Casca Mokitlane

Modise Casalis "Casca" Mokitlane (born 17 September 1951) is a former politician and diplomat from South Africa who served in the Free State Provincial Legislature from 1999 until 2014. He is a former Deputy Provincial Chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) and is known for his short-lived defection to the opposition Congress of the People (COPE) between 2009 and 2014.

Mokitlane represented the ANC in the National Assembly between 1994 and 1995 and in the Free State Provincial Legislature from 1999. In the latter capacity, he served in three different portfolios in the Free State Executive Council: under Premier Winkie Direko, as Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Safety and Security from 1999 to 2001; and, under Premier Beatrice Marshoff, as MEC for Agriculture from 2005 to 2007 and MEC for Education from 2007 to 2009. He was also Majority Chief Whip in the provincial legislature between 2004 and 2005. Simultaneously, Mokitlane served two terms as ANC Deputy Provincial Chairperson in the Free State from 1998 to 2005; he deputised longstanding Provincial Chairperson Ace Magashule, with whom he was believed to have an unhappy relationship, and he lost the deputy chair in 2005 after attempting to unseat Magashule.

In February 2009, Mokitlane announced that he had resigned from the provincial government and from the ANC in order to join COPE, a new breakaway party. He became COPE's candidate for election as Premier of the Free State in the 2009 general election. Pursuant to the election, between 2009 and 2014, he led the COPE caucus as the official Leader of the Opposition in the Free State Provincial Legislature. However, weeks before the 2014 general election, he resigned from COPE and rejoined the ANC. Thereafter Mokitlane retreated from frontline politics and, following a four-year tour as South Africa's High Commissioner to Singapore, he retired in 2021.