Tebogo Msimanga |
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on Monday evening of changes to his national cabinet is less a reshuffle and more a gratuitous bloating. This is the sentiment of the leader of the Democratic Alliance John Steenhuisen.
“Contrary to a commitment made in 2019 to reduce the number of ministries in the South African national executive, he has chosen to augment his cabinet by a further two ministries”.
Steenhuisen added that 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”.
Steenhuisen further said it is important to note that the new Minister of Electricity in the Presidency, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, nearly singlehandedly wiped out the City of Tshwane with a smart meter contract declared highly irregular by the Auditor General when he was the metro’s mayor.” If Cyril Ramaphosa thinks that Ramokgopa will solve the electricity crisis, then permanent blackouts are inevitable”.
He went on to say Minister Patricia De Lille has faced no consequences after the millions wasted on the Beitbridge washing line, or her abject failure to prevent the fire which razed the National Assembly and gutted the country’s legislature.
“Similarly, South Africa’s worst police minister in history, Bheki Cele, whose leadership has led to crime statistics worse than those of war-torn countries, remains in his position as Minister of Police”.
