Some residents in Limpopo have expressed mixed reactions about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s delay in appointing a new cabinet. President Ramaphosa is yet to appoint his new cabinet, two weeks after being elected as President by Parliament.
The residents say delaying appointing ministers of various departments, impacts services negatively. The battle for ministerial positions is continuing within the Government of National Unity (GNU).
Residents say President Ramaphosa should use his constitutional prerogative and powers, to appoint the cabinet.
“From our side in our observation, the delays caused by the fact that there are many parties that want positions in government. This election has proven one thing that people are no longer interested in serving their people, but they’re interested in their own selfish interests and being members of cabinet. We’ve seen that in the province of Gauteng, the Premier in that province was ready to announce his executive, but there was allegedly a call that was made and told him that please stop so that you can be able to incorporate other parties,” says resident Khutso Mamabolo.
Another resident scoffs at the DA’s Helen Zille.
“The reason behind the delay of information of government is the DA and Hellen Zille, with their arrogant approach wherein we’ve seen a letter saying that they demand this and that positions in the cabinet. So, the President is delaying here because he wants to nurse the ego of whiteness. He wants to nurse the ego of racism. So, what must happen is that the President, with or without the DA being happy, the President must just appoint whatever cabinet he so wishes to as the constitution of South Africa gives him the power to do so,” says another resident Kamogelo Poto.
Meanwhile, some small business owners say the delay in appointing the cabinet also affects them. They say the Small Business Development Minister needs to be appointed so that they can also get the funding from the government.
“This delay has affected us tremendously as we had thought that the announcement of the cabinet would be swift so that the people selected could be able to assist us as our small businesses are suffering, as we are funding ourselves. We do not have any funding from the municipality or any department even though our companies are registered,” says business owner Brenda Maisela.
Another business owner says that the ANC losing its majority as given other parties power to demand ministerial positions.
“The ANC party seems to have lost a lot of percentages and the other parties now have a bit of power. That is the reason why the other parties feel like they have a say as to who should be part of the cabinet,” says another business owner Daniel Mapote.
Analyst says the political parties in the Government of National Unity should share ministerial positions proportionally, according to the votes received from the May 29 general elections.
“I think the delays are necessary because the 10 parties that are in the Government of National Unity have been given votes by the people. Now, what the parties need to do is to get a neutral mathematician who will calculate exactly the number of posts which the group is entitled to. For instance, if the cabinet posts are 30, you will find that the ANC might be entitled to 18, DA nine and the other eight parties will be entitled to three. So, it’s easy to determine the number of positions based on the number of votes they have obtained. The second part is the question of which department you will go to which group. That one is easy to me as far as I’m concerned already, from the information that we have received, they can really find one another. There is no need for them to have wasted this time, because the people have decided they should stick to the numbers that they were given by the people in the vote,” says analyst Enoch Maponya.
South Africans are still waiting for President Ramaphosa to appoint his new cabinet for the seventh administration.
The ANC is also expected to hold an emergency NEC meeting this weekend, to discuss this matter and a way forward.
