Buzzapp Master President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of a more bloated cabinet will serve as a test of the ANC’s unity — a party already divided after the inclusion of the DA in its government of national unity (GNU).
National executive committee (NEC) members who have spoken to TimesLIVE Premium said Ramaphosa had to balance the GNU and his allies in the NEC despite several demotions of his more senior allies.
Those affected include senior NEC member Sihle Zikalala, who was number one on the NEC list and seen by ANC insiders to have revived a “dying” department of public works.
Another ally who suffered a demotion is former health minister Joe Phaahla who now serves as deputy minister in the same department to Aaron Motsoaledi.
Another ally, Mondli Gungubele, who was part of a group of ANC leaders who championed Ramaphosa’s re-election, was demoted from minister of communications and digital technologies and is now deputising the DA’s Solly Malatsi in the same ministry.
The shifting of Sindisiwe Chikunga from minister of transport to the ministry of women, youth and persons with disabilities will be seen as a snub by some in the ANC.
The ministry previously held by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is considered a docile portfolio with a limited budget and powers.
Chikunga was lauded in NEC meetings in the previous administration for her work in the department.
In leaked recordings, ANC elections head Mdumiseni Ntuli singled her out as the only minister who had used her department to campaign effectively its gains in the past 30 years.
An ANC insider said Ramaphosa faced a mammoth task of balancing the needs of his allies in the ANC with those of its coalition partners.
The announcement to split energy and minerals resources will serve as a test to an already waning relationship between Ramaphosa and his strongest general, party chairperson Gwede Mantashe.
Mantashe had previously fought off a move by Ramaphosa to move some of his powers from the energy and minerals ministry to the ministry of electricity.
The move by Ramaphosa comes as the two leaders were split over the decision to go into a coalition with the DA in the GNU.
Mantashe was considered as the man who protected Ramaphosa during his Phala Phala scandal against what some in the ANC considered to be an opportunity to hold him to account, while some called for Ramaphosa’s head.
Ramaphosa’s favoured former minister of international relations and co-operation Naledi Pandor failed to make it back to his cabinet. Pandor had been out of the race when she failed make it over the line in the ANC list to parliament.
There was an expectation that she would make it in via the back door as part of the two ministers Ramaphosa is constitutionally allowed to appoint outside the parliamentary lists. She was his choice of running mate when he first ran for president of the ANC.
Ronald Lamola has succeeded Pandor. The two worked together to take Israel to the International Court of Justice for crimes of genocide against the people of Palestine.
The DA and other GNU partners came out of the announcement with key positions in Ramaphosa’s executive.
DA leader John Steenhuisen was appointed agriculture minister, however the ANC president separated land reform and rural development from the department.
The separation of these department is a compromise with the ANC and its alliance partners who have been against a DA partnership.
Land reform forms part of the ANC’s transformation agenda. The ANC’s last elective conference resolved the state should expropriate land without compensation, a resolution the DA has rejected.
Former DA chief whip Siviwe Gwarube has been appointed basic education minister while her predecessor Angie Motshekga was shuffled to the defence ministry.
Sadtu — one of Cosatu’s biggest unions — has already rejected the appointment.
“The DA demanding the basic education ministry has nothing to do with a commitment to the nation to ensure quality and equitable education but to destroy the organisation of teachers and their communities ,” it said earlier on Sunday.
The DA received six positions in Ramaphosa’s cabinet while the IFP got two posts.
IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa — who was seen as the voice of reason during the two weeks of intense negotiations between the ANC and the DA — was appointed minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs.
Another IFP appointee — Mkhuleko Hlengwa — is deputy minister of transport and its deputy president, Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi, is public service and administration minister.
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa was appointed deputy minister of defence and military veterans while Mzwanele Nyhontso from the PAC was appointed minister of land reform and rural development.
Holomisa is affectionately called general after his time as a leader of the Bantustan in the Transkei area.
PA leader Gayton McKenzie was appointed minister of sport, arts and culture and GOOD party leader Patricia de Lille retained her position as tourism minister.
Ramaphosa announced late on Sunday he considered it necessary to separate certain portfolios to ensure there is sufficient focus on key issues.
He said he would merge the ministries of electricity and energy and separate the ministry of mineral resources and petroleum.
The ministry of agriculture will be separated from the ministry of land reform and rural development while the ministry of higher education will be separated from the ministry of science, technology and innovation.
The ministry of justice and constitutional development was separated from the ministry of correctional services. Ramaphosa dissolved the ministry of public enterprises.
The ANC dipped below 50% in the 2024 elections for the first time in 30 years, taking away 40.18% from 57.5% in 2019 with 159 seats in parliament.
Signs that the DA and the ANC would enter into negotiations were first apparent when during the counting of the results at the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) results operating centre as it became clear the ANC had lost its majority nationally as well as in key provinces KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
The ANC’s top brass including its deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane and chairperson Mantashe began quoting prospective partners.
A day before Ramaphosa accepted the declaration by the IEC of a free fair and transparent election, the Sunday Times reported the ANC was considering several options to form a government including a GNU with characteristics of a supply and confidence agreement modelled on the Turkish and Canadian governments.
High profile leaders in the ANC who were hoping to form a coalition with the DA were quickly thwarted by its NEC who pushed back against the idea, instead resolving to form a government of national unity.
The NEC was joined by its alliance partners the SACP and Cosatu who were against a coalition with the DA, arguing the DA was against the ANC’s transformative agenda.
But the EFF and MK Party chose to reject the GNU, shooting down the wishes of some in the NEC who were hoping they would join the GNU to shut the doors on a coalition with the DA.
The ANC went into the election of the speaker and state president without a clear agreement with the DA and the IFP, the two parties which it had already brought to the negotiating table.
At the 11th hour, a deal was struck between the parties with the DA signing a statement of agreement with the ANC at the doors of parliament.
The statement of agreement became the bone of contention between the two parties leading to two weeks of protracted negotiations and deadlocks.
TimesLIVE Premium reported the DA had called for 12 cabinet posts including a deputy presidency while the ANC had offered six positions.
Leaked letters between the two parties including a letter by Ramaphosa signalled the negotiations were on the brink of collapse with the two sides accusing each other of misinterpreting the statement of intent agreement.
The DA argued Ramaphosa had to take into account proportional allocation when appointing his cabinet.
In the letter addressed to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, DA federal council chair Helen Zille said it was obvious the distribution of positions in the cabinet could only start with a consideration of the relative electoral size of the parties participating in government.
With the ANC and DA taking the lion’s share of votes, she said this would require both parties to sacrifice posts proportionally to an inclusivity pot.
“The outcome of this process would produce a cabinet and deputy ministerships to which the ANC and DA as the largest parties would contribute posts proportionally, as proposed by David Makhura, the ANC’s chief negotiator. He used the term ‘proportionate dilution’ to capture it,” she said.
But Mbalula in a previous letter to Steenhuisen argued the ANC held the view the representation of parties should be based on the electoral mandate they received reflected in the number of seats held in the National Assembly.
In this week’s interview with the Sunday Times, Zille said the DA almost walked away from the negotiations with the ANC owing to the deadlock between the two parties.
The deadlock led to a delay in Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi’s own announcement of an executive.
But the situation in the two areas was not felt in KwaZulu-Natal as the ANC, IFP and DA formed a government of provincial unity with the NFP, a former rival of the IFP.
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