Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha Accused Of Fuelling Factional Battles Within Governing Alliance

LUCAS LEDWABA

WHEN Stan Mathabatha was recalled from an ambassadorship post in Europe to take over the premiership of Limpopo six years ago, he was seen and hailed generally as a Saviour for a province bankrupted by corruption scandals, political infighting and internal divisions.

It was July 2013.

The province was battling to shake off the effects of a chaotic period under Cassel Mathale, a close ally of then ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema.

It was said then that Mathale had committed a fatal mistake of throwing his weight behind a campaign to support Kgalema Motlanthe, then Deputy President of the ANC, to stand against Jacob Zuma at the party’s elective conference in Mangaung the previous year.

Deployed to cold and miserable Europe then, Mathabatha, a member of the SACP central committee, was very much not involved in the dog eat dog politics of the province.

He had not