Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool will resign with effect from Friday, African National Congress (ANC) national chairperson Baleka Mbete has announced.
Briefing the media in Cape Town on Wednesday, Mbete said provincial minister of finance and tourism Lynne Brown will take over from Rasool.
Mbete emphasised there is no process of ”purging or punishment” in the ANC’s decision to replace Rasool. ”There is no such thing,” she said. The ANC is looking at a whole range of issues facing it ahead of next year’s general election.
This necessary ”political intervention” will give the ANC a chance to ”work better” as it prepares for the next elections, Mbete said.
This is not the first time the ANC has changed the deployment of cadres. She cited the redeployment of former Free State premier Mosiuoa Lekota and his Mpumalanga counterpart, Matthews Phosa, in the past.
”From time to time we make such changes,” Mbete said.
The ANC looks at the challenges in a particular area at a particular time on an ongoing basis to see if the deployment of cadres is ”sustainable”.
At the moment, this political intervention is in the best interests of the ANC and the province. It is now necessary for the ANC to focus on the next election.
Asked about changes to the provincial executive, Mbete said the ANC will ”cross that bridge” after Brown has taken up her new position.
Rasool said it comes as a great moment of personal relief for him although he does ”feel a bit sad and disappointed”.
He has a ”good balance of sadness and relief”.
Rasool said it is clear the ANC leadership in the province needs to be ”strengthened” in the run-up to the next election, and he does not want to put the ANC through further pain.
”My resignation was always going to be the only option.”
He understands the ANC’s objectives behind the move.
He also feels ”absolutely comfortable” that he is not the victim of a purge or being singled out, and is leaving with dignity and honour.
Rasool said he remains a loyal and disciplined party member and will continue working for an ANC victory in the Western Cape in the next election.
His resignation does not mean he is ending his ties with the ANC and he will discuss aspects of his future deployment with the ANC’s national leadership, as he is also resigning as a member of the provincial legislature.
Rasool said it is too early to say what he will be doing in future, but has to ”rediscover” himself.
He also pledged his full support for Brown.
Meanwhile, the South African Broadcasting Corporation has reported that the ANC will announce a successor to embattled Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela as soon as she returns from China.
Party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said Balindlela will be asked to resign when she returns on Thursday. He cited her ”poor” service delivery record as the reason for the move.
According to Mantashe, the ANC has already decided who should take over the reins, but he could not confirm the appointment while the premier is overseas.
‘Gets things done’
Brown (46) has a no-nonsense attitude that probably has its roots in her early life as a teacher.
”I can’t bear working in an environment where things don’t get done. I’m not a flamboyant type of person, I get things done,” she told an interviewer some years ago.
Brown was born in Cape Town 1961 and grew up in the coloured suburb of Mitchells Plain.
She trained and worked as a teacher for a number of years, and continued to take a keen interest in education even when politics came to dominate her life.
She was involved in the United Democratic Front from its formation in 1983 until its disbandment, sitting on its finance committee.
Brown joined the ANC in 1987 and was elected to the party’s Western Cape provincial executive and working committees in 1999.
In the 2000 local government elections she stood as the ANC’s candidate for mayor of Cape Town, against the Democratic Alliance’s Peter Marais, and lost.
Instead of joining the ANC in opposition on the city council after her defeat, she stayed in the legislature, where in May 2004 she was appointed provincial minister for finance, economic development and tourism.
The portfolio has since been renamed finance and tourism.
At the ANC’s Polokwane conference in 2007, she was voted in at number 49 of the 80 ordinary members of the party’s national executive committee.
Brown’s personal interests are said to be playing golf, reading and ”an admiration of arts and culture”. — Sapa