Opposition parties sabotage NC premier’s inauguration

The African National Congress in the Northern Cape is determined to inaugurate the current environmental MEC, Sylvia Lucas, as soon as possible, as the full-time premier despite efforts by opposition parties to prevent her inauguration ceremony this week.

Lucas was expected to be inaugurated as premier on Tuesday, but the ceremony was thrown into disarray by a battle between the ANC and opposition parties opposed to her inauguration.

The DA and Cope formed a coalition during a voting session at the provincial Legislature to prevent the ANC from having a two thirds majority in order to appoint Lucas as premier.

Section 130 (3) (c) of the constitution stipulates that in the event of a premier becoming medically incapacitated, a new premier can only be appointed through a two-thirds majority.

The ANC garnered a total of 18 votes and the DA and Cope coalition had 11 votes, forcing the ANC to instead appoint Lucas as acting premier.

However, the provincial spokesperson of the ANC Gail Parker slammed the opposition parties, accusing them of being callous and highly insensitive.

“On April 30 2013,the ANC was ready to appoint a premier for the Northern Cape. This was as a result of Comrade Hazel Jenkins, the premier on 24 April, being declared medically unfit and boarded by the pension fund processes. We were unfortunately stopped in our tracks by the collusion of opposition parties. We believe that the opposition is highly insensitive in dealing with the matter of the premier.

“Firstly, we have the unfortunate event of a premier becoming sick, and they have continuously been calling for the appointment of a full-time premier arguing that we cannot have the MEC foreducation acting as Premier.”
Parker said it was mind-boggling that the same opposition parties, that were eager to have a substantive premier, suddenly stalled the appointment of the premier.

“Now the ANC is ready to appoint the premier, they use the two thirds majority provision in the constitution to stall the appointment of the premier. It makes us wonder if the opposition really cares about the people of the province, and effective service delivery when they can use their minority vote to stifle progress in the province. They are aware,that without their support on this matter, the ANC cannot move forward.”

Parker added that the ANC is of the view that the opposition parties are hypocritical.

“Theyare hypocriticalon two grounds. Firstly, they do not afford comrade Hazel the humanitarian benefit to be relieved from her duties and heal.Secondly, they are insensitive to the government and the poor masses that are dependent on this government, and yet they claim to be caring for our people. If this is the attitude of the opposition, it means we will never be able to appoint a premier.”

“However, the ANC has appointed Comrade Sylvia Lucas to become the acting premier for now, until we address the impasse on this matter. We wish her all the best in her responsibility as the new acting premier.The opposition is literally holding this process at ransom, they are playing cheap politics and hell-bent on discrediting the ANC.”

Meanwhile, the opposition parties accused the ANC of not consulting when making decisions.

“They never respected us before, they should have consulted with us.They will see how they will get out of their own problem,” said the provincial leader of Cope Fred Wyngaardt.

Andrew Louw the leader of the DA argued that no one is above the law and he accused the ANC of not respecting the legislature’s procedures.

“No one is above the law, especially the rules of the legislature as the highest body in the province.It is the first time they accept they made a mistake.”

The Speaker of the Legislature, Boeboe Van Wyk, hit back at the DA and Cope. He accused them of trying to score cheap political points.

“We can’t make the premier sign anything in the condition she is in; that would be inhumane. We are of the view that the opposition parties are trying to score political points.”
Meanwhile, the provincial secretary of the ANC, Zamani Saul, has vowed that the matterwill be resolved within two weeks.

“It’s not doomsday. The matter will be resolved within two weeks; the ANC still enjoys an overwhelming majority.The rules committee still has to sit, and the matter will be resolved. Silvia is ready to hit the ground running,” concluded Saul.