/ 12 November 2010

Premiers in firing line

Premiers In Firing Line

ANC leaders have proposed that Thandi Modise, ANC deputy secretary general and former speaker of the North West legislature, be moved from Luthuli House to Mafikeng to become premier of North West province.

The recent Cabinet reshuffle could result in premiers losing their positions in the North West and Eastern Cape and, in at least one case, the instruction to change the provincial legislature has come directly from ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe.

In a move that will shake up the North West political landscape, Modise, elected the ANC’s deputy secretary general at the Polokwane conference in 2007, is now tipped to replace Maureen Modiselle in the province’s top job.

It is expected that Modiselle, after learning about her demotion, will resign as a member of the North West legislature. “She will not agree to be an ordinary MP; she would prefer to stay at home,” said an ANC source in the province.

At its 2007 conference, the ANC restored the power to decide on premiers to provincial leaders.

It was agreed that the provincial executive committee (PEC) should forward three candidates to the national executive committee (NEC), which would then make the final decision.

But in both North West and the Eastern Cape the NEC appointed premiers who were not on the lists presented by provincial leaders.

Modiselle aligned herself with an interim structure called the provincial task team (PTT) after the dissolution of the provincial executive and was regularly accused of being a lame-duck premier whose important decisions were taken by the task team on her behalf.

The Mail & Guardian is in possession of a letter to the North West PTT dated November 9 and signed by ANC secretary general Mantashe telling it that the provincial electoral lists had been changed. Modise is on top of the list.

However, the decision to install Modise is likely to be met with resistance.

Unconstitutional
An ANC NEC member who asked to remain anonymous said the plan was unconstitutional.

“Luthuli House leaders are just doing as they wish. They did it for no other reason than expediency,” the member said. “Thandi is supposed to be at Luthuli House full time. They will have to call the national general council to discuss the matter and decide who should become deputy secretary general in her place.”

However, another source said Luthuli House felt that ANC’s structures in the North West were so weak that one needs a senior person like Modise to be brought in to stabilise the province.

Following Modise on the list of new legislature members is former mayor of Matlosane Magome Albanos Masike, who resigned as mayor and was succeeded by China Dodovu.

Masike is now a businessman, but has been serving on the provincial task team led by former ANC Youth League leader Saki Mofokeng.

ANC MP Hlomane Patrick Chauke is third on the list and is almost guaranteed a position in the legislature. Chauke was an ANC MP until a few months ago, when the party deployed him to North West to help coordinate preparation for next year’s local government elections.

He was asked to play an interventionist role amid tension between the provincial task team and provincial alliance structures.

Chauke is the former chairperson of Parliament’s home affairs committee, but lost the position after last year’s elections to become an ordinary MP.

In discussion
Meanwhile, Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet is set to be booted out to make way for South African Communist Party treasurer and ANC NEC member Phumullo Masualle.

Kiviet is due to pack her bags once the Eastern Cape PEC gets the go-ahead from Mantashe. Sources confirmed that the provincial leaders were in discussion with Mantashe about the reshuffle.

Kiviet reportedly said this week that she was under no obligation to reshuffle her provincial cabinet, indicating her resistance to the move by the provincial leadership.

She is not an elected member of the PEC, but was co-opted to the party leadership because of her position.

“The reality is that the provincial ANC decided at its conference in 2008 that the provincial chairperson must become the premier. There is a paralysis created by the fact that the provincial leadership and government leadership are not aligned,” a PEC member involved in the
reshuffle talks told the M&G.

The NEC decided that Kiviet should become premier partially to achieve a gender balance in the nine provinces, but she was not on the list of possible premiers sent to Luthuli House by the provincial leadership.

“We decided to relax on that matter because we wanted to prioritise stability in the province first,” said a provincial leader, explaining the acceptance of the Luthuli House decision.

The key question is whether Masualle will get rid of his rival, provincial finance minister Mcebisi Jonas.

Some insiders who support Jonas said Masualle would want an inclusive cabinet and would not alienate Jonas and his supporters. However, others fear that the divide is too wide and the fight to win the chairpersonship too bruising.

Plans are also afoot to centralise the provincial treasury and monitoring and evaluation functions in the premier’s office. This would ensure better management, a PEC member said.

Eastern Cape ANC secretary Oscar Mabuyana refused to comment.

‘It’s just a rumour’
Although there has been speculation that Limpopo is next in line to reshuffle its cabinet, Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale told the M&G this week that things would stay as they are.

“It’s just a rumour. We haven’t discussed the reshuffle. It’s not for me to decide whether to reshuffle the provincial cabinet. If we do that, we’ll have to discuss it with the party and that hasn’t happened,” said Mathale.

His office this week issued a statement saying that “opinions that disapprove [of] certain members of [the executive council] and calling for the provincial cabinet reshuffle are misleading”.

City Press reported on Sunday that four Limpopo ministers, including health and social development minister Miriam Segabutla, safety and security minister Dikeledi Magadzi, agriculture minister and provincial ANC treasurer Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, and sports, arts and culture minister Joyce Mashamba, are likely to be removed.