Rehana Rossouw
‘I HAVE never been so satisfied with a job well done as I was today,’ said Tito Mboweni, minister of labour and African National Congress troubleshooter hours after witnessing the swearing-in of South Africa’s first woman premier, Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, this week.
Round one went to Mboweni. Round two takes place in February, when the task group he heads, mandated by the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) to restore political order to the Free State, convenes the provincial conference.
‘People have accepted the fact that our task group had to correct the situation in the Free State. That was very evident today when there was a standing ovation in the packed public gallery of the provincial legislature,’ Mboweni said. ‘Ivy is a capable person and the appropriate choice for the historical moment we are dealing with.’
He said the provincial conference would have to decide whether there is a continuing role for his task group to play in the Free State.
Some disgruntled ANC members in the province claim Matsepe-Casaburri was foisted on the province by the NEC. Branches were told they could nominate a new premier after Terror Lekota was redeployed to the Senate. Although they claim none nominated Matsepe-Casaburri, her’s was the only name forwarded by the ANC.
But their threats in recent weeks of making the province ungovernable, of holding daily protests at the provincial legislative offices and of organising a huge march on Wednesday afternoon did not materialise. Only four people turned up for the march organised by the Crossroads Democratic Movement, formed recently to campaign for the reinstatement of Lekota.
However, in a passive show of resistance, the Free State branches of the South African National Civic Organisation, the Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions did not attend Matsepe-Casaburri’s inauguration.
The ANC’s fiercest opposition came from a Bloemfontein member, Edmund Qhali, who brought an urgent supreme court application to set aside Matsepe-Casaburri’s nomination. Hours before her election, the court discharged the application on the grounds it was not urgent. The hearing will be resumed on January 23.
Some ANC branches say they have not yet given up. ‘We might have lost Wednesday’s battle, but we certainly haven’t yet lost the war,’ said a member of an ANC Goldfield’s region branch. ‘Ivy may have been forced on us as a premier, but as far as the position of ANC chair is concerned, our understanding of the ANC constitution is that branches have the right to nominate any member in good standing, and any member has the right to stand for a position. That must include Terror Lekota as well.’
But a member of the QwaQwa region disputed this, saying the NEC would not allow the positions of ANC chair and premier to be split again between two people in the Free State. This was the cause of the political wrangling between Lekota and the former chair, Pat Matosa.