‘I give myself 12 out of 10 for what I’ve done’
Outgoing Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha has given himself full marks for a job well done in turning the province around after he was appointed to the position 11 years ago.
Mathabatha will not return as premier after the elections. He is on the ANC’s list to parliament in Cape Town. His pending departure has given rise to a succession race as the party searches for a woman candidate to replace him.
Mathabatha was recalled as the ambassador to Ukraine in 2013 to rescue a government administration that had collapsed owing to financial mismanagement and corruption. He replaced Cassel Mathale, an ally of former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema.
In 2011, the National Treasury put five departments in Limpopo under administration after the province ran out of money. There were allegations that Mathale’s inner circle, including Malema, were draining the provincial purse through dodgy tenders. A company with links to Malema, On Point Engineering, had won tenders in the provincial department. In some quarters, Mathabatha’s appointment was regarded as a move by thenpresident Jacob Zuma to deal with dissent, as Mathale and Malema were Zuma’s political rivals.
When Mathabatha took over, the province had six departments with disclaimer audit outcomes. This, he said, was a normal occurrence across the board, even in municipalities. However, this state of affairs had changed, and all the departments and a majority of municipalities were now in good financial shape.
“If it were possible,” Mathabatha says, letting out a giggle, “I would give myself 12 out of 10.”
“Remember, when I came [into office] in 2013, five key provincial government departments were under section 101b administration, which says the MECs in those departments did not have executive authorities — they were [just] sitting MECs. I used to call myself a sitting premier because the [provincial] treasury was under administration, and that meant the whole provincial government was under administration. I could not take a decision without consulting with the National Treasury, the administrators.”
“Most of those government departments were posting disclaimer audit opinions. In fact, we had about six disclaimers, [and] some even had adverse [audit opinions]. A disclaimer audit opinion was a common feature at that time, even in municipalities. Almost every second municipality had a disclaimer, and it was normal, which says the government was operating as if there [were] no laws.”
Mathabatha sought to turn this around and told MECs, mayors, heads of department and accounting authorities that if their departments or municipalities received a disclaimer audit opinion, they should also consider themselves “disclaimed” and “not come back”.
He says people did not take this directive seriously, so he decided to start dismissing and charging responsible people. He also roped in the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the Hawks and other law enforcement officials to assist him in this task.
Now the province has stabilised in terms of finances and service delivery.
“I leave this province in a much better state. I am almost sure that it will be extremely difficult for any incoming administration to reverse these gains. Why? Because we built systems, and they are running. They are intact, and these systems are run by personnel who are capable,” he says. “If you want to take this province back to 2011/2012, it will [be] a huge task, and all of [the] people will be in jail before you can do that.”
But as Mathabatha leaves for the National Assembly, many will remember him for a stunt he pulled at the ANC’s 2017 Nasrec conference, when as ANC chair of Limpopo he instructed a delegation from his province to ditch Cyril Ramaphosa and vote for Zweli Mkhize instead.
Ramaphosa had received an overwhelming endorsement from the majority of branches in Limpopo ahead of the conference, but at Nasrec Mathabatha and his deputy, Florence Radzilani, tried to sway Limpopo delegates to vote for Mkhize.
Mathabatha has, for the first time since the conference, broken his silence in the media over the incident, emphatically saying he did not sell anyone out. He was speaking to the Sunday Times on the sidelines of the ANC’s Limpopo provincial elections team meeting in Mokopane this week about his tenure as both premier and ANC chair of the province. He said he found himself in a difficult position after the Ramaphosa lobby group, CR22, headed by Mondli Gungubele and Derek Hanekom, had rejected his candidature for the national chair position.
Limpopo’s slate ahead of the conference had Ramaphosa as president, Paul Mashatile as deputy, Mathabatha as national chair, Mdumiseni Ntuli as secretary-general, and Nomvula Mokonyane as deputy secretarygeneral. Mathabatha says he was perplexed by the outright refusal by the CR22 lobby group, “which we thought we belonged to at the time”.
“As the [provincial executive committee] at that time we were refusing to change to join the other lobby group which was [supporting] Zweli Mkhize. We did not want to do that. But that lobby group said they were prepared to take all five names if we just agreed to the issue of Zweli. They would take Paul Mashatile, they would take everybody, the remaining five, if we [went] with them.
“We tried to persuade our comrades [CR22], but they refused. We said, ‘If you don’t take the whole five, take at least three or two from us,’ because we were the second-biggest delegation. They still refused. We then felt rejected, [so] we sat down and met as the [provincial executive committee] [to decide what to do]. Then there was no agreement in the [provincial executive committee] on that matter — [on] whether we should change or not change. Some comrades were saying, ‘Let’s change’, [while] some were saying, ‘We cannot change.’”
Because the provincial executive committee could not agree, the decision rested solely on his shoulders, Mathabatha says.
“But, ultimately, I then took a decision to say, ‘Let me bite the bullet. One versus five — what do you do? Let me go with this five, because these five will also help me to safeguard the 1,400 branches that nominated me. They can’t come back and say [I sold them out] by pulling out [on] the eve of conference.’ But it was very difficult to explain to the comrades, because comrades only look at the face [the presidential position]. They don’t look at the other dynamics — the other people within the slate. That was the dilemma I [found] myself in during that time.”
He says emphatically: “I did not sell out.”