The African National Congress (ANC) has asked its structures to nominate two women out of the three candidates for the position of premier in each of the nine provinces.
Members of the ruling party also have to ensure that female premiers serving their first term of office are included in the list of three candidates.
Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane is the Premier of Mpumalanga and Nomusa Dube-Ncube is the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal. Out of the eight provinces governed by the ANC there are only two female premiers.
The new selection criteria for premiers forms a part of the broad new changes adopted by the ANC in the nomination of its candidates to serve as parliamentarians and legislators in provinces.
ANC head of the Electoral Committee Kgalema Motlanthe said the process to select premier candidates ahead of next year’s elections was already underway.
However, there were new guidelines how structures of the ANC will have to select their premier candidates.
Motlanthe said the extended Provincial Executive Committees will have to finalise the list of three candidates in each of the provinces.
But in that list two of the candidates must be women and if there is a sitting premier in a province, she must be included in the list of three names that will be considered.
“The nomination of the three premier candidates shall be done by the extended PECs and the dates for these sessions shall be set by the Electoral Committee in consultation with the Secretary-General,” said Motlanthe.
“We wish to reiterate that at least two of the three premier candidates must be female and all premiers serving their first term of office must be included amongst the three candidates as per the rules and guidelines approved by the NEC.”
These are the new guidelines that Motlanthe said party structures must follow when they select premier candidates.
IOL Politics