The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has named finance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube as Sihle Zikalala’s replacement for premier, making her the first woman premier for the province.
Zikalala resigned last week after being ousted as the ANC’s chairperson in the province by MPL Siboniso Duma during the provincial elective conference in July. Zikalala, who is largely viewed as Cyril Ramaphosa’s ally, also failed to make it on to the provincial executive committee (PEC).
Nomusa Dube-Ncube has also been elected onto the PEC. She failed to meet the threshold in her attempt to compete with Duma and Zikalala for the chair position.
However, Dube-Ncube received the second largest number of votes for additional members of the party’s PEC at 1,118 votes, behind MEC for transport Peggy Nkonyeni, who received 1,215 votes.
Dube-Ncube beat Amanda Bani and Mbali Frazer, who were interviewed for the position of premier on Saturday by the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC).
“In terms of service delivery, a lot has been done by comrade Khuzeni [Zikalala] ... comrade Nomusa will continue,” Duma said on Monday during a media briefing.
Among her priorities as premier will be the expropriation of land, the recovery of the economy and “implementing the policies of the ANC to the T”, Duma says.
“We are going to be working with all our structures to ensure that the [directives the] ANC has given us are [implemented]”, Dube-Ncube says.
Dube-Ncube is yet to be elected into the position by the provincial legislature.
Her appointment by the provincial leadership deviates from ANC tradition by having the chairperson of the party also be the leader of the provincial cabinet.
Provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said Duma, the deputy secretary, Sipho Hlomuka and Nomagugu Simelane, who is the deputy chairperson, all declined the position, with Duma indicating to the provincial leadership that he is not ready for the position.
The party reiterated that there was no push from its side that Zikalala step down and instead wanted him to remain as premier until his term comes to an end in 2024.
“We do not believe at government he has done a bad job ... but when we were elected, we did not have a mandate to change the government ... society has not been fair in treating him and assessing him,” says Simelane.
Any changes to the rest of the provincial cabinet will likely be made by Dube-Ncube at a later stage.
“We will allow the premier to apply her mind,” Hlomuka says.
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