Embattled North West premier Supra Mahumapelo proceeded to outline his plans for the province leading into 2019, despite calls from his party for him to leave office.
In an interview with eNCA's Samkele Maseko, Mahumapelo refused to comment on discussions between him and president Cyril Ramaphosa on his resignation as premier. He also proceeded to outline his intention to present his last state of the province address in 2019 — providing no indication that he will leave office before then.
Asked of discussions with Ramaphosa and the ANC's national working committee, he said, "Ask those questions to the officials of the ANC; I'm not going to respond to them."
"Remember we are provincial chairpersons and premiers, so we should on a regular basis be meeting with the president of the republic. I'm also a chairperson of the ANC, so there should be nothing untoward about me having a meeting with President Ramaphosa. And I don't know, because I meet him on a regular basis, why people are specifically interested in this particular meeting. As to matters you are insinuating about... I'm never mandated to speak on behalf of the NWC," he said.
He directed questions about his resignation to the presidency.
"We will be urging our people tomorrow to make sure the stability now in our province, we must maintain it. We will be calling upon them to strengthen out community structures. My responsibility tomorrow is to give that particular budget speech of the premier's office and from there do the implementation," he said.
"Next year, January or February, is to present the last state of the province address for the fifth administration. Tomorrow will also be telling our people of our province how we will be preparing a handover process for the sixth administration ... We are winding down our work."