Mahikeng - The North West provincial government will prioritise concerns relating to the insufficient and ineffective delivery of services, newly elected Premier Job Mokgoro said on Friday.
"As we recognise the urgent need to develop and sustain a culture of good ethical and moral values within the public service, we also acknowledge that the cost to society associated with unethical conduct in government is enormously huge," he said.
"It therefore remains our collective responsibility to correct the shortcomings as identified across the provincial government, and commit to working tirelessly to restore stability and certainty in the our province."
Speaking after his unopposed election, Mokgoro said his administration would prioritise concerns relating to insufficient and ineffective delivery of services, waste of public resources, corruption, and poor leadership amongst others.
Mokgoro, who inherited a trouble province, said the party was over public servants who were loitering and not showing up for work.
"Let us ensure that during the remaining 11 months of this fifth Parliament, we do not continue to be a bunch of elites whose goal is nothing but self-enrichment. Occupying a position of leadership is no opportunity for self-enrichment; the needs of the people of this province are greater than an individual’s interest," he said.
He told journalists that he had a specific mandate to restore hope and trust between the provincial government and the people of North West.
"The party is over...I am bringing a sound administration that I will hand over in 2019 and ensure a landslide victory for the [African National Congress] ANC."
Opposition parties appealed to Mokgoro to fire some members of the provincial cabinet who served in former premier Supra Mahumapelo's tenure.
Mahumapelo resigned as member of the provincial legislature (MPL) to make way for Mokgoro.
His resignation as premier and a MPL unsettled opposition parties who said they have not seen his letter of resignation.
"You are the only one who knew the man [Mahumapelo] has retired, we do not know whether he resigned or he is in retirement we want the letters," Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) MPL Alfred Motsi told speaker Sussana Dantjie.
Dantjie said the letters would be made available while North West High Court Judge President Monica Leeuw presides over the election of the premier. However, Motsi stated that they wanted to see the letters and did not want a judge who presided over the murder case of Rustenburg councillor Moss Phakoe after charges were withdrawn against the people arrested in connection the murder.
"We did not elect a judge. We want letters.This is the judge who let go of bro Moss' killers," he said when Leeuw was about to conduct the election of the premier.
Dantjie kicked Motsi out of the sitting.
Opposition party welcomed Mokgoro as the new premier and urged him to fire members of the provincial government who served in Mahumapelo's administration.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and EFF members wore black armbands to mourn people who died during the anti-Mahumapelo protest that swept through the province in April.
"We have elected to wear these black armbands to highlight the plight of neglected people of the North West. We also want to pay our respects to the lives lost during the violent protests, which were ignited by an uncaring and arrogant ANC," said DA provincial leader Joe McGluwa.
"It is clear that the North West needs change, progressive change that will fix what the ANC has broken. Some would like to tell us that this province has been without leadership for only a month, but when we engage with people across the province, they tell us that the North West has been leaderless for the past 24 years."
Betty Diale, the provincial chairperson of the EFF in North West urged Mokgoro to fire all member of the executive council (MEC) who facilitated corruption.
Johannes Schutte for the Freedom Front Plus wished Mokgoro well in his new job, saying he was able to unite the administration of the defunct Bophuthatswana, Western Transvaal and Northern Cape to one administration after the 1994 first democratic election in South Africa and was confident that Mokgoro would succeed in bring stability and trust in North West.