President Cyril Ramaphosa has the full backing of the ruling African National Congress to reduce the size of the cabinet after the elections, senior official Fikile Mbalula said.<\/p>\n
“Cabinet will be cut to below 30 positions,” Mbalula, the ANC\u2019s head of elections and a former police minister, said in an interview on Thursday. “A study and a report has been done by the ANC and so it will be a reality.”<\/p>\n
The comments come as results from Wednesday\u2019s national election show the ruling party is on course to win a clear majority, bettering its performance in a municipal poll three years ago.<\/p>\n
That puts Ramaphosa, who has said he wants to reduce the size of the administration, in line for his first full five-year term as president after replacing Jacob Zuma as national leader last year. Currently, there are 34 ministers and 35 deputy ministers in the executive.<\/p>\n
Mbalula said Ramaphosa is safe as leader of the party but that he can\u2019t speak for ‘dark forces’.<\/p>\n
“All party members are 100% behind him,” he said at the national elections centre in Pretoria.<\/p>\n
“The party has done well especially after the doldrums we were in before the elections. However, I cannot account for dark forces and what they want to do.”<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa scored a narrow win in December 2017 to take leadership of the ANC and the party remains divided, stirring speculation that a faction allied to Zuma and Secretary-General Ace Magashule may seek to remove him. Magashule has denied the rumours.<\/p>\n