By Thys Khiba
“MEC Cwaile remains highly charged and hard at work and reviewing the performance of both his departments and municipalities as he seeks to conclude work on interventions in municipalities.”
Mahikeng – The Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA) in the North West province led MEC Mmoloki Cwaile said that the media statement claiming that Cwaile has been placed on special is misleading.
“I am conceding that whereas I hold no policy difference with the Premier, it is approaches and preferences on the implementation of constitutional legislative policy determination that stands counter pose to each other. The challenge here is not the policy posture itself but effective communication and clarification of roles,” said Cwaile.
The office of CoGHSTA in the province said that the statement by the office of the Premier is contradicting what Premier has communicated to the MEC in that the message sent to him by the Premier on Thursday at 18h54 only notified him of Premier preferring exercising his powers in terms of Section 138 of the Constitution.
“In this case, Section 138 provides for temporary assignment of functions in that ‘the Premier of a Province may assign to a member of the Executive Council any power or function of another member who is absent from office or is unable to exercise that power or perform that function.”
This follows the released statement by office of Mokgoro confirming that Premier, Prof. Tebogo Job Mokgoro has in accordance with powers bestowed upon him by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996, placed MEC Mmoloki Cwaile on special leave with effect from today, 05 August 2021.
“During the period of MEC Cwaile’s special leave, MEC Desbo Mohono has temporarily been assigned with the functions and powers for the portfolio of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs,” said North West Provincial Government Spokesperson Brian Setswambung.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the North West province confirmed that they are going to write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance in the Provincial Legislature, Aaron Motswana, requesting him to summon Premier Mokgoro to explain his decision to place the MEC for Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Cwaile, on special leave.
“Placing MEC Cwaile on special leave without supplying any reasons is nothing other than a political chess game that will further destabilize the Department, with communities as the biggest losers,” said DA MPL Freddy Sonakile.
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