It was a very slow exit that has been coming for months, and former North West premier Job Mokgoro still seems to be holding on. “A hasty departure from office may have been preferred politically, but would not not have been in the interest of the people of North West nor would it have advanced the oath of office I have taken,” he said in the Zoom meeting where he announced his resignation on Thursday. 

The immediate reason for his resignation – other than the pressure that was put on him by the ANC’s interim provincial committee – was that he at last got the audience with President Cyril Ramaphosa, as he had wished. ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile last week, apparently prematurely, went to the province to announce that Mokgoro’s resignation would be finalised by the end of that week. 

Why the ANC was in such a hurry to let him go isn’t clear. Mokgoro’s chosen successor, his economic adviser Bushy Maape, is not a member of the provincial legislature and will have to be substituted on the party’s lists for that institution. 

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, in response to a question at a press conference on Monday, said “the ANC can only change its list in the North West on the 15th of September because the list was changed last year on the 15th of September, and you can only do it once a year”. 

Mokgoro might have to be pushed again ahead of this deadline, as he has only resigned as premier and not as a member of the provincial legislature, which would mean that it would still be difficult for the ANC to alter its lists when the time comes for Maape to replace him.

Meanwhile, Finance MEC Motlalepula Rosho, who was also in the race for the premier position, was sworn in as acting premier. 

Mokgoro’s bitterness at being made to resign was evident when on Thursday he described his time as premier and his attempts to “push back corruption” and to reverse the damage apartheid has done as a “bumpy road”. He said: “Effectively, I’ve only served as premier of the North West province for three years and two months.” 

There was a hint of a break in his voice as he ended off his resignation speech by saying: “May God save our province, may God bless its people.”

An ally of Mokgoro said that he believed that some people wanted to push him out because the party is due to go to a provincial conference by March next year, and people needed resources to campaign. 

“These guys don’t have funds,” he said. “They can’t buy the conference, and they can’t steal the conference. The only way they can do this is by taking over the state apparatus.” 

The ally likened what had happened to Mokgoro as a “coup d’état” and a “power grab”. 

Chair of the ANC’s interim provincial committee, Hlomani Chauke, last week listed a number of reasons it wanted Mokgoro to go. Chauke mentioned the existence of a “rogue [intelligence] unit”, something which Mokgoro has denied, the state of municipalities in the province and the fact that ordinary businesspeople aren’t benefiting from government contracts as among the reasons the ANC no longer wanted him to be premier. 

Mokgoro was brought in in 2018 to stabilise the province after protests and a bad service delivery record led to Supra Mahumapelo’s sacking. 

The Mail & Guardian this week reported that the meeting between Duarte and Mokgoro last week after Mashatile’s announcement was heated, as the announcement reportedly came before Mokgoro was informed. Sources told the paper that Mokgoro complained that he had been treated like a “pisspot” by the province’s ANC leadership. 

The interim provincial committee is an unelected structure made up of leaders from different factions and it was appointed after Mahumapelo’s departure to prepare the province for a conference. This conference was supposed to have happened by March last year, but the Covid-19 lockdown meant that it could not yet be held. DM