movement, or MSM, ahead of general elections next year, according to Jared Jeffery, a political analyst at Paarl, South Africa-based NKC African Economics. Opposition partners could use the scandal to undermine the party’s chances or force an alliance.
“The bigger story is how potential MSM alliance partners reframe the incident so that they can still join forces with the party,” Jeffery said in an emailed research note. “If they opt not to align with the MSM, opposition parties will have to find a way of justifying an alliance with the Ptr under Mr Ramgoolam which could be equally tricky to sell to supporters,” he said, referring to the Labour party, one of Mauritius’ three main parties. It is led by former Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam.