South Africa’s new multiparty cabinet announced on June 30 aims for better governance but faces criticism for being bloated and inefficient. The ANC retains control of key ministries, while opposition party ministers bring optimism. Challenges include inexperienced ministers and political sensitivities, yet the commitment to corruption-free governance and practical reforms offers hope.
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By John Matisonn
South Africa can expect to be better governed by the new multiparty cabinet announced on Sunday evening, June 30, even though the president could have done better. ___STEADY_PAYWALL___
An already inefficiently large cabinet is now more bloated, and some new ministers have a lot to learn on the job. Calls for a leaner, more efficient cabinet were rejected. South Africa’s new cabinet has two more ministers and seven more deputies than the old one, for a total of 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers.
The ANC’s priority was to retain control of ministries it regarded as ideologically sensitive – International Relations, Defence and Police, as well as the economic portfolios of Finance, Trade and Industry, Mining, Energy, Transport, Labour and Water and Sanitation.
Yet there are reasons to be optimistic. Several ANC appointees as well as new opposition party ministers will make a positive difference.
Among ANC ministers, replacing Bheki Cele at police with Senzo Mchunu is encouraging. There will be relief among critics at Cele’s departure, while his successor Mchunu built a strong reputation over three years as Water and Sanitation minister .
Energy has finally been removed from Gwede Mantashe and consolidated with Electricity under Kgosiento Ramokgopa, though Mantashe retains control of Mining, despite scathing reviews of mining’s continued decline under his control.
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The Public Enterprises Ministry has been shut down, which appears to mean state owned enterprises will fall under line ministers, a move reformers have advocated for some time.
The new cabinet includes ten new opposition members and retains Patricia de Lille as Tourism Minister from her Good Party for a total of 11 ministers who are not ANC MPs.
The DA has been given the chance to beef up communications, public works, agriculture, home affairs and basic education – all in need of fresh leadership.
The ANC’s biggest sacrifices were probably conceding communications, which includes the SABC, agriculture, though somewhat politically neutered without land reform, basic education which may prove a poison chalice for the DA, public works, where infrastructure budgets are spent, and home affairs.
Communications offers the new DA minister, Solly Malatsi, the chance to give both growth and jobs a fillip if he resolves endless uncertainty about digital migration and spectrum allocation. This is not an area he seems to have a background in, and a lot will depend on how fast he figures out the problems.
Home Affairs went to Leon Schreiber, who has a PhD from Germany and a successful record as shadow minister of the public service, where he campaigned against the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment.
The outcome could have been better. Most of the new ministers have not been given portfolios they know well. Steenhuisen is new to agriculture, though he briefly owned a small farm. He has some executive experience in the eThekwini (Durban) management committee and his political career has seen a steady rise from city council to provincial council, then to the National Assembly as an effective chief whip before becoming party leader.
The DA’s new Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwaruba, is respected but untested in this portfolio, where education outcomes evoke consistent criticism. She will need skillful diplomacy and iron purpose to navigate the shales of the powerful teachers’ union, which is unlikely to welcome her appointment.
The DA also gets Environment, Forestry and Fisheries.
The IFP’s two portfolios provide an opportunity to improve national and local government. IFP leader Velinkosini Hlabisa at Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), is a former school principal, a town councilor for 24 years and mayor of his local town (population about 100,000) for three.
Hlabisa won respect for his gravitas during the coalition negotiations, remaining even-handed and willing to speak out when he thought differences put the country, and particularly the security of KwaZulu-Natal, at risk.
His IFP deputy, Nkosi Mzamo Buthelezi, has a key ministry in Public Service, in the early stage of reforming to end ANC cadre deployment. There is little on the public record about him, though he has written eloquently critiquing corruption in the civil service.
The Pan Africanist Congress leader, Mzwanele Nyhontso, has his chance to show what he can do with land reform. And Freedom Front + leader Pieter Groenewald has a chance to show if he can improve poorly run prisons as Correctional Services Minister.
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But the predominant takeaway from the president’s announcement is that the ministries most politically sensitive inside the ANC were retained, while the opposition parties were given some real power only where the ANC saw less vital ideological interests.
The president saw to it that the ANC remains in charge of its ideological hot buttons.
Retaining International Relations, Defence and Police keeps security and foreign policy strictly in the biggest party’s hands. And keeping Finance, Trade and Industry, Labour, Mining, and Energy and Electricity ensures that BEE and labour policy will not be changed.
Ramaphosa has also kept Health, to protect its National Health Insurance policy, and Higher Education, which has become sensitive because of student protests over funding failures.
Ramaphosa saved himself an ideological headache by giving land reform to the leader of a party dedicated to land reform, the PAC, splitting it off from agriculture, which he gave to DA leader John Steenhuisen.
By and large, the DA, IFP and PA ministers were not appointed to posts where they can draw on existing expertise. They begin a steep learning curve.
Most comically, the Patriotic Alliance’s former gangster and bank robber Gayton McKenzie now gets Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation, sparking this tweet from pollster Gareth van Onselen:
“Am looking incredibly forward to Gayton McKenzie’s influence on literature, galleries, theatre, museums, libraries, paintings and concerts. This is going to be a golden renaissance period for South African arts.”
So, will government be better for ordinary citizens?
There are two reasons to think it will, though not nearly as good as it could have been if talents were placed where they were most expert.
First, most new ministers from outside the ANC have clean records and a commitment to corruption-free government. Second, they will be less ideologically hide-bound, and likely be more practical.
Even McKenzie, who describes himself as a reformed gangster and campaigns against corruption, can do a lot of good in the sporting codes, where corruption has been common. A previous minister, Nathi Mthethwa, cleaned up one code – Cricket South Africa. Those close to that process hoped he would go on to others, but he never did.
South Africa has a government that is likely to pave the way for incremental improvements for ordinary South Africans, for at least three years. The ANC’s 2027 elective congress after the 2026 local elections is likely to spark political pressures inside the ANC. The DA will be focused on the next general election, in 2029, and whether its cabinet role has helped or hurt its chances.
The DA has six deputy ministers, including the potentially influential deputy minister of finance, but commentators exaggerate the importance of these posts, which depend on their ministers to have any significant responsibilities.
Before the election, the DA campaigned to reduce the size of cabinet, and particularly to appoint less under-utilised deputies. They have accepted six.
At the weekend, the two biggest parties outside the government, ex-president Jacob Zuma’s MK Party and the populist Economic Freedom Fighters, launched a last-minute bid to be included, demanding that Ramaphosa replace the DA and the rightwing Freedom Front + but they were ignored. It’s just as well the negotiations were concluded in 30 days.
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