Official opposition party, the DA, says in a statement Ramaphosa’s Cabinet reshuffle can be welcomed before there are signs of an attempt to make more capable but it also was a missed opportunity to cut down the size of this bloated Executive.
Opposition leader Mmusi Maimane said his party has called on Ramaphosa to reduce the size of the Cabinet as it is entirely possible for a more effective Executive to operate with around 15 ministries. “Merging Telecommunications, Postal Services and Communications into one Ministry and recycling Siyabonga Cwele onto Home Affairs does nothing to achieve this and is little more than a reshuffling of dead wood.”
The DA’s court action to have Dlamini fired is still ongoing. “However, today is the extended deadline for the President to file his motion to oppose this application and his failure to fire Dlamini is all the answer that we need,” said Maimane.
“Bathabile Dlamini brought the country’s social grants system to the brink of collapse and played Russian roulette with the welfare of 17 million South Africans. She is a Zupta deployee who the Constitutional Court said ‘was reckless and grossly negligent’ in her handling of the SASSA grants crisis, and ordered her to pay costs. The Court also found “very strong” evidence that Dlamini gave false testimony, and recommended that the NPA investigate charges of perjury against her. It is inconceivable that such a person could hold Executive office in any constitutional democracy. Bathabile Dlamini deserves to be fired, and President Ramaphosa’s failure to do so suggests he endorses her conduct.
“Dlamini’s delinquency is followed closely by former Minister of Water and Sanitation and Communications, now Environmental Affairs Minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, who destroyed the Water and Sanitation Department. That department remains effectively paralysed by corruption, incompetence and maladministration. She chose Dudu Myeni to run the Mhlathuze and Umgeni waterboards, proving her reliability as a Zupta deployee so how she now finds herself on Environmental Affairs defies reason.
“A ‘New Dawn’ cannot be built on the same liars and Zupta loyalists who helped keep Jacob Zuma in power and out of prison. Dlamini and Mokonyane’s watch must end and President Ramaphosa failed to end it.
“This Cabinet reshuffle represents no real change. The decks have simply been reshuffled to please ANC insiders.
“Ramaphosa has made it clear that he is the President of the ANC before he is the President of the Republic. The people of South Africa will always come last so long as the ANC is in government’” said the DA in a statement.
