Rasool 'won't be missed'

2008-07-13 16:07

Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool will not be missed, a senior Democratic Alliance MPL in the province said on Sunday.

Robin Carlisle said that during his term Rasool dismissed, often ruthlessly, some of the best civil servants in the province and replaced them with friends and cronies.

"He will not be missed," he said.

Carlisle was reacting to persistent reports, not denied by the African National Congress, that the party has sacked Rasool, along with his Eastern Cape counterpart Nosimo Balindlela.

Carlisle, the DA's provincial spokesperson on corruption, said while he welcomed Rasool's firing by the ANC, he regretted that the premier had not been dismissed by the Western Cape legislature.

"Mr Rasool was the focus of much of my corruption research, and whilst no corruption was proved against him, he was at the centre of many controversial events which the (legislature) had to deal with," Carlisle said.

These included the reduction of gambling taxes for the Grand West Casino, the purchase and sale of Novell, the purchase of the Waterfront and the disposal of the Somerset Hospital site.

- SAPA