Northern Cape
TEL: 053 8312331
FREE
WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL 2013
Premier Lucas leads NC
} Boipelo Mere
SYLVIA LUCAS, former Environmental Affairs MEC, has been confirmed as the new Northern Cape premier. Grizelda Cjiekella, Education MEC, has been acting premier for more
than a year after former premier Hazel Jenkins collapsed while delivering the 2012-’13 State of the Province Address. The much-anticipated appointment of a premier has been a source of constant speculation from both the media and opposition parties as to who will take over on a permanent basis from Jenkins. Lucas will see out the remaining 12 months of Jenkins’s term as a permanent premier. The decision is long overdue since the announcement was expected just before the State of the Province Address in March. Lucas, who has been around since the days of tri-cameral politics, started off as a typist for the now defunct National Party in Upington. Recruited to the ANC soon after the dawn of a democratic South Africa, she was made councillor and later sworn in as a member of the Northern Cape legislature (MPL). The vociferous Lucas was always very vocal against opposition parties in the legislature which at times landed her in hot water. She recently had to answer a case before the Human Rights
Commission for calling coloured people like herself “Hottentots”. Lucas is a member of the ANC’s PEC and is deputy chairperson of the Women’s League in the province. She is known to be an outspoken person. In the run-up to the Mangaung ANC conference she openly supported Jacob Zuma. That and other reasons could explain why the ANC PEC in the Northern Cape was reluctant to accept her as a Luthuli House preferred candidate. As a premier she has the right to shuffle her provincial executive committee particularly because her current portfolio needs to be filled. This might help ease the alleged headbutting at the Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison between the MEC and head of the department. On behalf of the ANC Women’s League in the province, Gail Parker welcomed the appointment of Lucas and appreciated the ANC’s confidence in once more appointing a woman to lead the province. “As a disciplined cadre, I am willing to take up any position within the ANC. I am not afraid of hard work and I am ready to take up any challenge with vigour,” she said.
SYLVIA LUCAS was named new premier of the Northern Cape by the ANC last week. Photo: Boipelo Mere
Northern Cape
Tel. Fax
053 831 2331 053 831 2330
PO Box 1583 Kimberley 8300
Editor
Boipelo Mere
Sales Manager Johan Rossouw