President Cyril Ramaphosa Has Officially Announced Cabinet Changes

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet reshuffle has been characterized as gratuitous bloating, proving the ANC government’s disconnect from citizens’ wants and concerns.

 

The DA leader, John Steenhuisen, said in a statement that the ministers of electricity and planning, monitoring, and evaluation will add R74 million to the public wage tab.“It is simply incomprehensible that the president can pass this expense on to South African taxpayers while the country suffers from sluggish economic development, the highest unemployment rate in recent history, and an electricity crisis that is causing record job losses,” Steenhuisen said.

 

Furthermore, Steenhuisen stated that there had been no announcement of performance agreements, targets, or concrete results and timelines for the ministries.“Housing both of them in the Presidency also implies that these ministers will be shielded from accountability in Parliament, where a committee on the Presidency still does not exist. However, it is less about who President Ramaphosa has added to his Cabinet and more about who has remained or simply has not confronted any consequences for poor performance.

“Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma’s move from Cogta [cooperative governance and traditional affairs] to women, youth, and people with disabilities demonstrates that there are no consequences for the sole individual who ravaged our economy with irrational regulations while the country was in a state of disaster due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.“The ability and capacity are there and we expect that he will play a supportive role in dealing with load shedding. Eskom must be strengthened. This adds to the Cabinet’s already excessive size. “What he should have done was provide Eskom with the required manpower to end load shedding,” 

 

Mmusi Maimane, leader of Build One SA, said the most important phrase in the president’s speech was that it was not an overhaul of the executive, but only to replace vacancies.“The same rotten apples were shuffled from one position to another – the polar opposite of what was required in a time of socioeconomic crisis. As South Africans worry about the economy, crime, education, healthcare, and keeping the lights on, the president saw right to merely rearrange the employment conditions of old, out-of-touch ANC deployees in Cabinet, giving many people new roles to repeat old failures,” Maimane said.

 

He also claimed that the bloated Cabinet would raise taxpayer burdens.“This is being done for his own personal gain. We have a failing agency of public enterprises. Nothing has been said or done about that minister. He has taken advantage of his status. The ANC is exhausted. They are not sending out any good energy. The nation has deteriorated further. The administration is failing. “Selling Ankoles is Ramaphosa’s goal, not solving the country’s problems,” he told ENCA.

 

Herman Mashaba, president of ActionSA, said the long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle was disappointing at best, showing the governing party’s lack of talent.