President Cyril Ramaphosa, New Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramakgopa, and Deputy President Paul Mashatile during the swearing-in ceremony of new members of the National Executive. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency
Cape Town - Political parties rated President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet reshuffle – which bloated his executive to a staggering 30 ministers – as a dud.
Despite dismal terms, Police Minister Bheki Cele and Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga survived.
Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu – who recently squared off with the tourism portfolio committee in the aftermath of the proposed UK-based club Tottenham Hotspur R1bn sponsorship – wasn’t so lucky after publicly bumping heads with Ramaphosa.
Presidency Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, who was criticised for attempting to spend taxpayers’ money on a now-canned R21m flag project, also got the chop.
Mthethwa, Sisulu and Nkoana-Mashabane’s phones went unanswered yesterday.
Cele’s office has struggled to curb soaring crime statistics, prompting him to concede recently that statistics don’t paint a positive picture of the crime situation.
Meanwhile, the 2030 Reading Panel didn’t give a good account to Motshekga, as it found that most children pass Grade 1 with no understanding of the alphabet, while 82% of Grade 4 school children can’t read for meaning. Nonetheless, Motshekga survived.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said: “With his Cabinet reshuffle, President Ramaphosa did absolutely nothing to address the two most significant problems faced by the country and its people, namely power and crime.”
The EFF said despite failing in their duty, Ramaphosa opted to keep Cele, Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi, and Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande as ministers.
Nxesi presides over a department that has struggled to reverse an unemployment crisis of 12 million job-seekers, while Nzimande has managed a department that has faced massive protests for almost a decade from students who demand more access to higher education, the EFF said.
New Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa and Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni weren’t spared either.
The EFF attributed the maladministration in Tshwane partly to Ramakgopa, while charging Ntshavheni with bringing the Communications and Digital Technologies (CDT) Department “to its knees”, the SA Post Office’s fall from grace and its possibly looming 6 000 retrenchments.
New CDT Minister Mondli Gungubele’s appointment was called a result of “crude factionalism”, consequences of which will see SA’s communications industry declining further.
“All of these individuals are verified failures, yet they are retained as ministers,” the red berets’ statement said.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said Ramaphosa’s reshuffle offered “more fat cats and shows no accountability”, calling it “less a reshuffle and more a gratuitous bloating”.
“The Minister of Electricity and of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, will add an additional R74 million to the public wage bill.
“It is simply unfathomable that the President can push this cost onto the South African taxpayer while the nation languishes under sluggish economic growth, the highest unemployment rate in recent history, and an electricity crisis that is shedding jobs at record numbers,” he said.
GOOD MP Brett Herron said Ramaphosa had failed to take the bull by the horns and chose to retain non-performing and corruption-implicated individuals.
He said citizens went to bed disappointed and feeling that Ramaphosa “has put his own, and his party’s interests, above”.
He commended the removal of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma from the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department.
Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks said the Cabinet reshuffle proved just how out of touch the government was with the needs of its citizens.
Political economist Mike Law said there was a lack of talent to choose from in the ANC caucus at the moment, largely due to the legacy of former secretary-general Ace Magashule’s grip on the party’s lists process.
Law welcomed new Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Thembi Nkadimeng’s appointment but was surprised by Patricia de Lille’s move to tourism minister as he regarded her as one of the better performing ministers.
Economist Dr Azar Jammine said there was relatively little reaction to the reshuffle as much of the announcements were expected. He said the rand depreciated as a result of the unexpected announcement that the economy deflated by 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
In a statement, Congress of SA Trade Unions welcomed the reshuffle but expressed disappointment that the Cabinet had increased in size.
The Progressive Professionals Forum commended the moves but said people want to see changes.
“The people are tired of rampant corruption and violent crime, growing inequalities, and poverty,” said the forum’s president, Kashif Wicomb.
soyiso.maliti@inl.co.za