President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday night announced his new Cabinet. With many ministerial and deputy minister changes, the country’s executive increases to 77 members.
The president’s announcement has been met with wide criticism, with many asking what happened to Ramaphosa’s statements in the past that Cabinet’s costs would be reduced.
On Monday, ActionSA said in a statement, “President Ramaphosa’s Cabinet, with compromised and corruption-accused individuals remaining as ministers is a bad first impression of this new grand coalition government. Contrary to his past commitments to significantly reduce the size of the Cabinet, President Ramaphosa has instead expanded the Cabinet with the appointment of 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers.”
The party further stated that the new members of the executive will collectively cost the taxpayer, over R1 billion annually in benefits and perks, with over R180 million allocated to salaries of ministers and deputy ministers alone.
ActionSA further said, “This new grand coalition government has failed to put a reformist foot forward. Years of opposition parties publicly calling for a smaller Cabinet and the replacement of failed or corruption-accused ministers have been silenced. Now more than ever, the voice of an uncompromised unofficial opposition is needed in Parliament, and ActionSA stands ready to be that voice.”
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