Newly elected premiers in the African National Congress’s toughest provinces have used the appointments of their provincial Cabinets in three ways: to stamp their authority, tread carefully by accommodating political rivals, or to exhibit outright confusion.
Before the premiers were appointed by President Thabo Mbeki, most provinces were contested terrains with different factions competing for office. In some provinces there were candidates who were favoured by the provincial ANC structures but did not make it. Some just belonged to factions within provinces and tried to lobby for the positions. This has left the new premiers with the task of seeking to co-opt them or to forge ahead with governance and pay scant attention to political ambitions. Those who have chosen the latter path generally have the political clout to forge ahead.
It was easy for provinces such as Gauteng, where premier Mbhazima Shilowa, also chairperson of the Gauteng ANC, was respected by the Tripartite Alliance structures (the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party) and where no one else had expectations of premiership.
But in provinces such the Eastern Cape and the Free State, the new premiers have no authority over the ANC provincial structures and face the possibility of a competing power base. The efficiency of these provinces will be influenced by how the tensions between the government and the party are managed.
In Mpumalanga, incumbent Thabang Makwetla dropped all provincial ministers linked with corruption. He openly declared that his priority was to fight any remnants of corruption in a province more known for the buffoonery and corruptibility of its politicians than for solid governance.
Thabang Makwetla: Mpumalanga
Unlike other premiers, Makwetla did not feel hampered by political considerations. He went ahead and dropped former safety and security and public works MEC Steve Mabona, whose nine lives finally appear to be over. Mabona was fired by former premier Matthews Phosa because of corruption in his department but was re-appointed by Ndaweni Mahlangu in 1999.
Former provincial health minister Sibongile Manana, who doggedly refused to provide anti-retroviral drugs for Mpumalanga hospitals and whose department was implicated in corruption, is also gone.
A colleague described Makwetla thus: ”He is a very strict person. He is also an intellectual who respects the ANC. He is exactly the kind of person needed in Mpumalanga.”
In his appointments, Makwetla brought in fresh leadership but has retained many performing provincial ministers, including education minister Siphosezwe Masango and Jacob Mabena, the provincial minister of economic development and planning. He also covered his back by bringing closer ANC chairperson Fish Mahlalela, who was fired by Mahlangu.
While Makwetla may not be firmly rooted in the provincial cat fights, he commands respect on his own as a national executive member who was formerly chief whip in Parliament. Makwetla is also an Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran trusted enough by Mbeki to be sent to the province when it was engulfed by in-fighting in 2001.
Nosimo Balindlela: Eastern Cape
Mbeki cleared the way for surprise candidate Nosimo Balindlela by deploying former premier Makhenkesi Stofile to the national government. Balindlela was fired as education MEC in 1998 but has risen, phoenix-like, to her present position.
ANC provincial secretary Humphrey Maxegwana said the only sticking point in the party about the choice of provincial cabinet was whether to keep the finance, economic affairs, and environmental and tourism affairs department as one, or to break it up. In the end it was broken up and finance was given to ANC provincial heavyweight Enoch Godongwana, and tourism, economic and environmental affairs to newcomer AndrÃ