EXCLUSIVE: a sit down with Premier Mathabatha

POLOKWANE – “I am not a member of Boko Haram, I belong to the ANC and the people of Limpopo.”

These were the words of Premier Stanley Mathabatha during an exclusive interview with Review last Friday.

“I heard of the so-called Premier League, but I don’t belong there and I will never belong to them,” said Mathabatha.

He however said he supported the beliefs of a political lobby group that wanted Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to become the ANC President in 2017, as well as the country’s President in 2019.

“I still stand by my guns that Ramaphosa is a son of the soil, we love him and we will always support him. We will continue to support Ramaphosa as a leader of the ANC and of government,” he said.

Money in the bank

Mathabatha also spoke about Limpopo’s financial situation.

“The Treasury Department, of which the finances were in shambles before my tenure, now has a total of R4,2 billion in the bank,” he said.

When Mathabatha took over, the province had an overdraft of R1,7 billion and reflected unauthorised expenditure amounting to R2,7 billion.

The province is now out of the woods and talking about its finances is ‘a breath of a fresh air’.

He further said Limpopo could brace itself for 19 000 jobs that were on the cards, if the provincial government’s relationships with the Chinese and Russian governments were anything to go by.

He also mentioned the province had acquired a huge mining business with China in Musina worth R38 billion.

Mathabatha took a swipe at municipalities that performed dismally in the eyes of the Auditor-General. He said the aim of the province was to attain clean audits by the 2013/14 financial year.

“Although it may seem like I am blowing my own horn, surprisingly only my office (Office of the Premier) managed to get a clean audit,” he said.