High expectations for Northern Cape premier’s inaugural speech

EXPECTATIONS are high that new Northern Cape Premier Sylvia Lucas will announce much more than just her replacement at the province’s environmental affairs department today.

The former MEC was sworn in as premier last week after Hazel Jenkins resigned as both premier and a member of the provincial legislature. Ms Jenkins collapsed while delivering her state-of-the-province address last year after suffering a brain aneurysm.

Ms Lucas is due to make her inaugural speech today.

Along with Gauteng, the Northern Cape, which is run by the African National Congress (ANC), is a target for the Democratic Alliance (DA) in next year’s elections.

Political analyst Andre Duvenhage, of North-West University, said Ms Lucas has until the elections next year to stabilise the province. This might be an uphill battle given the two centres of power in the province, which pit her against ANC provincial chairman and finance MEC John Block. Speculation was that Ms Lucas’s appointment took so long — more than a year — because Mr Block’s faction was against it.

“Given the fact that the province had to produce a woman candidate for the post, Lucas seemed to be a good choice since she is not embroiled in any major scandals,” said Prof Duvenhage.

However, with the DA keeping the Northern Cape in its sights for the elections, her political career will depend on how the ANC performs in the poll, said Prof Duvenhage.

DA leader in the province Andrew Louw said he hopes Ms Lucas will announce a cabinet reshuffle instead of just the appointment of a new MEC.

“We are all very aware of the fact that she has no easy task, but being a successful premier will also mean that she will have to get rid of people that live fraudulent lives and do no good to the province. She will have to reshuffle her cabinet to fix the problems of the past in order for the public to treat her seriously,” he said.

Ms Lucas’s office would not give an indication of the nature of her announcement in her speech today.

The Congress of the People (COPE) in the Northern Cape played down Ms Lucas’s role, saying she would only be a caretaker, because President Jacob Zuma was likely to appoint a new set of public officials after next year’s elections.

“Given that the term of office will expire shortly, she will not be able to make a fundamental difference. She is faced with major challenges and we do not know if she’ll be able to address these challenges in the very short space of time allocated to her,” said Pakes Dikgetsi, a COPE MPL.

Mr Dikgetsi also said the new premier’s top priority should be to restore public confidence in the provincial executive. He said a study from Ipsos Markinor had shown that 51% of the population in the province no longer has confidence in the executive. To rectify this, Ms Lucas would have to “climb a mountain of corruption, ineptitude and poor service delivery”.