Cape Town ID Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Development and Tourism, Simon Grindrod, has questioned the creation of a new mega-ministry, under the auspices of Garth Strachan, in the Western Cape Provincial Government announced today.

Strachan, a member of the pro-Zuma Skwatsha camp, has been named as the new MEC in charge of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism. Previously, Finance was combined with the Tourism portfolio and Economic Development combined with Planning and Environment.

Grindrod said:

'Premier Lynne Brown has finally decided upon her new cabinet after weeks of turmoil at provincial level.

'Brown must have had a huge fight on her hands because the Zuma faction now controls the finances of this province in the person of Garth Strachan.

 'There have been massive concessions to the Zuma faction in this process, which reinforces our concerns about the province being remote-controlled by the Zuma camp at Luthuli House.

'Strachan is a member of the Skwatsha/Ozinsky camp, which means that the pro-Zuma faction has now seized the critical budgeting and finance powers of the provincial government.

'Clearly, those who control the purse-strings wield enormous power over which projects and programmes are supported. In this way they now have control over all other departments in terms of what is delivered and to which communities.

'This development is something that everyone in the province should be concerned about and the ID will monitor the implications of this very closely.'

ENDS

For media enquiries please call Simon Grindrod, ID Deputy Leader, on 084 200 6060