Durban – KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu is safe in his job for now and there are currently no plans for a reshuffle of the province’s executive councils.
Super Zuma, the African National Congress’s provincial secretary, speaking at a press conference in Durban, said: “We have never taken a decision as the ANC about any reshuffling. Of course, if we have come to a conclusion [to reshuffle], the ANC will engage with that and decide, but at this point in time there is no such [decision].”
Zuma, who is no relation to President Jacob Zuma, said that the party continually assesses the performance of its members and the offices in government to which they have been elected.
He said that the party regularly looked at the performance of its councillors as well as its senior representatives in government.
He said: “The famous issue of rumours about the cabinet reshuffle… I don’t know where those rumours come from. It might be that its informed by the process that we are busy engaging in as the ANC, which is not the first process. We normally do assessment of councillors. We also normally do assessment of our public representatives. It is a regular thing that we are doing as the organisation. We are now embarked on a process of assessing their departments, the provincial departments. We are busy engaging with that process. That might have sparked those rumours. From our side we don’t know where the rumours have come from.”
The province has been rife with rumours of a cabinet reshuffle ever since Mchunu was ousted as ANC provincial chairman by Sihle Zikalala. Much was made of a recent sitting in the legislature in Pietermaritzburg where Zikalala sat in the seat that is normally occupied by the province’s premier.
Opposition parties have labelled Mchunu as a lame duck premier who cannot take decisions unless agreed to by Zikalala.
African News Agency
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