Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela is expected to be booted out of provincial government as a reshuffle looms.
Sunday World has been reliably informed by sources close to the provincial executive committee (PEC) that the new ANC leadership in the province is
expected to table a move for drastic changes.
Insiders within the ANC and the PEC revealed that Mxolisi Dukwana is already warming up to take up his responsibility as the premier after Ntombela, who was challenging him for the position of chairperson, failed to garner sufficient support in Bloemfontein last weekend.
According to senior ANC leaders in the province, it is alleged Ntombela was dealt a huge blow because she is understood to be “still aligned to the former controversial ANC secretary general Ace Magashule”, though she never publicly displayed her alliance to him.
Ntombela, alongside her MECs, excluding Dukwana, failed to make the final list of the PEC, as it became obvious that Dukwana would clinch victory.
“Sisi’s rise to prominence was engineered by Ace and others in the provincial executive council.
“Many MECs in Sisi’s cabinet were supporting her to be elected chairperson, but she failed to garner enough votes. What is worse is that Sisi and all her MECs failed to make an impact at the conference, except for Mxolisi, who is the MEC of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, emerging as chairperson. Sisi will be the first to get the chop as a premier to make way for Mxolisi, then her MECs will follow.
“The state of the province will be delivered by Mxolisi, not Sisi,” a member of the newly elected PEC said.
Another ANC leader stated that the matter had to be be treated with caution. “The PEC is treading carefully on the imminent removal of Sisi and her MECs, as this could create more political turmoil in the province.
“We need to understand that when Ramaphosa was talking about the renewal of the ANC, he was clearly stating that the Magashule cabal that caused so much trouble within the ANC in the province was out in the cold, but we need to avoid stepping on the toes of jilted factions,” said the PEC member.
MECs such as Montsheng Tsiu, Tate Makgoe, Makalo Mohale, William Bulwane, Thembeni Nxangisa, Limakatso Mahasa, Mamiki Qabathe, Gadija Brown and speaker Zanele Sifuba, failed to make it to the PEC list.
Makgoe was number 34, and received 146 votes while Thabo Manyoni, who was also contesting for chairperson position, received only 66 votes, with Vusi Tshabalala, the former chief whip, getting 29 votes while the former interim provincial committee coordinator Paseka Nompondo got 23 votes.
Edgar Legoale, the ANCYL regional chairperson in Fezile Dabi, has called on the PEC to retain Makgoe as the MEC of education despite him not making it in to the top 30 of the PEC list. “We wish to call on the PEC to consider the option of co-opting comrade Tate Makgoe,” said Legoale.
“Magashule’s influence has been dislodged. On Monday, Dukwana had a meeting with Manyoni, and both have been victims of Ace’s vitriol”.
Sello Dithebe, who defected to Cope from the ANC in 2010 when he suffered humiliation from Magashule, made a comeback as a PEC member in Dukwana’s new leadership. Dithebe was one of the politicians in the province who took the ANC to court in 2018 after complaining the provincial conference in 2017 was a farce.
At the time Dithebe said: “We have experienced a great deal of prejudice. There has been a great deal of cheating and manipulation.”
Former Free State premier and suspended ANC secretary-general Magashule said: “I can’t comment about people I don’t even know.
“I really have not been focused on the politics of the ANC in the Free State because I wanted to give leaders a chance and I gave them a chance. I focused on national politics instead.
“I did not want to be blamed if people succeeded or failed. I decided to disengage.”
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