KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC and African National Congress (ANC)’s nominee for Premier in the province, Nomusa Dube-Ncube says she will focus on addressing the province’s socioeconomic difficulties, including poverty and unemployment.
Dube-Ncube is the party’s first woman nominee for the position of premier. She replaces outgoing Premier Sihle Zikalala, who resigned this week.
ANC’s nominee for premier in KZN Nomusa Dube-Ncube to focus on tackling socio-economic challenges:
After weeks of speculation, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has confirmed Dube-Ncube as its nominee for the position.
Addressing the media, the party’s provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, says she is best suited for the position due to her experience in government.
“As we are making history by introducing officially and announcing the first woman premier-elect to the people of KZN, as the ANC in KZN we have moved one step ahead to the realisation of women emancipation. Today it is our great pleasure to announce comrade Nomusa Dube Ncube as the premier nominee.”
Dube-Ncube’s background
Dube-Ncube has served in the provincial legislature since 2009 when she was appointed ANC Chief Whip. That year, she was appointed MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
She held this position for 10 years, before being appointed MEC for Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs in 2019. She is currently MEC for Finance.
She accepted the position, admitting that the province has several key issues to deal with.
“Here are many crippling issues that we are facing in the province, dealing with the socio-economic challenges that we are facing, issues of unemployment that we are facing as a province but also more if you look at the NDP and the provincial growth and development strategy, it talks about government needing to champion the services to the people and talks about a capable state and the economic growth and reflect on demographics of our people even in rural areas. We talk about the economic development in those areas.”
Zikalala’s resignation
ANC Provincial Deputy Chairperson Nomagugu Simelane also brushed off rumours that Zikalala was pushed to resign.
“Sihle Zikalala was never pushed to resign but made an offer to us as the leadership, which we firstly declined. However, he made much persuasion which compelled this leadership to accede to his decision as our senior and a cadre of our movement. As much as we disagreed with his offer to resign as premier, we respected it and eventually agreed that he resigned.”
Sihle Zikalala briefs media after his resignation:
KZN demographics
When asked about concerns that the recently elected leadership does not accurately reflect the province’s demographics, ANC regional chairperson, Sboniso Duma, said they plan to co-opt other members, to ensure fair representation.
“KZN is comprised of different races and the ANC as the movement has been embracing the different components. The reality is that if the conference has not elected someone from the national groups then it is the duty of the PEC to ensure that when we do the extension called the co-option, we do co-opt them. But you might find that in all sectors the ANC has deployed the strategic pillars those coming from national, groups. So, even in this PEC just rest assured that we will co-opt the national groups.”
Dube-Ncube is expected to be sworn in at the legislature later this week.
