‘There’s no crisis’: Northern Cape premier Zamani Saul moves to quell ANC revolt

Northern Cape premier and ANC provincial chairperson Dr Zamani Saul has mounted a defence of his leadership, insisting “there is no crisis” in the governing party — even as growing speculation suggests at least two more members of his executive are considering resigning following the departures of public works MEC Fufe Makatong and former health MEC Maruping Lekwene.

Among those understood to have indicated an intention to leave the provincial executive is co-operative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs MEC Bentley Vass, according to ANC and government sources familiar with the discussions.

If confirmed, it would mark the third cabinet resignation and deepen the biggest political crisis to confront Saul since becoming premier in 2019. Vass is currently among provincial officials holding the position of deputy chairperson.

The wave of resignations has fuelled widespread perceptions that Saul’s once-firm grip on the Northern Cape ANC is weakening amid growing internal dissent over his leadership style and governance of the province.

But in a strongly worded letter sent to ANC branches, regions and provincial leaders on Monday, Saul dismissed suggestions that his administration or the governing party was facing a leadership crisis.

“I want to state categorically and directly to you, as your provincial chairperson, there is no crisis,” Saul wrote. “The ANC remains rock-solid, structurally sound and entirely focused on our dual mandate to fix local municipalities and secure an overwhelming and decisive victory at the polls.”

The letter was circulated hours after an extraordinary weekend in which Makatong publicly resigned, citing what she described as persistent interference in the running of her department.

Her resignation followed that of former health MEC Lekwene, who also left the executive under circumstances that have intensified questions about instability within Saul’s administration ahead of the November 4 local government elections.

Though the ANC provincial leadership subsequently announced it had rejected Makatong’s resignation, uncertainty over the composition of Saul’s executive has continued to grow.

The ANC remains rock-solid, structurally sound and entirely focused on our dual mandate to fix local municipalities and secure an overwhelming and decisive victory at the polls.

—  Zamani Saul, Northern Cape premier

In his letter, Saul acknowledged what he described as a “political mishap” that threatened to distract the ANC from its election campaign and offered an apology to party members.

“On behalf of the entire PEC, I wish to extend a sincere and formal apology for the political mishap that occurred over the weekend,” he wrote. “This unfortunate incident threatened to derail our collective focus from our principal historical task to defend and advance our glorious movement.”

Saul accepted “collective accountability” for the developments and said an urgent meeting of the ANC provincial executive committee would be convened this week to reflect on the events and provide direction to party structures.

“As the leadership, we accept collective accountability for this matter and acknowledge that it ought to have been handled with greater care and revolutionary discipline,” he said.

The premier sought to shift attention back to the ANC’s voter registration campaign, describing it as a historic success.

According to Saul, the province registered 132,578 voters over the two registration weekends, bringing the Northern Cape voters’ roll to a record 706,943 registered voters.

He said 27,151 were first-time registrations, while more than 108,000 registrations were completed online.

Saul congratulated ANC volunteers, branch structures and regional leaders for what he described as an exemplary mobilisation effort, saying preliminary reports placed the Northern Cape among the ANC’s best-performing provinces during the final voter registration weekend.

Despite those assurances, opposition parties previously told the Sunday Times the resignations point to deep fractures inside the governing party.

The DA alleged that Saul’s administration had become increasingly unstable, claiming tensions within the executive stemmed from political interference in departmental administration and financial decision-making.