/ 7 October 2008

Gauteng set to elect new premier

The Gauteng provincial legislature is set to elect the African National Congress (ANC) chairperson in the province, Paul Mashatile, as its new premier on Tuesday.

He will succeed Mbhazima Shilowa, who resigned last week out of protest against the decision to oust former president Thabo Mbeki.

The ANC announced on Friday that Mashatile, who is also the Gauteng minister for finance and economic affairs, had been recommended for the job.

The provincial legislature will convene a special sitting on Tuesday morning to officially elect him.

Shilowa was criticised by the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, of which he is a former secretary general, when he publicly disagreed with the decision by the national executive committee to remove Mbeki from office. — Sapa