ANC: No crisis with premiers

2008-07-16 19:03

Cape Town - ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has rejected suggestions that there is confusion about the future of some premiers and Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool in particular.

After addressing a meeting of asset managers in Cape Town on Wednesday, Mantashe was faced with a barrage of questions from the media about Rasool's future and whether he was to be fired.

Mantashe said: "There is no confusion in the ANC. We're in the middle of a process and we are going to move with that process at a pace that we are moving at.

"We are going to resist succumbing to pressure that is undue on us to miss some of the steps.

"We're going to do everything according to the policies, step by step, and make the announcement of the outcome at the end of that process."

Mantashe said the ANC's national executive committee (NEC) had recently discussed problems in five provinces - the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape, the North West, and Free State.

Situation not the same

"And, in all those provinces, we looked into a number of issues," he said.

The situation was not the same in each province, with a "one size fits all" solution.

In the Eastern Cape, for example, it was "more than just the premier". There were problems in a number of departments and in local government.

"So, it's not just about premiers, it's about the provinces.

Mantashe said the party was still processing the issues and appealed for "space" to do so.

"If we say somebody must leave as a premier, we don't stop there as the ANC; we say where do we deploy him?

"Now you want us to make a pronouncement before we conclude that debate. You are actually creating a crisis that does not exist.

"All I can tell you is that there is a debate about how best we deal with the Western Cape. There's a debate about how best we deal with the Eastern Cape.

"And that debate is about creating certainty, not the other way round," Mantashe said.

- SAPA