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Those who orchestrated protest action in the North West under the guise of a “people’s demand” for Supra Mahumapelo to resign as premier must be taken to task by the ANC.
These words were the parting shots made by Mahumapelo as he announced that he would be taking an early retirement from his position as premier today.
A jovial Mahumapelo appeared alongside ANC officials Jessie Duarte and Ace Magashule at Luthuli House, where the much-anticipated announcement was made.
“So one has arrived at the conscious decision, a very conscious decision, to say we’ll have to make sure that one is allowed to go on early retirement on this particular matter. So that those two processes can go on unhindered and without perceptions of one using the office to either defend himself or get at other people who seem to be differing with one politically,” Mahumapelo said.
It was up to Magashule to clarify – without “parables”, he said, taking a playful dig at Mahumapelo – that the premier had taken a decision to step down.
“Let me just put it in simple terms, no parables. Comrade Supra is today resigning as the premier of North West and I think in that process he is assisting the ANC to deal with all challenges which we are supposed to deal with so that he doesn’t become an obstacle to solving whatever problems,” Magashule said.
For his part, Mahumapelo did not once refer to his move as a resignation but kept repeating that he was taking early retirement.
The former premier ended off his address saying, “aluta continua; the struggle continues.”
It’s understood that the decision for Mahumapelo to go was taken by the ANC’s national working committee, which sat on Monday and met with the provincial working committee in the province.
Mahumapelo fought tooth and nail to hold on to his position in recent weeks, claiming that he and others who were against the emergence of Cyril Ramaphosa at the ANC’s Nasrec conference last year were being purged by the victors of the conference. He also claimed that there were plans to assassinate him.
At the height of the protest action, which gutted parts of the province, Mahumapelo announced that he would create “the essence of the absence of presence” followed by an announcement that he would resign. However, a day after he waxed lyrical, the provincial executive committee of the ANC in the province, which he chairs, took a decision that he should not resign as premier.
Mahumapelo’s fight with his detractors is not yet over as he remains in the powerful position of chairperson of the province. He said today that the ANC must devote his energies to uncovering the counter revolutionary forces which were masquerading as disgruntled residents of the North West. He went as far as to single out the revolutionary council – a lobby group made up of former ANC leaders in the province who had been making the call for Mahumapelo to step down.
The staunch ally of former president Jacob Zuma made a show of the legacy he was leaving behind, announcing with great pride that his administration had totally done away with the bucket system, though there were still some challenges by way of malfunctioning departments.
In fact, so dire is the state of governance in the province that an inter-ministerial task team headed up by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma opted to bench the entire government by putting it under administration – the greatest indication yet that governance in the province was on life support.
Duarte was at pains to emphasise that the party was tasked with rebuilding in the province as well as in the organisation, calling for the lobby groups for Dlamini-Zuma (NDZ17) and Ramaphosa (CR17) to dismantle and rally behind the newly elected leadership of the ANC, which was made up of leaders from both factions.
