The North West province will have a new premier by 8 June. This is according to the provincial legislature which on Friday also officially confirmed the resignation of Supra Mahumapelo as premier. Finance MEC Wendy Nelson will continue to act as premier in the interim.
The North West Legislature made its final confirmation about the resignation of Supra Mahumapelo. The provincial Legislature Secretary Oageng Mosiane made the announcement during a media briefing. “The provincial government has on the 23 May received a letter from Premier Mahumapelo that he is resigning from his position as the Premier of the North West.”
However, it is certainly not the last that we will see of Mahumapelo. Not only is he still the Chairperson of the African National Congress in the province but according to Mosiane, Mahumapelo remains an ordinary Member of Parliament. “Remember that premier (former) was deployed twice. He was deployed as premier of the province and he was also deployed as member of the legislature. The letter that the speaker has received indicated that he is just vacating the office of the premier.”
Meanwhile, there is seemingly no agreement still on which three candidates should be nominated to take over as the next premier. This as the ANC Provincial Executive Committee has proposed three candidates, which the alliance partners in the province are not agreeing with.
The party has proposed the names of current acting premier Wendy Nelson, legislature speaker and acting ANC Provincial Secretary, Suzan Dantjie and Former Education MEC, Johannes Tselapedi.
Sanco Provincial Secretary, Paket Seaketso, says they do not agree with the proposed names. “We have serious reservations with the three names submitted. The reason being in our view, this is not a normal situation. It is an abnormal situation. We expect the National Executive Committee to make a necessary political intervention because this is an abnormal situation. Therefore we are not agreeing to that and we have made it clear to the officials of the ANC yesterday (Thursday) that indeed as Sanco, Cosatu and SACP in the province, we are not agreeing to those but we don’t have a name. We want the National Executive Committee to bring someone credible, with unbreakable record, who would unify the community of the North West and the alliance as well.”
Alliance partners and those who have pressurised Mahumapelo to resign, are proposing that ANC Veterans League’s provincial chairperson, Pitso Tolo be considered by the party’s national leadership to succeed Mahumapelo. The party’s national leadership is expected to finally take a decision on who should become the provincial premier during its meeting over this weekend. Click below for more on the story:
