Premier Mabuza distances himself from Julius Malema's utterances

15 February 2017

Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza distances himself from the pointless comments about his political career made by the EFF leader Julius Malema at a certain press conference yesterday [14 February 2017] in Johannesburg.

The Premier has noted the rumblings from a spokesperson he never appointed, and believes that they are an agenda to cause confusion especially in the province of Mpumalanga where he has worked hard to unite it politically.

Giving his opening remarks at a three-day executive council lekgotla in Hazyview Mbombela this morning, Premier Mabuza said the EFF leader had an agenda to defocus the ruling party in the province, as well as both the political and administrative leadership of the provincial government.

“He is not my spokesperson, let us not pay attention on him, he is trying to confuse us. We have to focus on the business at hand. Our administration runs until 2019, we have clear deliverables as per our popular mandate that we must work on,” said the Mabuza.

He called on the lekgotla to work hard and not hide under the political turmoil that was currently taking place in the country, explaining that as he continues to do his work, people would say he is campaigning for the ANC elective conference scheduled for later this year.

He urged them to work hard, saying as the political and administrative leadership they should take decisive actions on issues that would address unemployment, poverty and inequality.

“We cannot continue to spend all our efforts drafting policies and plans, and strategizing. That time is over, we must focus on implementation. We have spent too much time on policy formulation and forgot about how these policies should be implemented.

“This has led to a situation where we have missed our goals and objectives. In some areas we think we have implemented government programmes and projects, only to find that the impact is minimum or non-existence,” said Mabuza.

The lekgotla ends on Friday and the Premier will deliver his state of the province address next week Friday 24 February 2017.

Issued by Mpumalanga Provincial Government

Enquiries:

Spokesperson: Mpumalanga Premier
Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Office of the Premier
Zibonele Mncwango
Tel: (013) 766 2453
Mobile: 082 616 6698
E-mail: mncwangoz@prem.mpg.gov.za