ANC Member of the Provincial Legislature Lenah Miga is the new Deputy Speaker of the North West legislature.
The former local government MEC beat the DA’s Winston Rabotapi with 20 votes over 11 votes at a special sitting presided over by outgoing Speaker Susana Dantjie.
The ANC’s Kabelo Mataboge who was chairing the education portfolio committee was elected unopposed to become the new Chair of Chairs.
Miga who was recently axed as an MEC following a short stint said her election today is a vote of confidence by the ANC.
“It really is a blessing that the organisation has confidence in my leadership so much that it has deployed me as the deputy speaker of the legislature. I take it that any task that I’m given, is one that I will carry and ensure that it gets done. Nothing has changed in terms of my loyalty to the ANC, especially in the work of the organisation,” Miga said.
The new chair of chairs Kabelo Mataboge said he is equal to the task.
“It’s a really complex and difficult task, but we are up to the game. We will do our best and perform optimally to the best of our abilities, to ensure that there is proper oversight and service delivery in the province. We are elated and excited at the same time,” said Mataboge.
Opposition parties in the North West have lambasted the ANC for redeploying Miga as the Deputy Speaker of the Legislature, and Kabelo Mataboge as the Chair of Chairs of Committees.
The North West EFF secretary, Papiki Babuile said he was disappointed with the elected members.
“Lenah Miga was the Mayor of Mahikeng Local Municipality and was recently the MEC of Local Government and Human Settlement. She performed badly in those departments where she was deployed before.
“We don’t believe that she is going to do anything different as the Deputy Speaker. As for Kabelo Mataboge the Portfolio Committee of the department of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture is performing badly because he is unable to hold the department accountable.
“He was forever unavailable for oversights and so on. And we believe that he is not going to change anything. Increasing his responsibilities to become the Chair of Chairs now, is not going to help the legislature with anything,” Babuile said.
The North West DA Chief Whip Freddy Sonakile, echoed the EFF’s sentiments.
“If you look at the new Deputy Speaker, she is the former MEC of Human Settlements and Local Government. Municipalities are in tatters, there is not even a single house that was built in the financial year when she was a MEC.
“So now she is coming to become the Deputy Speaker and that role is of a custodian of the rules and laws that govern the legislature, so we believe that she is not going to perform.
“Actually it shows that the politics of the ANC will always stand above performance. They weigh performance. They just look at who the person’s network performance is. When it comes to Kabelo Mataboge his portfolio is the worst-performing committee.
“There are issues with schools that have not been built. He does not even honour his own meetings of his own committee. So we wonder how he is going to call all members to order because members are going to end up calling him to order,” said Sonakile.
However, ANC’s provincial chief whip, Paul Sebegoe, said the party is confident in its newly elected members.
“The ANC has resolved for honourable Lenah Miga to be the Deputy Speaker and we are happy in terms of how the process unfolded. We all carried the mandate of the ANC.
“The same thing applied to the election of honourable Kabelo Mataboge, you would know that the vacancy of the Chair of Chairs has been vacant for some time now, as a result of the resignation of honourable Priscila Williams.
“So today we have gone ahead to fill it with honourable Mataboge. And also on that note we are happy with how the process unfolded,” Sebegoe said.
The positions were left vacant when Viola Motsumi resigned as Deputy Speaker to become the MEC for Education, while Phumla Williams was instructed by the ANC to resign as the Chair of Chairs.
The ANC caucus was previously divided after some of the ruling party’s MPs voted with the opposition parties, against its instructions by electing Williams as a Chair of Chairs.
