When a patient moves from one doctor to the next, that is evidence of a somewhat chronic illness. But what is the diagnosis for a province which has had more than its fair share of premiers?
When a patient moves from one doctor to the next, that is evidence of a somewhat chronic illness. But what is the diagnosis for a province which has had more than its fair share of premiers?
The Eastern Cape has the unenviable distinction of having had more premiers than the other eight provinces. Jeff Peires, a former Rhodes University lecturer and former ANC member of parliament addressed lecturers, students and guests at a lively Humanities seminar on Thursday evening.
The theme of his presentation was “The Eastern Cape under three premiers” and he focused on the first three premiers : Raymond Mhlaba, Makhenkesi Stofile and Nosimo Balindlela.
He prefaced his presentation with the quip: “at least the Polokwane conference has liberated us, we no longer have to fear talking about internal organisational problems in public”.
Peires said the major cause of crises in the Eastern Cape has been the tussle for power between the right wing and the left wing within the ANC.
"The “right wing are all those who are regarded as neo-liberals and the left wing are mostly members of the South African Communist Party,” he explained.
Raymond Mhlaba fondly known as “Oom Ray” the first premier of The Eastern Cape had the support of most regions but “had a lot to deal with including the three state systems (the Ciskei, Transkei and the Cape) with its attendant problems which made it difficult for him to govern”, said Peires.
“Oom Ray was slow and old but he wasn’t afraid to take unpopular decisions and at the end he was stabbed at the back," said Peires.
There was also a clash of political cultures as former comrades had to work with former supporters of the apartheid system.
“As an example Dr. Mpehle of the ANC, who was head of security, had to work with Danie Bezuidenhout who was not a comrade”, said Peires. Oom Ray’s tenure was also marked by “a confusion of functions at different levels”.
“There was hardly any co-ordination between the national, provincial and local tiers of government,” added Peires .
Other problems that Oom Ray was saddled with was looting by civil servants and tensions within the ANC in Port Elizabeth. “The exile clique wanted to take over," said Peires.
With the ascension of the second premier Makhenkesi Stofile things started to change almost immediately. “He ushered in style and coherence, local government started to become effective . . .It was an improvement from the Oom Ray era,” stated Peires.
“Still the tension between the cliques ( within the ANC) which had started during Oom Ray’s era rose in 2002 (Stofile era)”, said Peires. “During Stofile’s era financial constraints inhibited mega-projects," Peires said.
“Between 1999-2004 about 6 – 8% of the budget was unspent”. Peires said that the persal (state payment system) was adjusted and it did not accommodate the employment of temporary workers and overtime.
Mega-projects like Coega, Bushman Sands and Fleet Africa were a drain on the province’s budget. “The then MEC for finance, Enoch Godongwana, had to apply to the DBSA for a soft loan to bail out the province”, said Peires and in 2004 Stofile was recalled to national parliament.
Appointed by Mbeki, Nosimo Balindlela became the first female premier for the province.“She was a sincere and genuinely extroverted premier. If she heard about a problem she would quickly attend to it," explained Peires.
Her administration was characterised by pro-poor policies, pro-active approaches and she was prone to summon meetings as early as 4.00am.
The dismissal of Enoch Godongwana (the then MEC for finance) as a result of a loan he had made to the DBSA during Stofile’s reign, signalled that there were still problems within the ANC.
“The left wing still controlled the provincial executive committee, the legislature and SCOPA”, explained Peires. He summed up his description of Balindlela saying that “she didn’t just fire people; she was prone to taking sides.”
He concluded his seminar by suggesting that there should be transparency and participatory democracy which should be free of cliques and caucuses.
