KZN premier-elect Nomusa Dube-Ncube, the first female premier in the province’s history, has made a commitment to the people in the province that she will not disappoint them.
This comes after she was announced as the next premier by the KZN ANC leadership on Monday, 8 August after the resignation of Sihle Zikalala last week.
Dube-Ncube, who currently serves as KZN MEC for Finance, is a senior in the KZN new Provincial Executive Committee. She was appointed due to her experience and seniority in government against Amanda Bani-Mapena and Mbali Frazer.
Dube-Ncube, known as game changer, said she knows they have many challenges but the leadership needs to settle the problems.
“I am going to work with the ANC leadership as well as all my colleagues in government to ensure that the crippling issues that we are still facing in our province are taken care of,” she said.
Dube-Ncube, from KwaMashu, north of Durban, has a master’s degree in public administration and is working on a PhD. She served as the speaker of eThekwini Metro before being assigned to the foreign mission as ambassador to the Czech Republic.
She said she will deal with the socio-economic challenges and issues of unemployment.
“If you look at our national development plan and our provincial growth and development strategies, they talk about the need for government to champion the services to the people.
“It talks about the stages we will have to work through, and about the economic growth that needs to reflect the demographic of our people.
“People in the rural areas must have opportunities in terms of economic development,” she said.
New KZN ANC secretary Bheki Mtolo said they were clear that they wanted the next premier to be a woman.
“In our new KZN ANC top five leadership, we have MECs Nomagugu Simelane for Health and Sipho Hlomuka for Cogta, who both said they don’t feel ready to be the premier,” he said.
Mtolo said they will allow Dube-Ncube to apply her mind about who will fill her position as KZN MEC for finance.
