THE ANC has ruled out any possibility of an Eastern Cape executive council reshuffle until next year’s general elections.
ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane confirmed there were people who were spreading such rumours “mischievously”.
“We have not discussed anything like that as the province. It would not be ideal to even think about that [reshuffle] when you are going to elections soon,” said Mabuyane.
Rumours have been doing the rounds in Bhisho corridors in recent weeks that health MEC Sicelo
Gqobana was among those targeted for a recall by the party.
Several sources claim this was tabled during an officials meeting a month ago, but some officials objected to the idea saying the department was improving. As a result, the item never made it to the provincial working committee (PWC) agenda, which sat the following week.
Mabuyane said the matter was never discussed in any of the ANC structures.
“Surely there are people who have been throwing that around and some of them are people who should not be doing that. “They are doing it mischievously, so to speak. “Even when I was on leave for three weeks, I was never informed about any meeting which discussed that, any structure of the ANC for that matter,” he said.
The South African Communist Party’s youth wing, the Young Communist League’s (YCL) provincial working committee issued a statement yesterday in which it expressed disappointment with the way Gqobana handled the crisis affecting his department.
This follows an exodus of medical doctors in several hospitals across the province last year after the department failed to pay their monthly salaries.
Provincial treasury beefed up the department’s human resource department last year to try and remedy the situation. But the Daily Dispatch reported last week that several medical doctors were still not receiving their monthly salaries and, in some cases, even back payments. “YCL has been called by many people in the province, particularly in OR Tambo, complaining about the bad conditions professional nurses and doctors work under,” said YCL spokesman Thabang Maseko.
He said they were concerned about what was happening in health, but the party understood the problems as “systemic”, so there was no point in targeting individuals.
“We think a comprehensive approach will solve the problem without necessarily targeting individuals. We need to deal with fundamental issues and forget about all these symptoms that we have been dealing with in that department,” said Mabuyane. Gqobana declined to comment. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
Dave Rankin
February 13, 2013
The ANC is quite correct in not wanting to reshuffle. Replacing the incompetent and corrupt with the corrupt and incompetent will serve no useful purpose. Next thing you counter-revolutionaries will start suggesting that people should be employed on merit, ability and competence regardless of party political affiliation; that government should govern instead of misgovern and that civil servants should be civil and of service.