A woman holds up an ANC flag during a rally. Photo: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Thulani Mbele

ANC NEC reveals candidate recommendations for Premier of Province

The ANC still needs to decide on North West.

by Andile Sicetsha

14-05-2019 11:44

in News

A woman holds up an ANC flag during a rally. Photo: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Thulani Mbele

A day after the ANC NEC met in Irene, Pretoria, to discuss the leadership of the eight provinces it won in the 2019 elections, a consensus has been reached on who the seven Premier candidates should be.

As reported by Sowetan Live, provincial branches in every province, except the Western Cape, submitted three candidates for the Premier position.

ANC NEC special meeting outcomes

The sitting, according to Magashule, was convened to make recommendations on who, of the three for each province, should be appointed in the coveted position.

North West and Supra

North West still presents a problem and according to the party’s secretary-general, Ace Magashule, this is still being finalised.

Earlier in the year, Supra Mahumapelo won a court bid against the party on his unfair dismissal from this vacancy.

Is Mbalula going to take up North West?

While the party has been forced to iron out those creases, EFF leader, Julius Malema — a man renowned to have moles lurking in the corridors of Luthuli House where he once served — teased some controversial information on the preferred candidate for North West.

Mbalula’s tweet was invaded by Malema who asked him, “How are you NW premier candidate ?”

The people had missed Radio Juju with news that aren’t news.

Good morning Chief, have some breakfast and leave such speculative questions for Samkele Maseko

Aita DW
— Mr Fearfokkol | Forever Young (@MbalulaFikile) May 14, 2019

Women given consideration

While we have been left to speculate, Magashule revealed that the more important thing to consider is the ANC NEC efforts to address gender-based inequalities within its ranks.

“In arriving at its decision the NEC was guided by the following principles and approaches gender parity; unity and stability in ANC structures; youth and intergenerational mix; experience and; integrity…
“There was a consensus that in instances where the premier is a female there shall be at least 50-50 representation in the provincial executive. Speakers in all provinces will be women irrespective of whether the premier is male or female,” he explained.

This is not exactly what the requests of the ANC Women’s League were — 50-50 representation in Premier positions — but for the party, it is progress nonetheless.

These are the recommended Premier candidates for each province: