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President Cyril Ramaphosa's latest Cabinet reshuffle is yet another example of papering over a Government of National Unity that is out of ideas, lurching from one crisis to the next while clinging to a bloated executive of 75 Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

The appointment of the ANC’s Dina Pule as Minister of Social Development demonstrates that the ANC is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Removed from Cabinet in 2013 following Parliament's Ethics Committee finding that she had breached the Executive Ethics Code, her return sends a dangerous message: ethical failures are no barrier to high office under President Ramaphosa.

Equally indefensible is the decision to move the DA’s John Steenhuisen into a cushy Deputy Minister position. After presiding over the mishandling of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease crisis, which has devastated farmers and cost the economy more than R13 billion, he should have been dismissed. His appointment proves that the office of Deputy Minister exists to cushion the fall of disgraced former ministers rather than serve the public.

The promotion of the DA’s Willie Aucamp to Minister of Agriculture is equally uninspiring. His short tenure as Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment was marked by questions over his association with captive lion hunting and breeding, delays to the Marion Island research programme, and ongoing management failures at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.  

Most telling is what this Cabinet Reshuffle did not do. ANC Ministers such as Thembi Simelane, whose name has been linked to the VBS scandal, and Gwede Mantashe, criticised in the findings of the Zondo Commission, continue to occupy cabinet positions. 

It is clear that the GNU uses Cabinet as a vehicle for political patronage rather than good governance with no appetite for public performance agreements, mandatory lifestyle audits, or genuine accountability.

That is why ActionSA has introduced its Cabinet Reform Package, including the Enhanced Cut Cabinet Perks Bill and the 23rd Constitutional Amendment Bill. These reforms would abolish Deputy Minister posts, strengthen parliamentary oversight over Cabinet appointments, curb executive excess, and save taxpayers at least R1.5 billion every year, money that belongs in service delivery, not in sustaining an ever-growing political elite.

Press Statement by: Athol Trollip MP ActionSA Parliamentary Leader