Speculations of a Mpumalanga cabinet reshuffle are rife.
These gained even more momentum as the former MEC for agriculture, Mandla Msibi’s murder charges were provisionally withdrawn by the Mbombela High Court on Monday.
Msibi was fired by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane shortly after he was arrested and charged with an alleged murder that took place in October last year.
Shortly after his charges were withdrawn on Monday, Msibi went on to tell his supporters and throngs of ANC members that the people who had orchestrated these charges against him, occupied high-ranking governmental positions.
ALSO READ: Murder charges against Mandla Msibi provisionally withdrawn
This is a statement he first publicly made last year, that his cabinet colleagues were politically conspiring against him, which had manifested when one of them had even went as far as spreading rumours that he was guilty of fatally shooting people.
Since he had stepped aside from both party politics and governmental business, Msibi’s position remained unfilled, until Mtshweni-Tsipane announced minor changes into her cabinet, bringing in Busi Shiba as the new MEC for agriculture and Mandla Ndlovu coming in as the MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs.
Many people who spoke to this paper argued that the cabinet reshuffle needed to happen with immediate effect, to allow those who were recently elected at the party conference to ascend to power.
They argued that it has never happened that the party treasurer would be without a government portfolio.
ALSO READ: Mandla Msibi reports for duty
Names of youthful leaders such as Desmond Moela and Tim Mashele, both youth league graduates, had been thrown into the hat, alongside Msibi’s, to be included into cabinet.
Former KwaZulu-Natal premier, Sinhle Zikalala, had to resign shortly after he lost elections to “allow” the new leadership to start building and preparing the organisation towards the 2024 general elections.
The Eastern Cape also had to reshuffle its cabinet shortly after the provincial conference. In Gauteng, Premier David Makhura is also feeling the pressure and may resign any time now to allow new the provincial party leader, Panyaza Lesufi, to make his mark before the 2024 elections.
