Johannesburg -The appointment of a key figure in the CR17 campaign, Jomo Sibiya, pictured, to the Kwa- Zulu-Natal provincial cabinet has angered the radical economic transformation faction aligned to ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and amplified sharp voices calling for the head of premier Sihle Zikalala.
This is according to senior ANC sources in the province who say Sibiya was elevated to the 10-member cabinet despite his name being rejected by the majority of members in the provincial deployment committee, including the SACP.
“The premier took us by surprise. Comrades in the committee had advanced a view that in order to reconcile and build unity ahead of local government elections and beyond, comrade Super Zuma should receive the nod,” said the source who was part of the deployment committee.
“The position agreed by the majority was that he was senior and more deserving because he unduly lost the provincial secretary position at the DUT [Durban University of Technology] elective conference.”
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Sunday World understands that the deployment meeting was held on Sunday last week to consider a number of names for the vacant portfolio of transport, community safety and liaison.
For close to two months, the department was without a political head following the sudden passing of Bheki Ntuli due to Covid-19-related complications.
The meeting was said to have been tense and degenerated as ANC factions and alliance partners fought it out, refusing to agree with Sibiya’s deployment , which led to the meeting taking longer than anticipated.
Zikalala made the surprise announcement of Sibiya’s appointment in the provincial legislature on Tuesday. Before his appointment, Sibiya was the chairperson of the committee on education.
He was also a key figure in the CR17 campaign in the province, which propelled President Cyril Ramaphosa to the party’s presidency at the 2017 ANC elective conference at Nasrec.
The SACP had wanted its provincial chairperson and former eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo to be appointed.
SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu said: “We have conveyed our concern to the ANC with the recent deployment, including the cabinet reshuffle. We have also raised issues about last year’s redeployment of comrade Nomusa Dube-Ncube. Another source said that the ANC Women’s League had rallied behind Super Zuma or Nontombeko Boyce, the ANC caucus chairperson in the provincial legislature.
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