Durban — Newly elected KwaZulu-Natal premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has promised a clean and transparent government, vowing to ensure that everything is done by the book.
Dube-Ncube is expected to announce changes in the KZN cabinet on Thursday. Speculation is rife that former Newcastle mayor and current provincial treasurer Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba will be appointed to the cabinet as the new Health MEC after his swearing-in on Wednesday.
Delivering her maiden speech, after being sworn in, Dube-Ncube said she would ensure transparency and promised to maintain good working relations with all parties, saying she would hold regular briefings on matters pertaining to service delivery.
At the KZN Legislature, the DA nominated councillor Mmabatho Tembe for the position of premier. After the vote was counted, Dube-Ncube defeated Tembe with 45 to 11 votes to become the first woman premier in the province.
“For our people, any of us who are elected representatives are a continuation of that struggle for the creation of a better society and a better country. We dare not disappoint the people of this province,” Dube-Ncube said.
She said ever since she joined the struggle for freedom as a young activist, all the decisions she had made together with a collective over the past 28 years had been solely aimed at the upliftment and realisation of a better life for the people of KZN.
“Nothing has changed, and nothing will change. It is for these reasons that throughout my years as an elected public representative I have sought to do what is in the best interest of the people of this province,” she said.
Dube-Ncube also dismissed allegations that under her supervision R250 million earmarked for drought relief went missing.
EFF KZN leader Vusi Khoza raised the question during his congratulatory speech, asking for an explanation.
Dube-Ncube said that if such misappropriation of funds had occurred, the Office of the Auditor-General would have uncovered evidence of it during its audit of the departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, or Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).
Dube-Ncube committed that her office would play a much more assertive and visible role in providing leadership and co-ordinating key and priority government programmes that would promote the achievement of the provincial vision.
Dube-Ncube promised that her office would monitor and evaluate, on a regular basis, all provincial government departments, public entities and municipalities in relation to their impact on service delivery.
“My office is not intending to usurp any functions, roles or responsibilities of other line function departments, but we need to have our finger on the pulse of this province, and must be able to intervene where necessary, as guided by the ANC, as a governing party,” Dube-Ncube said.
On the subject of economic growth, Dube-Ncube said she would focus on small and medium enterprises and give them support. She said they would help grow the economy since external investors were difficult to attract.
Daily News