THREE ministers and three deputies were axed on Monday as South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa announced changes to the national executive headlined by the new minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa has been entrusted with turning around the biggest crisis ever to beset the country — energy — since the dawn of democracy.
The main casualties in Ramaphosa’s delayed changes were Lindiwe Sisulu, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and Nathi Mthethwa. Ramaphosa also ended speculation over the deputy presidency by announcing Paul Mashatile, who was sworn in last month, as the second in command in the country.
Mashatile’s appointment follows the resignation of his predecessor David Mabuza last week. Mashatile was elected ANC deputy president during the party’s 55th national conference in Nasrec back in December.
The new minister for planning, monitoring and evaluating is Maropene Ramakgopa. The post had not been filled since the death of Collins Chabane on March 15 2015. Former KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala was announced as the new public works minister, taking over from Patricia de Lille. Noxolo Kiviet is the new public service and administration minister, filling the vacancy left by Ayanda Dlodlo.
Former cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was moved to the ministry of women, youth and persons with disabilities in the Presidency. She replaces Nkoana-Mashabane. Ramaphosa’s announcement last night was to ensure that the government is properly capacitated and directed to give effect to the commitments made in the State of the Nation Address and Budget speech.
“I have sought to balance the need for new skills and capabilities to drive the agenda that we outlined in the State of the Nation Address with the important task of ensuring stability and continuity in the work of government,” Ramaphosa said.
“In the course of attending to current challenges, we are establishing two new ministries. The first of these is the minister for electricity to deal with the immediate crisis of load shedding.
“The second is the minister with specific responsibility for planning, monitoring and evaluation to focus greater attention on the performance of the government. While this will result in an increase in the number of ministries in the short term, as indicated in the Sona, I have instructed the Presidency and National Treasury to develop a proposal to rationalise government departments, entities and programmes to ensure greater efficiency.”
Ramaphosa said there had been con – cerns raised by South Africans about the amount of time it took to finalise these changes to the executive. —TimesLive