President Cyril Ramaphosa today missed a golden opportunity to further reduce the size of his Cabinet and to get rid of an undesirable and incompetent minister like Bathabile Dlamini.
One of the changes that President Ramaphosa could have made was to combine the ministry of Environmental Affairs with Water and Sanitation. The only ministries that were merged are those of Telecommunications and Postal Services and Communications.
The FF Plus is of the opinion that President Ramaphosa could have proven to the public that he really is serious about reducing his Cabinet by combining more ministries. He has, however, missed a golden opportunity to do so.
The President was afforded the opportunity to reshuffle the Cabinet after the passing of the former Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, and the resignation of Malusi Gigaba, former Minister of Home Affairs. These events necessitated a cabinet reshuffle.
Ms Stella Ndabeni Abrahams, former Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services was appointed as the new Minister of the now merged Telecommunications and Postal Services and Communications ministry. This is the only instance in which two formerly separate ministries were merged.
The President was not willing or able to make any more changes to the Cabinet as a result of the factions in the ANC and the fact that Ramaphosa can still not act from a position of authority.
Other moves include Siyabonga Cwele (formerly Telecommunications and Postal Services) to the position of Minister of Home Affairs in the place of Gigaba and Nomvula Mokonyane (formerly Communications) to the position of Minister of Environmental Affairs.
The President may hope to have his hand strengthened after next year’s elections so that he can take more decisive action, but the possibility that the position of the ANC and the President could weaken after the elections still remains and then the country and its taxpayers will have to bear the burden of an inflated Cabinet for yet another indeterminate period of time.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Dr Pieter Groenewald on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
