Gauteng now has a political head for its finance department whose experience with finances is largely unknown, after premier David Makhura caved in to pressure and moved his first choice, Panyaza Lesufi, back to the education portfolio.
Gauteng is the economic heartland of SA and is the country’s largest contributor to the GDP. One of its biggest challenges is dealing with urban migration into the province.
On Friday Makhura had the first reshuffle of his executive council less than a day after the MECs were sworn in, following pressure from the public, the education sector and politicians.
Makhura was re-elected premier with a narrow majority after the ANC hung on to the province with 50.19% of the vote following the 2019 general elections in May.
Lesufi’s popularity as education MEC, before he was moved to the finance & e-government portfolio, is significant, with even basic education minister Angie Motshekga labelling his initial move from the portfolio as a “big mistake”.
Returning Lesufi to education could have been influenced by Gauteng’s election results, which placed the governing party just over the fence in terms of voter support.
Makhura said the “overall nonpartisan feedback from society, the education sector and the movement in general is that it will serve Gauteng better that [Lesufi] remains in the education portfolio to continue the good work of ensuring that our province is the leader and pioneer of educational transformation”.
Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, who is former deputy speaker of the legislature, is now finance MEC. She is also the deputy secretary of the ANC in Gauteng, which makes her politically senior in the province.
An IOL report in 2009 said that then Gauteng agriculture, conservation & environment MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko resigned after reports that she hurriedly purchased the rare ML 63 AMG Mercedes-Benz for her husband with taxpayer money and lost it overnight after her husband was hijacked outside their home in Tulisa Park, Alberton. She had been in the job for only 25 days.
Adriana Randall, finance spokesperson for the DA in Gauteng, said the move comes across as the ANC merely swapping the positions — Nkomo-Ralehoko was initially education MEC — and that the senior finance portfolio now looked like a second prize.
Randall said Nkomo-Ralehoko is a senior politician in the governing party, but not much is known about her experience in finance. She said Nkomo-Ralehoko was not on the province’s finance portfolio committee during Makhura’s first term in office.
She said Nkomo-Ralehoko’s appointment came as a shock, as speculation had been that Lesufi as well as Lebogang Maile, now the MEC of human settlements, urban planning, co-operative governance & traditional affairs, were possible replacements for former finance MEC Barbara Creecy, who has been elevated to a ministerial post.
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