The political future of Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela hangs in the balance following her failed bid to nab the powerful position of ANC provincial chairperson.

Ntombela went head-to-head for the hotly contested position with Mxolisi Dukwana, whom she appointed as cooperative governance MEC in October 2021. The duo also led the interim provincial committee (IPC) for two years.

Ntombela received 306 votes while Dukwana received 40 more votes than her (346) after 657 delegates cast their votes at the Imvelo Safari Lodge in Bloemfontein at the weekend.

The delays leading up to the ninth provincial conference owing to protests, violence and threats of litigation saw the province fail to conclude its tasks by Sunday, particularly the voting and nominations of the 30 additional members of the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), whose results were only announced on Monday.

From left: Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela, ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana at the Presidential Gala Dinner in Mangaung on 7 January 2023. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla / Daily Maverick)

From the results, it emerged that more than half of the voting delegates had left before the voting for additional members, as the results slip showed that only 360 delegates had cast their votes.

Some delegates were visibly aggrieved by the outcome of the voting for the top five, which saw allies of the suspended secretary-general of the party, Ace Magashule, fail to dethrone President Cyril Ramaposa’s supporters.

Those aggrieved with Ntombela’s loss threatened to take the fight to court after the party failed to address allegations of rigging and manipulation of delegates’ lists at the eleventh hour.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “No friends of Ace: Magashule allies fail to land Free State ANC Top Five slots”

While Ntombela was still coming to terms with her loss of the top job of provincial chairperson, she suffered another blow — failing to garner enough votes to get into the PEC, and coming dead last in votes at 19. 

Ntombela now faces the risk of being recalled as premier of the province. 

With Paseka Nompondo and Vusumuzi Tshabalala, staunch supporters of Magashule, also failing to be elected into the PEC, the top five wins effectively mean a clean sweep for the Ramaphosa slate, affirming his grip on the province. 

Ntombela’s fate is similar to that of former KZN premier Sihle Zikalala, who failed to make the PEC cut when the province held its provincial conference in July last year. Shortly after his defeat, Zikalala resigned from his position.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “KZN ANC accepts resignation of Premier Sihle Zikalala with ‘pain and difficulty’ ” 

No plans to resign

Speaking to Daily Maverick on the sidelines of the conference, Ntombela said she had no plans to resign, despite indirect criticism of her performance by the party’s recently elected national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, who opened the conference on Saturday.

“A key observation that we can confidently make here is that there is neither local nor provincial governance in the Free State.

“When spheres of government are dysfunctional, there is no government. One of the biggest disjunctures and rubbish I observed in the Free State is the demarcation. You have demarcated the province so much that it cannot even function,” said Mantashe.

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In 2022, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke said the province was in serious trouble, with not a single municipality receiving a clean audit for the past five years.

Quizzed on Mantashe’s remarks and the audit outcomes, Ntombela said she had made significant progress in changing the state of the province.  

“I think everyone can see there is stability in the Free State and I don’t want to make any arguments about that thing. Recently, we had our own audit report after a long time. Free State has four clean audits, we don’t have any disclaimers and we are trying our level best to make a difference.”

Mantashe said the tasks that lay ahead for the incoming PEC included the need to urgently revisit local government demarcation to ensure that people derived value from the municipalities.  

“We must address the issue that in the Free State there is not a single municipality with a clean audit; we need to speak openly about what we are going to do to address that,” he said.

While Ntombela thought her administration had brought stability to the province, she was aware she could be axed amid a possible reconfiguration of the Cabinet.

“Yes, I think we have done well in the province, but at the same time, I am deployed by the ANC and the ANC can do anything that it wants with me; I know that, so it is in their hands,” she said.

The ANC Youth League in the Lejweleputswa region has already publicly called for Ntombela’s head and the reshuffling of the executive council. They want Dukwana to take over her position.

Talk of a possible Cabinet reconfiguration in the province started two weeks ago in the buildup to the party’s 111th birthday celebration, also known as the annual January 8th tradition.

At one of the events, the party’s newly elected secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, lambasted officials over the shoddy state of the province, as dignitaries, including President Cyril Ramaphosa in his motorcade, had to manoeuvre through potholed roads — some rudimentarily patched with mud and stones — to get to celebration venues.

Mbalula vowed to embark on a clean-up operation which would see some officials shown the door within five days. This has not happened.  

“Why should we have a mayor or anyone… when they are sleeping on the job? Things must change, otherwise we will lose power because of sleepers, people who are sleeping on the job,” he remarked at the time. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Fikile Mbalula berates ANC officials after party bigwigs get a close-up view of potholed Free State”

Quizzed on the possible reconfiguration of the provincial executive and whether Ntombela would face the chop during the top five’s engagement with the media, Dukwana said officials were yet to meet and take decisions. 

“We have not met as officials, so it will be difficult to say exactly what we need to say. We are trying, as this leadership, to move away from any cult leadership, any cult personality; we need to operate as a collective, we need to make sure that what we communicate… the same message, we are going to be acting as one,” said Dukwana. DM