No surprises in reshuffle
THERE were no surprises when Northern Cape Premier Sylvia Lucas announced her newly reshuffled cabinet and the replacements for the vacant MEC positions yesterday afternoon.
Former MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison, Martha Bartlett, will now serve as the MEC for Education, a position that has been vacant since August 2015 following the death of then MEC Grizelda Cjiekella-Lecholo. Bartlett had been acting in the position.
The former MEC for Health, Mac Jack, will take over as the MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, a position that was left vacant when John Block resigned after he was found guilty of corruption and money laundering in October last year.
Jack’s position as MEC for Health will be filled by the former MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture, Lebogang Mothlaping.
One of new faces in Lucas’ cabinet is Bongiwe Priscilla Mbinqo-Gigaba, the current ANC Northern Cape Chief Whip and ANC Youth League provincial chairwoman, as MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture.
Pauline Williams also returns to the Northern Cape Legislature in the position of MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison. She was previously the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture but her term was not renewed following the 2014 national election.
Former Khara Hais mayor in Upington, Gift van Staden, will, as anticipated, take over as MEC for Social Development.
Van Staden has strong connections to Block and was the subject of a Hawks investigation in 2003 with regards to business links between Van Staden and Block involving the lease of municipal proper- ties in Upington.
Debts amounting to R160 000, which were owed by one of Block’s business ventures, were written off by the council in 2009 when Van Staden was serving as executive mayor of the Khara Hais Municipality.
Block and Van Staden were also business partners in a salt mine, SA Soutwerke, which is still embroiled in legal battles with Saamwerk Soutwerke.
Mbinqo-Gigaba also has strong ties to Block and strongly supported him after he was found guilty.
She was quoted as saying that Block, as a “child of the movement”, was “a disciplined cadre who would always subject himself to the mandate of the ANC” and was “known to have taken principled decisions in the past which were sometimes detrimental to himself as a person”.
At the time, she added that she was disappointed that Block had not been acquitted along with co-accused Alvin Botes.
Further shuffling by Lucas includes the replacement of Roads and Public Works MEC, Dawid Rooi, who has been completely ousted, by former MEC for Social Development, Simon Sokatsha.
Only three MECs retained their portfolios, namely Alvin Botes, MEC for Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Norman Shushu, MEC for Agriculture, and Tiny Chotelo, MEC for Environment and Nature Conservation.
The ANC yesterday supported the changes.
The party’s provincial secretary, Zamani Saul, said the changes responded to certain imperatives, including geographic spread, generational mix, gender parity and “putting together a coherent team of MECs”.