Speculation is rife in the Northern Cape that a provincial cabinet reshuffle is on the cards which will result in the firing of provincial chairperson and Northern Cape finance minister John Block.
Block is facing charges of corruption arising from his role in securing tenders for Intaka, a company that supplied oxygen generators to hospitals.
Sources in the Northern Cape confirmed that talks were taking place between Northern Cape stakeholders and Premier Hazel Jenkins, who is also rumoured to be in the firing line. Jenkins has not formally tabled the matter with the provincial executive committee.
One source said Jenkins met local ANC leaders in Upington last week to brief them about the changes they should expect. “Her words were ‘political turnaround is unavoidable’,” the source, who was briefed about the meeting, told the Mail & Guardian.
Jenkins’s spokesperson, Mafu Davids, said his boss was in Upington for a funeral and had not attended political meetings.
Jenkins, who is a fierce Block supporter, may also have to pack her bags. “She will go to Cape Town,” the source said, meaning she will be sent to ÂParliament.
ANC provincial secretary Zamani Saul told the M&G a decision to reshuffle would be made “in the broader political context” but no such discussion was taking place.
Names being bandied about as Jenkins’s replacement include former parliamentary portfolio committee chairperson Vytjie Mentor, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson and recently appointed deputy minister Godfrey Oliphant.
President Jacob Zuma is unlikely to let Joemat-Pettersson leave the Cabinet and Mentor is seen as “strong and very loud”, making her difficult to manage, insiders said. This leaves Oliphant.
Although the ANC has maintained that Block is innocent until proved guilty, fears that his charges will damage the party’s municipal election campaign are outweighing that consideration.
Speaking to the M&G last year Cosatu’s Northern Cape secretary, Anele Gxoyiya, said: “It is going to be difficult to explain to voters. [It would be] better for the image of government if the comrade steps down.”
Block was apparently asked in 2009 to become ambassador to Chile but he refused, a move that upset party leaders because it was seen as defiant.
Saul admitted that the Northern Cape leadership had held “several” meetings with the national ANC leadership, but insisted the issue of a reshuffle had not come up and was the “work of rumour-mongers and detractors of John”.