Ask ‘why’ changes to cabinet were made, urges Cyril Ramaphosa

President Cyril Ramaphosa said reducing the recent cabinet changes to a head-counting exercise was “missing the point”.

The president has come under fire for increasing the size of his cabinet when he announced his reshuffle last week, with political parties criticising Ramaphosa for not sticking to his commitment to decrease the size of the executive. 

Ramaphosa believes the discussion about the size of the executive is important but lacks analysis into why these changes were made and whether they were necessary. 

“It is argued by some that any decrease in the number of ministers is good and any increase is bad. At the start of this administration in 2019, we reduced the number of ministries from 34 to 28. 

“There was therefore much criticism when, last week, we increased the number of ministries for the remainder of this administration to 30,” Ramaphosa said. 

Despite the flak, the president maintained the ministries he announced last week responded to the country’s specific needs.

“As I explained in the state of the nation address, we need a minister to co-ordinate and drive our response to the electricity crisis. This is a temporary position and the minister will remain in office only for as long as it is necessary to resolve the crisis.  

“The second new ministry, for planning, monitoring and evaluation, arises from an appreciation that we need a dedicated focus on ensuring government effectively implements the programmes that underpin our priorities and is able to fix problems as they arise,” said Ramaphosa. 

The president announced Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as the new minister of electricity and Maropene Ramokgopa as the minister in the presidency responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluation. 

“In considering the size of the executive, the question we should be asking is how best should government be organised to meet the country’s needs. At this moment in our country’s history, when we have vast pressing developmental needs, when we have to undo the devastating and enduring legacy of apartheid, we need an active and capable developmental state.” 

The president said the executive needed to have the resources to tackle challenges including poverty, joblessness, homelessness, illiteracy, lack of social infrastructure and a significant burden of disease, adding countries with developed economies that do not face these problems may not need such an active state.  

“The size and design of their governments may be very different to ours. When it comes to building a capable and developmental state, the foremost consideration is how to organise every part of government, including the executive, to effectively implement the electoral mandate.” 

He said the country’s needs will change over time and “we will learn from our lived experience”. 

“Therefore, government has to adapt and be responsive. By way of example, at the start of this administration we combined the ministry of human settlements with the ministry of water and sanitation. 

“This made sense. The provision of water is closely tied to developing human settlements. However, as the burden on the country’s scarce water resources continued to increase, with competing demands from a growing population, agriculture, industry and other economic sectors, we decided in 2021 to again separate the ministries,” said Ramaphosa. 

The president said water was a service and commodity that cut across all sectors of the economy and went beyond only human settlements, saying that while it increased the number of ministries, it had a beneficial effect on the work of both departments.  

“There has been improved policy alignment and focused implementation. What would have been described as a bad thing by those who count the number of ministries has been good for the provision of vital services. While the state needs to be configured to meet the country’s needs, account needs to be taken of available resources.  

“Where it is possible to rationalise ministries, departments and other state entities without affecting outcomes, we should do so. In 2019 we combined a number of ministries. For example, we combined trade and industry with economic development, higher education and training with science and technology, environmental affairs with forestry and fisheries, and agriculture with land reform and rural development, among others.” 

Ramaphosa said if the country wanted to go further, it would look where there were opportunities to rationalise, merge or separate government departments, entities and programmes.  

“In the state of the nation address, I announced the presidency and National Treasury would work with other departments to develop a proposal that could be implemented over the next three years.  

“The presidential state-owned enterprises (SOEs) council is undertaking a similar exercise. It is conducting an in-depth review of all key SOEs. The council is guided by the needs of the country and the efficient use of available resources,” said Ramaphosa. 

The president announced his government was forging ahead with the process to build a capable state with entities that added value to the government’s programme of action.  

“In all this work, we are informed by evidence, experience and the availability of resources. We agree we need an efficient and lean government, but if we become fixated by headcounts, we may lose sight of the point of having a capable state in the first place.” 

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