President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new cabinet has been received with strong reaction from opposition parties, with the EFF rejecting the changes outright.
“It is the balance of factions,” said the EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, speaking on ENCA.
Ndlozi said Ramaphosa had bowed to factional pressure by keeping people like Malusi Gigaba,” who he said is literally the architect of state capture.
The IFP’s Narend Singh said “it seems he’s gone back to what’s happened at the ANC conference. There’s a general appeasement here.”
“The whole of South Africa knows that he did not win with a big margin and this has come to play in his cabinet appointments. Many of the people who had opposed him have been appointed to this cabinet,” he said.
Nqabayomzi Nkwankwa of the UDM said “this has nothing to do with South Africa, it’s about the ANC trying to balance its interests.
DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, said that it is not a cabinet for South Africa, but a cabinet for the ANC. He described it in an interview as a unity slate designed to keep the ANC together rather than serve the country.
Ministers who got the axe were Mosebenzi Zwane, David Mahlobo, Lynne Brown, Des van Rooyen and Fikile Mbalula.
In announcing his new cabinet, Ramaphosa said that David Mabuza would be the country’s next Deputy President.
Mabuza will be sworn in on Tuesday along with former Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene, who will return to his old job.
Nene’s successor, Pravin Gordhan, returns to cabinet as the Minister of Public Enterprises, taking over from Lynne Brown.
Former ANC Secretary-General, Gwede Mantashe, has been appointed the Minister of Mineral Resources,
President Ramaphosa moved Malusi Gigaba back to the Department of Home Affairs while moving Bathabile Dlamini out of Social Development and into the Presidency responsible for Women.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was also appointed as a Minister in the Presidency while Bheki Cele has been appointed as the new Minister of Police.
President Ramaphosa said that the number of Ministries and Departments will be retained until a review is completed.
In welcoming the cabinet announcement, the ANC said that “we particularly commend the President for having exercised this prerogative in consultation with the National Officials of the ANC and our Alliance Partners.”
“Undoubtedly, this act of giving due regard to the resolutions of the African National Congress, in the exercise of the prerogative bestowed upon the President, lays a strong foundation for greater alignment and cooperation between the ANC and its cadres deployed in government,” said ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe.
