DA: Gauteng premier candidates a 'badly kept secret'

The list of candidates to succeed outgoing Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa is a “badly kept secret”, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday.

Newspaper reports named the nominees as provincial minister of education Angie Motshekga, provincial minister of finance Paul Mashatile and provincial minister of housing Nomvula Mokonyane.

DA Gauteng leader Jack Bloom said Motshekga was “the least worst candidate” of the three.

He described the nominations that were made on Wednesday by the provincial executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC) as “predictable and uninspiring”.

ANC spokesperson Nkenke Kekana said the list was confidential, declining to confirm the names.

But Bloom said: “The list of nominees is a badly kept secret,” adding that the three candidates were “all Zuma cronies without Shilowa’s admirable principles and independence of mind”.

The national leadership of the ANC would choose the new premier from \the nominated candidates by Friday at the earliest, said Kekana.

Shilowa announced his resignation on Monday, saying it was out of loyalty to ousted president Thabo Mbeki, who was removed from office by the ANC’s national executive committee.—Sapa