South Africa needs its new ministers: Ramaphosa
President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended his appointment of two new ministers, saying that cabinet shouldn’t be a “head-counting exercise” and that the executive should adapt and change to address the country’s needs.
In his weekly letter to the nation, Ramphosa said that he welcomes the discussion and debate around the size of his cabinet, but noted that much of the criticism has “missed the point”.
The president has faced mounting criticism around what has been deemed a “bloated cabinet” after he increased the number of ministers in the country to 30, from 28 before.
Ramaphosa added a Minister of Electricity and a Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation when he reshuffled his cabinet last week (9 March). Both ministries are located within the office of the presidency.
This makes South Africa’s cabinet one of the bigger executive teams in the world – larger than many developed nations with more complex structures and higher populations, like the United States, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
However, the president defended the appointments, saying they are needed.
“The new ministries I announced last week respond to our current specific needs. As I explained in the State of the Nation Address, we need a minister to coordinate and drive our response to the electricity crisis,” he said.
“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, was established because “we need a dedicated focus on ensuring that government effectively implements the programmes that underpin our priorities and is able to fix problems as they arise”, the president said.
“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.”
Ramaphosa said that when he first came into office, there were 34 ministries – this was reworked into 28.
The Department of Trade and Industry was combined with Economic Development, Higher Education and Training with Science and Technology, Environmental Affairs with Forestry and Fisheries, Agriculture with Land Reform and Rural Development, among others.
Some of these ‘rationalised’ ministries were reversed, such as the Department of Water and Sanitation, which was split from the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure in 2021. This also increased the number of ministries, but had to be done to address South Africa’s water issues, Ramaphosa said.
The president stressed that as the needs of the country changes, so too should the executive to match.
“Countries with developed economies that do not face the problems (South Africa faces) may well not need such an active state. The size and design of their governments may be very different to ours.
“The country’s needs will change over time, and we will learn from our lived experience. Therefore, the government has to adapt and be responsive,” he said.
More changes to come
Ramaphosa said that the changes to the country’s executive are not done, with work underway to restructure government over the longer term.
“We want to go further, to take a deeper look into where there are opportunities to rationalise, merge or separate government departments, entities and programmes,” he said.
The Presidency and National Treasury are working with other departments to develop a proposal that could be implemented over the next three years.
“The Presidential State-Owned Enterprises 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.
“We are forging ahead with the process we embarked upon at the start of this administration to build a capable state with entities that add value to the government’s programme of action,” he said.
“In all this work, we are informed by evidence, experience and the availability of resources. We agree that we need an efficient and lean government, but if we become fixated by head counts, we may lose sight of the point of having a capable state in the first place.”
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