President Ramaphosa inherited one of the biggest Cabinets in the world – bloated and compromising of many compromised and incompetent individuals. The 35 ministers and 37 deputy ministers will – in salary earnings alone – cost our country R163.5 million this year, and over R510.5 million over the medium-term.
This excludes Ministerial houses and vehicles, VIP protection, travel allowances, and private offices and their staff contingents. During his State of the Nation Address, President Ramaphosa made an undertaking to downsizing his Cabinet. He said the following:
“It is critical that the structure and size of the state is optimally suited to meet the needs of the people and ensure the most efficient allocation of public resources. We will therefore initiate a process to review the configuration‚ number and size of national government departments.”
Less than two weeks later, Ramaphosa announced changes to his Cabinet, which saw the removal of Ministers involved in state capture and alleged wrongdoing. These included Mosebenzi Zwane, Des Van Rooyen, Lynne Brown, David Mahlobo, Faith Muthambi, Bongani Bongo and Fikile Mbalula. Other less controversial Ministers such as Hlengiwe Mkhize, Nathi Nhleko and Joe Maswangani were also fired.
During this reshuffle the President failed to implement his commitment to cutting the size of the national government, and during his first 100 days government remains in shape and form no different to that of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma. Moreover, his broom failed to perform a clean sweep of all compromised and incompetent Ministers.
Malusi Gigaba, Nomvula Mokonyane, Bathabile Dlamini, Aaron Motsoaledi and Angie Motshekga all remain in Cabinet, despite their dubious track records. Malusi Gigaba is a known Gupta acolyte; Nomvula Mokonyane financially collapsed the Department of Water and Sanitation; Bathabile Dlamini played Russian Roulette with 17 million social grants recipients; Aaron Motsoaledi has overseen the gradual demise of the public healthcare system, with both the Life Esidimeni tragedy and the KwaZulu-Natal oncology crisis occurring on this watch; and Angie Motshekga has allowed SADTU to capture the basic education sector, compromising the futures of our children.
However, this is most aptly illustrated by the President’s appointment of David “DD” Mabuza as Deputy President of South Africa. A once Zuma loyalist, Mabuza switched allegiances and singlehandedly secured Cyril Ramaphosa the ANC Presidency.
This is a man who ran the province of Mpumalanga like his own spaza shop when he was Premier, and still has multiple allegations of involvement in political killings hanging over his head.
The size and composition of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet illustrates the fact that he is not in full control. To create a capable, streamlined state, President Ramaphosa must cut the size of the National Executive, and remove all those compromised, underperforming, and non-performing Ministers.
In this first 100 days, he has failed to do such.
The above was presented by DA Leader Mmusi Maimane at a press conference to review President Cyril Ramaphosa’s first 100 days in office. Read the full report here