Tshiktereke Matibe, formerly the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health on Tuesday received the nod as deputy speaker of the Limpopo provincial legislature.
Matibe replaces the long-serving deputy speaker Jerry Ndou who has been redeployed to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), after the recent executive council reshuffle by Premier Stanley Chupu Mathabatha.
Matibe is the former executive mayor of the Vhembe district municipality who spent time as the Limpopo permanent of the NCOP in Cape Town, before his recall to the Limpopo Provincial Legislature. He is the ANC Vhembe regional chairperson and is credited for delivering the region to Mathabatha’s third term bid as provincial chairperson. His appointment as the deputy speaker is seen as pay back for his support.
The Vhembe region is regarded as the biggest winner of the recent ANC Limpopo provincial conference, taking the deputy chairperson position through Florence Radzilani and key provincial secretary position to Reuben Madadzhe.
Radzilani came into the executive council as MEC for Community Safety and Transport during the recent cabinet reshuffle. Provincial treasurer Nakedi Sibanda-Kekana came as MEC for Sports, Art and Culture, and provincial working committee member Rodgers Monama took over at Economic Development, Environment and Tourism.
In the meantime Mathabatha is the front runner for the ANC national chairperson position at the forthcoming 55th national conference. Should he be elected, Mathabatha will be destined to a national cabinet position and creating a vacancy in the premier position.
Mathabatha’s departure to the national executive committee and national cabinet paves the way for Radzilani to ascend to the position of provincial chairperson and the province’s first female premier.
During the week the secretariats of the ANC in Limpopo and Kwa-Zulu Natal led by Reuben Madadzhe and Bheki Mtolo met in Durban to consolidate their 54th national conference positions on leadership and policy. On leadership Kwa-Zulu Natal is for Zweli Mkhize as president, and Limpopo is for Ramaphosa for second time. The rumour mill has it that Limpopo may dump Ramaphosa for Mkhize on the eve of conference.
What joins Limpopo and Kwa-Zulu Natal is their rejection of what they call the inconsistent application of the step-aside resolution which has claimed the political lives of Danny Msiza and Zandile Gumede in the two provinces respectively.
As things stand, the province is destined to even more musical chairs shortly, particularly after the ANC 55th national conference and the 2024 watershed national and provincial elections, likely to usher in coalition governments in some provinces for the first time since the dawn of democracy.
The ANC marginal provinces like Gauteng, Northern Cape, and Kwa-Zulu Natal may have coalition governments. Already there have been formal talks between the ANC and EFF in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng, on current and future cooperation. In Gauteng the ANC and EFF coalition snatched the Joburg Metro. Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metros are in the crosshairs of the two parties.
With the ANC working well with the EFF, coalition marriages are set to define the politics of South Africa in 2024 and beyond. There is already talk of a law to regulate coalition governments, informed by the scenarios that played out in the Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Metros where coalitions collapsed at the drop of the hat.
In a related development the South Gauteng High Court reinstated the deposed City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Dr Mpho Phalatse, forcing Dada Morero to step aside. Morero may however be back to office by the end of the week, through a properly constituted council motion of no confidence against Dr Phalatse.