Durban — Nomusa Dube-Ncube is set to make history by being announced as the first woman premier of KwaZulu-Natal.
According to sources in the party, Dube-Ncube is expected to be unveiled by the party leadership on Monday at a media briefing. In its media invitation on Sunday the party said it would announce the premier-candidate on Monday. Whether it would be her or someone else, it would be history in the making since the party fielded all women candidates for the position after premier Sihle Zikalala’s resignation on Friday.
After the interviews at the party’s national head office on Saturday the rumours started that she had been selected by the panel. In all eight premiers in the province since 1994 none of them was a woman.
If the party announce her as the new premier it would be regarded as a major step to forging unity and dispelling rumours of purging defeated members at the conference two weeks ago. Towards the conference, she was the frontrunner and was touted by many to be the new party chairperson.
After failing to get a 25% threshold from the floor at the conference many wrote her off but to the surprise of many the new provincial leadership put her name forward for the premier position, pairing her with little-known Amanda Bani-Mapena and Mbali Fraser. Many believed the party wanted her to become the premier.
Dube-Ncube also proved that she was not yet politically dead when she was voted back to the 30-member provincial executive committee (PEC) and subsequently to the all-powerful provincial working committee during the first sitting of the PEC on Thursday.
According to the process after being nominated on Monday, her party secretary would inform the speaker Nontembeko Boyce and probably ask her to call for a special sitting on Thursday so that legislature members would vote for her. In terms of the legislature programmes the normal sitting is expected to be next week but sources in the legislature said all indications were that there would be a special sitting before the end of the week to elect a new premier.
Having been born and raised in KwaMashu north of Durban, Dube-Ncube grew up in the ANC ranks and has held various senior positions in the party including deputy secretary and treasurer positions which she held until two weeks ago at the conference.
She holds a National Diploma in Public Management, Management and Leadership, training and development from the Durban University of Technology and a Master’s degree in Public Administration, which she obtained at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Her first government senior position came as the mayor of the North Central Local Council before the local authority of Durban was amalgamated with several others to form what is now known as the eThekwini Municipality of which she was subsequently appointed as the speaker in 2000.
Daily News