ANC moves swiftly to elect new premiers
The ANC has called for a special national executive committee meeting on Monday to consider the names of its preferred provincial premier candidates.
This was confirmed by acting spokesman Dakota Legoete who said from tomorrow the party's provincial executive committee members would meet across the country to choose three names of candidates that would be submitted to the NEC to consider premier positions.
The selection of three candidates will take place in provinces where a majority win in the elections has been secured. The three names are submitted in order of priority.
But the NEC may reject a preferred person 0if the candidate is mirred in allegations of wrong doing or sometimes to balance the gender parity. So far it looks like ANC will govern Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State while Gauteng remains on a knife edge.
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The party has regained a tiny 50%-plus lead in Gauteng with about 25% of voting districts still to be declared late on Friday afternoon. Sources told SowetanLive that the Free State and Mpumalanga were likely to retain the current premiers Sisi Ntombela and Refilwe Mtsweni respectively, while there is talk of also having a female premier in the North West.
The Eastern Cape and Northern Cape may see Oscar Mabuyane and Zamani Saul respectively coming in as new premiers. They are currently serving as ANC chairpersons in their provinces and they also supported President Cyril Ramaphosa to become ANC president in 2017.
Kwazulu-natal will most likely appoint Sihle Zikalala as premier and Limpopo will likely also retain premier Stan Mathabatha.
Gauteng will also retain premier David Makhura should it win the province.