STAFF REPORTER|
GAUTENG Premier David Makhura said on Sunday he was not going to resign anytime soon following mounting calls for him to quit.
Makhura was speaking on Sunday following Friday’s a special ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting.
Speculation was rife at the weekend that the Gauteng PEC had recalled Makhura.
“I did make it clear to them that I’m not resigning. I’m not about to submit a resignation. But I want to hand over properly,” said Makhura.
“It is something that was initiated by me, to have a discussion with the leadership of the ANC, and the leadership of the ANC came back to me after the PEC on Friday to say we have now put through the discussions with the PEC.”
“I haven’t threatened the leadership with a resignation. I haven’t written a resignation to put it through to them. They haven’t asked for me to resign. They haven’t taken a decision to recall me.”
“All I asked the leadership to do is, we need to ensure that we prepare, we must be concerned with governance, we must be concerned with the stability and service delivery continuity … and there are major programmes the ANC is leading in Gauteng about economic recovery.”
ANC Gauteng chairperson Panyaza Lesufi also said Makhura remains in his position as premier of the province, at least for now.
“We can’t rush the premier to leave when we don’t have an alternative, we told him to hold on,” said Lesufi.
In recent weeks, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has also made it clear it wants Makhura out, saying it would table a motion of no confidence in the premier.
The party accused him of dragging his feet in implementing plans to improve service delivery in the province.
DA Gauteng caucus leader Solly Msimanga said the recent violence on the West Rand highlighted the Gauteng government’s failure to create job opportunities and combat crime.
He said of the more than 2.6 million unemployed Gauteng residents, more than 600,000 had given up looking for employment, despite the many job opportunities promised at Makhura’s State of the Province Address.
The party has constantly accused Mkahura of stalling the release of reports into irregular procurement processes during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, showing a lack of accountability and transparency.
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