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Kimberley – A defiant Northern Cape Premier told the media that although she has met with the Provincial ANC Top 5, she stands by her decision to reshuffle her cabinet.
While she would not discuss party politics in the media, she wanted to state with a clear conscience that she did not concede to their demands to go back on her decision, she said in a statement.
It was issued shortly after a briefing by the ANC’s newly-elected provincial leaders in Kimberley. Lucas was not at this briefing.
Newly-elected provincial chairperson Zamani Saul and secretary Daluxolo Ngxanga said they had instructed Lucas to reverse the changes she made to her cabinet. She announced her reshuffle last Wednesday, a day before registration for the ANC’s 8th provincial elective conference in Colesburg got underway.
Lucas replaced finance MEC Mac Jack with ANC chief whip Gail Parker. Jack was believed to have been Saul’s chief lobbyist, according to a source who asked not to be named.
Lucas declined to accept nomination for the post of provincial ANC chairperson.
Sources said her faction planned a fight-back strategy and that she had the support of the ANCWL and ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte.
She allegedly planned to instruct her heads of departments and MECs not to take instructions from anyone except her, especially her nemesis - the current provincial leadership.
Saul, Luthuli House, and alliance partners expressed displeasure about her unwillingness to consult the party before changing her cabinet.
Saul said the first time he heard about it was when Duarte called him, on the day of the reshuffle.
“I later read in the media that she said she had consulted us.”
Ngxanga said in the ANC deployees like Lucas had to work with people they might not like.
