DA cabinet ministers to probe government tenders

The DA, the second largest party in the government of national unity (GNU), says it will investigate government tenders where its members have been appointed as ministers. 

The party was allocated six ministries and six deputy ministries: agriculture, basic education, public works and infrastructure, home affairs, forestry, fisheries and environment and communications and digital technologies. 

The DA has further assumed deputy minister posts in the portfolios of finance; trade, industry and competition; higher education; energy and electricity; water and sanitation; and small business development.

DA leader John Steenhuisen, who is the newly appointed minister of agriculture, said on Monday: “The negotiations reaffirmed the agreed-upon mechanism to break deadlocks on policy matters, that any suspicious tenders issued in departments now under DA control will be swiftly investigated, and that senior civil service appointments will not be obstructed or politicised.” 

The DA appointments into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s executive reflect the tension behind the scenes in the horse-trading between the two parties over the past weeks. The DA had initially demanded 11 positions, with and the trade, industry and competition portfolio, which has been retained by the ANC and is now headed by former Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau. 

Ramaphosa previously lashed out at the DA, saying that he believed the party had jeopardised the foundation of setting up the GNU, and accused the DA of constantly shifting the “goalposts” during negotiations.

“The DA was never in this for positions for their own sake, which is why we refused to accept watered-down compromises, and why we drove a hard bargain at times to ensure that the portfolios we get are of real substance,” Steenhuisen clarified on Monday.

Members of the new reconfigured cabinet are expected to take their oaths of office in the coming days.

maekot@businesslive.co.za