Political analyst Professor Setsurego Matebesi said he was disappointed that President Cyril Ramaphosa had failed to deliver on one of his early promises before assuming leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) – to reduce the size of Cabinet and the national executive.
President Ramaphosa has announced the appointment of 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers to his seventh democratic government, based on the Government of National Unity (GNU) agreement with 10 other political parties.
This is the first time in the country's democracy that the national executive will be made up of a joint leadership of lawmakers from nine different political parties.
Matebesi said the merger and separation of some ministries was politically motivated.
“No, it was not a good decision to expand the national executive. I believe some of the decisions were taken to accommodate some parties in the GNU. But this will have a negative impact on the state's finances. I don't think the creation of this new national executive will boost our economy.”
Matebesi added that the crux of the issue was that it was confirmed that politics and positions had taken precedence over the urgency of addressing residents' grievances.
“Whenever political party leaders speak in public, they say they are for the people, but we know that in politics, it's all about status leading to benefits.”
“That is very disappointing, even considering the time it took to finalise agreements on key posts within the national executive. This shows that everyone was looking at what they could get, not necessarily how they could contribute to solving the challenges of our people,” Matebesi added.
–Reporter Kelebogire Kgetse
The video below explains the cabinet sizes: