By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Sisi Ntombela is set to resign as Free State premier on Tuesday after consultations with ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula.
Mbalula said Ntombela informed him on Monday evening that she intended to resign on Tuesday.
He addressed the media on Tuesday on the outcomes of a special national executive committee meeting on Monday. However, he said coming into the briefing that he had yet to receive Ntombela’s resignation letter.
“Ntombela informed me last night that she intends to resign from the position as the premier of the Free State.”
“The province is processing that matter. She informed me that she is going to resign today, “said Mbalula.
Ntombela’s imminent resignation comes after she lost the chairperson position of the ANC in the Free State in January during the party’s 9th Provincial Elective Conference.
Former Free State ANC interim provincial committee convenor, Mxolisis Dukwana, was elected to the position and is widely expected to be the next premier of the province.
Ntombela, once an ally of former ANC secretary general Ace Magashule, has been accused of failing as Free State premier, including not being able to curb the culture of criminality in the province.
Under her administration, municipalities also failed to deliver services, with none of them getting clean audits in the past five years.
The ANC in the Free State has been battling internal fighting, with those loyal to Magashule creating parallel structures.