Announcement by the Premier of the province of KwaZulu-Natal Dr Zweli Mkhize, Durban, South Africa

22 Aug 2013

May I start by thanking the Judge President Patel for taking time off your court schedule to preside over the swearing-in of KwaZulu-Natal Province Acting Premier MEC Senzo Mchunu.

My colleague, MEC Mchunu will act as the Premier between 22 - 27 August 2013 as I have been invited to be part of the delegation accompanying the President of the Republic His Excellency Mr JG Zuma on his official visit to Malaysia.

It is with great humility that today I make an important announcement regarding my two responsibilities of being the Premier of the Province of KwaZulu-Natal and the Treasurer General of the ruling party, the African National Congress.

After carefully considering the workload associated with my two responsibilities, I have come to the conclusion that I need to spend more time fulfilling my responsibilities as the Treasurer General of the African National Congress.

I have served as the fulltime premier since 2009 and I have served as Treasurer General on a part-time basis since my election in Mangaung in December 2012.

It is clear to me that responsibilities associated with being the Treasurer General require more attention and therefore I can no longer serve as the premier till the end of this term of office at next year's general elections.

I have consulted with the leadership of the ANC at national and provincial levels and they have concurred with me and supported my decision.

I have confidence that my party, the ANC will start all the necessary processes to ensure that the new Premier is appointed with effect from the 1st September 2013.

I wish to thank the people of KwaZulu-Natal for affording me the opportunity to lead this province as the Premier from the 6th of May 2009 till the 31st August 2013.

The overwhelming support they gave me has made my term of office a pleasant and memorable one. I shall forever cherish this term as the pinnacle of my career in community service and a memorable and special period in my life. I plead with people of this province to offer similar support to the next Premier because I am fully aware that without such support I could not be an effective leader.

I believe that KwaZulu-Natal will remain a stable and successful province for many more years to come with my party, the ANC at the helm and changing the lives of the people for the better. I can aptly describe the province as a growing and thriving enterprise.

I can also say quite categorically I have enjoyed serving the African National Congress in the province. I enjoyed serving the people of KwaZulu-Natal as its public representative.

Over the past few months, I have been handing over a number of responsibilities such as the ANC provincial chairpersonship to my Comrade Senzo Mchunu. I can say without any shadow of doubt that the ANC remains strong and I have full confidence in the entire provincial leadership. I have worked with Comrade Senzo Mchunu since the unbanning of the ANC through the consolidation of the ANC into a provincial structure.

We have served in the same structure since 1994. The election campaign to the end of this term of office next year was led under our leadership together. This applies to both him and Willies Mchunu together with the leadership collective. I have full confidence in their leadership and having watched them in action since my departure I have concluded that my confidence is well placed. They have risen to the occasion and the ANC is safe in their hands.

The leadership of this province at political, administrative professional, traditional, religious, private sector levels as well as at level of civil society has learned to operate as a broad team united in a single focus to promote peace, social cohesion, development and growth.

Consequently the province was secured from over expenditure. It remains financially sound and good governance is our culture. Major strides have been made in fighting HIV and AIDS. A program of community accountability and intensive fight against corruption, fraud and building leadership integrity has been launched.

Importantly, a programme to fight poverty, and focus on rural development as well as care for the vulnerable groups and continuous contact with electorate has been hallmark of the leadership. Despite economic challenges our province has attracted a high proportion of the inbound investments. Our infrastructure programme is on schedule.

Our province is destined for great heights.

I leave KwaZulu-Natal with no regrets but I leave with extremely high confidence in its future and the capacity of the current leadership.

I want to assure the people of this province that to ensure smooth transition we have completed budget allocations to all government departments and all annual performance plans are in place for the remainder of the term.

In addition, yesterday we finished Cabinet Lekgotla which served as a platform to hand over responsibilities to the remaining members of Cabinet.

In closing, I want to appreciate the support from the members of the provincial legislature including leaders of opposition political parties. The manner in which they conducted themselves as elected representatives ensured that we all represent the will of our people.

My heart goes out to the business community, civil society, religious leaders and traditional leaders whose continuing support helped me fulfill the responsibilities bestowed on me as the premier.

I want to express my gratitude to the African National Congress, the Leagues and the Alliance partners for ensuring unity and co-operation thereby making it easier for the ANC led government to speed up service delivery.

I salute all the members of my party whom I served with in cabinet since 1994 until today. I pay tribute to all categories of staff in the provincial government who have championed service delivery all these years.

I wish to thank my wife Dr May Mashego, my children Naledi, Linda and Dedani for the support all these years and their families and broader family I come from

I extend warm words of appreciation to the President His Excellency, Jacob Zuma, for all the support and guidance during my tenure as the premier.

Lastly but not least, I will forever be grateful to His Majesty Isilo SamaBandla. His exemplary leadership served as an inspiration to me for many years.

I thank you

Issued by the KwaZulu-Natal Office of the Premier, August 22 2013

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