Limpopo Premier’s challengers emerging from woodwork

The five Limpopo ANC regions may be 100% united behind President Cyril Ramaphosa’s re-election for a second term, but the same regions are definitely not entirely backing Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha to serve a third term as both premier and ANC provincial chair.

This is evident after several slates announced their preferred candidates to contest Mathabatha at the upcoming ANC elective conference in March.

Limpopo has five regions: Norman Mashabane with 129 branches, Vhembe 127, Sekhukhune 118, Peter Mokaba 113 and the smallest, Waterberg with 80 branches. Except for Waterberg, the remaining four have already held their respective elective conferences where they pronounced their preference for Ramaphosa to run for a second term.

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Now, with only 28 days left for the provincial conference, different slates have been doing the rounds endorsing Mathabatha for a second term.

The popular slate has Mathabatha as the preferred ANC chair; Florence Radzilani for deputy provincial chair; Danny Msiza for provincial secretary; Basikop Makamu for deputy provincial secretary; and Nakedi Sibanda-Kekana for treasurer.

The Citizen can, however, reveal that another slate, emanating from the province’s biggest region, Norman Mashabane, emerged at the weekend.

This slate touts the president’s man, Pule Shayi, to be elected premier. Three different branch leaders on Sunday revealed that Norman Mashabane was 100% behind Shayi.