By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress(ANC) Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) has decided to recall Premier David Makhura.
The committee held a meeting on Friday to discuss Makhura’s fate.
However ANC Gauteng Provincial chairperson Panyaza Lesufi says Makhura is still the premier of Gauteng.
Lesufi says an update on the decisions taken by the Provincial Executive Committee will happen later today.
Makhura will be going to Germany and Netherlands for the next two weeks to strengthen agreements on energy and automotive industries.
The push to move Makhura has been explained as avoiding “two centres of powers” following the provincial conference.
There was division on how soon the leadership swap should happen, with some in the PEC seeking it to happen immediately and others calling for it to happen at the end of the year.
Another concern was whether Makhura could be moved to a national position. The request for this had already been made to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Meanwhile the opposition parties tabling to the motion no confidence against Makhura has been on the cards since early 2022 but was on hold.
According to the opposition, Makhura he has failed to live up to his many promises and responsibilities, including lifestyle audits for Gauteng’s executive and making public the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) reports into various allegations of corruption. Then there was his office’s implication in irregular Covid-19 procurement tenders at the Gauteng health department and failure to take steps to recover some of the money lost to the personal protective equipment (PPE) tender scandal.
The move against Makhura was nothing new – there are already three motions of no confidence from 2017, 2018 and 2021.
The 2017 and 2018 motions were lodged by the EFF supported by the DA, following the Life Esidimeni tragedy. In 2021, the DA lodged another against Makhura’s office owing to its implication in irregular PPE tenders.