Political analyst Professor Barry Hanyane believes the delay in North West Premier Job Mokgoro resigning is a reflection of the sour relationship between him and the ANC Interim Provincial Committee.
The Office of the Speaker of the legislature has confirmed that it has not yet received a resignation letter from Mokgoro. He was expected to resign both as premier and a member of the legislature. The ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee announced Bushy Maape as Premier-elect.
The IPC has been calling for the removal of Mokgoro, who it accuses of not taking instructions from the party.
Prof Hanyane says things aren’t good between the ANC’s IPC and Mokgoro. “It’s a reflective of the misalignment in communication but more so the bad relationship that Prof Mokgoro has been experiencing especially with the interim structure. He might not find comfort and solace from Luthuli House for obvious reasons. I mean this is where you would expect a well-functioning SG’s office to intervene and give support and give directions as to which trajectory, which line or due process must be followed.”
He adds that Mokgoro’s matter should have been handled and managed properly by the ruling party.
“One phone call, a meeting can be organised and clarity might be sorted without involving the public, without involving the fourth state being the media. So that, in the end, is more solution-driven than unfortunately exposing the amount of fear tricks that in the end do not add value when it comes to matters of normalising the situation here in the province.”
When announcing Maape as premier-elect, coordinator for the provincial IPC, Hlomane Chauke said, “Having done the proper assessment, the ANC came to this conclusion that we will definitely have to get someone else who will come in and take from where comrade Job has left. We had a lot of challenges that we had to deal with. I think at some point we then identified a number of weaknesses and one of those was the manner in which government is run at the level of having other people who are not meant to give instructions or command.”
Opposition parties react
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West have criticised the removal of Mokgoro and the subsequent appointment of Maape.
EFF Member in the Legislature, Lebogang Xaba says, “They have run out of ideas because they don’t know who to trust. I am feeling sorry for the voters because they are taking the voters for a ride.”
The DA’s Freddy Sonakile says, “This shows that the ANC has run out of options. What is mainly of concern for us as the DA is the fact that Bushy Maape has been the advisor to Premier Mokgoro. So it does not really solve anything because some of the things that they are accusing Mr Mokgoro of doing happened under the watch of Bushy Maape. So basically it is not really changing anything.”
