The announcement of Gauteng Members of the Executive Committee (MEC’s) by Premier Panyaza Lesufi has again been postponed, to Tuesday.
This followed a deadlock between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) regarding the composition of the Provincial Legislature. The announcement was expected to take place on Monday evening, after it was postponed more than a week ago.
“We’re not forming a coalition, or even a grand coalition with the DA, we are following a framework of the ANC as adopted in the National Executive Committee. We have deadlocked not once with the DA in the province because we don’t believe their raising is reasonable. When we started the Premier was not contested at the legislature, including the speaker and deputy speaker there were agreements according to us. From there we just deadlocked, until today,” said ANC Provincial Secretary, TK Nciza.
Nciza highlighted that Lesufi was ready to announce his cabinet, but had to postpone while negotiations continue with the DA. The Secretary also accused the DA of negotiating in bad faith, after the DA earlier today announced that it would boycott the ceremony.
“We would of course postpone today, but not later than tomorrow. There’s no way that the Premier is not going to announce the executive of Gauteng. Once people believe that they must have more strength or dominate, we want other parties to come and participate and we’re very firm. We invite all the parties to come, but once a party comes and says, but bring this one and don’t bring that other one, we can’t agree to such things,” explained Nciza.
Nciza’s sentiments were echoed by ANC Provincial Executive Committee member, Lebogang Maile.
“The Premier was not going to announce the DA. So, the DA must not create an impression that they boycotted, because we have deadlocked with them and once, we deadlocked, we finalised with other parties. So, from where we’re sitting, we don’t have an agreement with the DA. So, they’re not boycotting anything, they’re just trying to create attention for themselves,” added Maile.
Meanwhile, DA Gauteng leader, Solly Msimanga, said they were shocked to learn that Lesufi would be announcing his cabinet, as the negotiations were not yet concluded.
“The ANC has failed to come back to us. If they think they can make an announcement without prior engagement, the deal is off,” said Msimanga.
The ANC has 28 seats in the legislature, while the DA has 22.
