Four Eastern Cape MECs could face the axe if the widely talked about cabinet reshuffle goes ahead next week.
According to Grocott's Mail sources, the four main MECs to face the chop are Local Government MEC Sicelo Gqobhana, Agriculture MEC Mbulelo Sogoni, Social Development MEC Nonkosi Mvana and Transport MEC Gloria Barry.
Four Eastern Cape MECs could face the axe if the widely talked about cabinet reshuffle goes ahead next week.
According to Grocott's Mail sources, the four main MECs to face the chop are Local Government MEC Sicelo Gqobhana, Agriculture MEC Mbulelo Sogoni, Social Development MEC Nonkosi Mvana and Transport MEC Gloria Barry.
Grocott's Mail was reliably informed that Sogoni and Gqobhana had threatened to take legal action if they are removed from their positions. It was not yet clear whether they would take the Premier or the ANC to court. The source said the reshuffle was meant to strengthen the provincial cabinet and is not a "personal attack on individuals".
Meanwhile, provincial opposition parties have labelled the probable reshuffle as a political purge that will bring instability to the provincial government. Leader of the United Democratic Movement in the provincial legislature, Maxwell Mhlathi, said claims by the ruling party that the reshuffling was to strengthen service delivery were untrue.
"This reshuffle is not about service delivery, it is about aligning people with their political factions. The executive (ANC PEC) want to put their own people in the cabinet. You will find that they won't remove people in the most problematic departments which are Education, Housing and Health, but they will remove those who do not belong to their faction," he said.
Democratic Alliance's Bobby Stevenson said if the reshuffle is a political purge it will cripple service delivery in the province. "Any cabinet reshuffle in the Eastern Cape must be done on the basis of improving service delivery. We cannot allow factionalism to rear its ugly head and unleash a bloody cycle of political backstabbing and infighting.
"There clearly needs to be changes in some departments. Health and education are simply not performing. Housing is not meeting its targets for service delivery with only 3 395 houses out of a target of 22 000 houses being delivered so far this year."
Both Stevenson and Mhlathi said they were against the reconfiguration of departments which will see the Treasury Department being moved to the Office of the Premier (OTP) to be combined with the Planning Commission. Mhlathi warned that this might be catastrophic.
"I think the reconfiguration of the departments will lead to anarchy. The ruling party's executive wants to get rid of the premier this way." Mhlathi also slammed civil servants saying that they were the cause of the unrest in the departments.
"The problem in this province lies with the civil servants. They are destroying this government. They are like a mafia bent on corrupting our government," added Mhlathi.
Stevenson said he did not believe that the Treasury Department should be combined with the OTP "given the magnitude of the financial problems in the province". When approached for comment, provincial ANC spokesperson Mlibo Qoboshiyane said "As of now the organisation has expressed its decision on the matter and we are not going to comment further. When we [have]made a determination, we shall inform media and the province at large. The matter is properly handled and we accord the process it's significance as it is a sensitive subject."
