Mmanaledi Mataboge quizzes the newly elected North West ANC chairperson, Supra Mahumapelo, on plans to focus on governance rather than infighting.
Why should we believe that stability will return to the North West now a new leadership has been elected?
It is not my responsibility alone as a chairperson to unite the province. It is the collective responsibility of the provincial executive committee, regional executive committees, branches, individual members of the ANC, NGOs, ANC deployees and other sectors of the society.
You were elected a few months before the local government elections. Will you be able to pull off a successful campaign?
We are going to win all the municipalities and even increase the percentage. The lessons we learned in the past, particularly in 2006, were that we should not rush decisions relating to the deployment of individuals in municipalities. There must be necessary consultation with members and alliance structures so that we get their buy-in and to ensure no one is excluded.
What are you going to do to improve governance in general in the province?
There is a framework for issues of mandate and accountability that we are going to discuss as the ANC and also with our deployees in government. There will be agreement on how to receive reports on a quarterly basis and how to monitor the performance of municipalities. These reports will ensure that we don’t rely on sporadic information. Communication channels are going to be strengthened between the office of the provincial chairperson and the premier’s office, as well as between the office of the provincial secretary and the chief whip.
What is your plan to turn around the 90% of municipalities said to be dysfunctional in one of the conference reports and attributed by the task team to the fact that incompetent officials were appointed to positions because of their loyalty to a faction in the ANC?
We don’t have a report that says: “In this municipality this is the situation and this is how things ought to be done,” We don’t have a report that says: “These are the performance objectives of this municipality and this is how it performed.” We need to know if the problems of municipalities in the North West are unique to this province. The new PEC [provincial executive committee] will look into this.
There’s not a single woman in the top five officials elected at the weekend. Isn’t that rather insensitive?
The ANC constitution says a provincial executive committee should have 50% or more women. More than 50% of the officials in the PEC are women. I do acknowledge the fact that, ideally, you should have women in the official echelons of the ANC. But that does not take away the right of the delegates to elect who they want.
You led the PEC that was disbanded, but now you have been re-elected. Do you see this as a slap in the face for those who wanted to get rid of you?
No. There is no sense of triumph. My re-election is an entrenchment of the necessary democratic processes of the ANC. The election of Philly Mapulane [the former Madibeng municipal manager facing corruption charges] as provincial treasurer has caused unhappiness. Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe asked ANC members to vote according to their hearts, to vote for the people they believed were good leaders. It resulted in delegates voting Philly Mapulane in as well. If he is found guilty, we will address that issue according to the prescriptions of the ANC constitution. We believe in the rule of law.
There’s also concern about having an ANC provincial chairperson who is not a premier, resulting in two centres of power. How are you going to work with Premier Thandi Modise to avoid any tensions on that front?
We agreed in Polokwane that there is only one centre of power and that is the ANC. Thandi Modise and I have been working together for many years. There is mutual respect. We agreed that we would have an unhindered and unrestricted channel of communication and that we would meet regularly. As far as I am concerned, comrade Thandi must remain premier until she sees her period of deployment through. She will attend meetings of the provincial working committee and the provincial executive committee as part of dealing with this myth of two centres of power.