Panyaza Lesufi is set for a return as Gauteng premier if the ANC retains power after the ongoing coalition talks.
The ANC on Thursday announced its premier candidates after interviews early this week.
Phophi Ramathuba has been announced as the ANC premier candidate for Limpopo, where the party garnered 74% of the vote in the May 29 polls, with Zamani Saul set to be retained in the Northern Cape with the help of minority parties after failing to win an outright majority.
The ANC has also announced Oscar Mabuyane will return to power in the Eastern Cape. The party has opted to install a woman, Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae, in the Free State instead of incumbent Mxolisi Dukwana, who was expected to be retained.
Letsoha-Mathae is seemingly becoming a popular politician in ANC circles, having been elected as women’s league treasurer-general last year when she won with a big margin. She replaces Dukwana, who was last year elected as the Free State provincial chair.
The ANC’s chair in Mpumalanga, Mandla Ndlovu, has got his wish of leading the province as premier after the party decided to snub national executive committee member Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane. The ANC in Mpumalanga got 51% in the elections and will be able to easily install Ndlovu. The party will also install Lazarus “Lazzy” Mokgosi in the North West.
“The ANC national officials believe [these] comrades are equal to the challenges of our struggle for a better life for all that requires honest, capable and dedicated leaders,” said secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
The interview process by the ANC officials led by President Cyril Ramaphosa was overseen by the party’s electoral committee led by Kgalema Motlanthe. It is yet to be announced where the former premiers of the Free State and Mpumalanga, Dukwana and Mtsweni-Tsipane, will be redeployed. They are known Ramaphosa allies.
“The electoral committee expressed appreciation for the rigorous, thorough and impartial approach by the national officials at a time when they were required to provide leadership in many other pressing national developments,” the ANC said in the statement.
The ANC’s premier candidates will be under pressure to deliver if the party is to have any hope of reversing its electoral decline in recent polls.
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