Tara Turkington
Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico is confident he will be back in his office the week after next.
At 40, the country’s youngest premier is charming in a down-to-earth and engaging way. “Take me as Manne, man,” he says with a flick of his wrist, “I’m just Manne.”
Dipico stayed the five-year distance as a provincial premier, and says he has laid a good base on which to build in the next five years.
“We are rolling on houses, we are rolling on schools, we are rolling on clinics, we are rolling on electricity. These things are going already. The most important thing for me [after the election] is to grapple with the economy of this province and to bring down the level of unemployment. Job creation is an issue close to my heart.”
Long a crusader for beneficiation within the Northern Cape of both minerals and agricultural products which are currently exported from the province in raw form, Dipico aims to champion this further. He is currently talking with an overseas concern about a diamond cutting works in the Kimberley region, and rattles off numerous other projects in the pipeline.
“Is it not time to break the colonial approach? I want new money, dollars, Deutschmarks!”
He says nation-building within his province is a priority, and refers to problems the MEC for education has faced in trying to integrate schools in small Karoo towns like Richmond and Carnarvon.
“Parents are still locked into old understanding. We need to preach the message of integration. That is still a challenge for me in the Northern Cape.”
Dipico says the post-election provincial cabinet will probably be expanded, from seven portfolios back to 10. When the National Party pulled out of the Government of National Unity, Dipico had African National Congress MECs double up on portfolios.
This, he explains, has meant some important issues for the province like tourism – an industry with the potential for creating jobs – have been sadly neglected.
Asked whether he would include members of opposition parties in his cabinet, he says with a laugh: “I am a very generous person by nature. My approach is still very open, not absolute power. The ANC has demonstrated it is not here to abuse power.”
He added, though, that he could not act alone and would need the approval of the ANC for his ideas.
Dipico confirmed rumours that are circulating about his imminent marriage. “I’m not going to enter the new millennium without a partner. My mother has no enthusiasm to attend official functions anymore.”
He said his uncles were talking to his future wife’s uncles, and without naming her, said “local is lekker”.
The New National Party leader in the northern Cape, Pieter Willem Saaiman, is equally convinced he will be the new premier.
A former teacher, he says, without any air of self-importance: “I am the most acceptable leader for the province. Our party is a rainbow party for the province
“Manne Dipico will always be seen as a person who represents only a part of the people – it will take years before he can overcome that.”
Dipico is Setswana-speaking and black. Saaiman was classified coloured.
Race is still very much in the minds of Northern Cape voters, of whom about a third are coloured, a third white and a third black.
Saaiman, a past minister in the House of Representatives, is confident of an all-out win for the NNP in the province – despite recent polls which give the ANC a majority.
Saaiman says the polls are not accurate. “We think between 30% and 40% of black voters in the Northern Cape didn’t register. The polls don’t take that into account. This is the most difficult province to gauge at the moment.”
Saaiman, like Dipico, argues the virtues of political co-operation between parties, saying if the NNP is successful, “we are not selfish, we will invite some opposition parties to the government”.
“There is a great will in the province to form coalitions, and after the election we will immediately go about co-operative government.”
He proposes anti-crime measures in the Northern Cape – notorious for its high rate of violent crime – that include developing a volunteer core of retired people in particular, under a commando system, which “will put a `bobby’ on every street”.
“We … will support the police and will not make negative statements about them in public,” Saaiman adds.
“I’m leading this party to stand for something new. I was always willing to swim against the stream to prove a point. The time for rhetoric is passed. Now people want principles.”