THE election of the wife of the controversial former ANC bigwig Truman Prince as the new mayor of Beaufort West appears imminent with insiders describing it a “done deal”.
According to insiders, the Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) Thershia Prince is to take the coveted chain from Gideon Pietersen who resigned on Tuesday.
Weekend Argus understands that Thershia, former deputy mayor for the Central Karoo District municipality, will be appointed once the IEC declares a vacancy in Beaufort West.
Pietersen will then fill Thershia’s former position as deputy mayor.
The appointment is expected to be made during the next council sitting, which was supposed to take place on Wednesday morning, but was postponed.
"She is now number one on the PR list of the PA, so the IEC must declare a vacancy,“ a source told Weekend Argus.
“Council will also be informed she is coming in hot as mayor.”
Thershia told Weekend Argus she would occupy any role assigned to her.
“I am a very disciplined member of the Patriotic Alliance and if the party wants me to become Mayor I will do so,” she said.
“I will even become a CWP (community work programme) worker if the party wants me to.”
ANC Central Karoo region secretary Windy Plaatjies confirmed that Pietersen and Thershia had resigned from their positions this week.
“Gideon resigned as Mayor (on Tuesday) and Thershia as Deputy mayor,” Plaatjies said.
“Both of them are PA deployees I should think that is an internal political party arrangement.”
Thershia, if elected, will be stepping into a role previously occupied by her husband on multiple occasions.
Prince also has been a member of different political parties – the ANC, he formed his own party and then moved on to the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa, and returned to the ANC – each time exiting the party under a cloud. He is now part of the PA.
Thershia previously told Weekend Argus that she became interested in politics while working as a personal assistant in the Beaufort West municipality’s engineering department. But became enthralled with the dynamics of power while working as her husband’s assistant when he served as mayor on two occasions.