North West: Task team to remain, will support new premier – Cabinet
21 June 2018
The inter-ministerial task team handling the administration of the North West province will remain in place to support the incoming premier, Communications Minister Nomvula Mokonyane has said.
Mokonyane hosted a post-Cabinet press briefing in Pretoria on Thursday to announce recent Cabinet decisions and declarations.
She said operations would continue as they had been in the embattled province under the task team, despite the ANC announcing 70-year-old Job Mokgoro as its North West premier candidate to replace Supra Mahumapelo.
"The last briefing that the task team, headed by Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, made to the National Council of Provinces was that there has been a lot of cooperation between the acting premier and the executive council," Mokonyane said.
She said the new government of the North West would receive all the necessary support from the task team.
She added that operations would remain the same as when there was an acting premier.
According to the Constitution, the invocation of provincial administration lasts for a period of 180 days, pending a request for extension. That gives the inter-ministerial task team a mandate until mid-November.
The terms of reference would need to be satisfied in that period before the task team can withdraw from matters in the province, and require continuous revision.
'Office of the premier failed to provide leadership'
Dlamini-Zuma's team told MPs last week that the province was in the state it was in because the office of the premier had failed to provide administrative leadership where it mattered.
"The findings [from our fact-finding missions] indicate that the office of the premier failed to provide administrative leadership to the entire province and was not able to prevent conditions that resulted in the breakdown in essential services," Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation director general Mpumi Mpofu told MPs.
"Why did we end up in this place? Possibly because this office did not do as much as it could to prevent the situation and their responsibility of oversight in this instance comes into question."
Mpofu explained that the ballooning of irregular expenditure from R8.6bn in 2013/14 to more than R15bn in 2017/18 was the "crux of the problem" in the embattled province.
Prior to 2013/14, when Thandi Modise was premier, the annual average for irregular expenditure was R2.1bn.
A single administrative coordinator is expected to be appointed for "national intervention" on Friday, Mpofu added.
Five administrators will also be appointed to facilitate on Friday.
