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Johannesburg – President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa He finally appointed his cabinet late Sunday local time. The new cabinet, which will lead the country’s first national coalition government, includes six members of the Democratic Alliance, previously the official opposition party.
Ramaphosa has taken on key ministries for the African National Congress, including finance and defence. Given the country’s difficult economic situation, we will see Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana return to the most important post. John SteenhuysenThe DA leader is set to become the new agriculture minister.
“All political parties are committed to respecting the constitution and promoting accountable and transparent governance, evidence-based policy and decision-making, professionalisation of the public service, integrity and good governance,” Ramaphosa said.
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The ANC was forced to form a coalition government after failing to secure a simple majority in South Africa’s May 29 election. The centre-right DA won the second-largest vote in the election, and the two traditionally rival parties struck a deal to form a coalition with smaller parties that would allow ANC leader Ramaphosa to become the leader of Africa’s largest economy for the next five years.
It took two weeks for the ANC to negotiate with the DA to form a national coalition government that included nine other parties.
The ANC and DA party leaders have been in tense talks for the past two weeks to agree on the right proportion of cabinet posts. At one point, talks broke down when the DA insisted that the party wanted the same number of cabinet members as it had voting rights, which would give it a maximum of 11 posts. At one point, it was reported that Steenhuizen was eyeing the vice-presidential role.
The jury is out on whether Ramaphosa’s team can unite and manage to tackle South Africa’s intractable problems of rising poverty and inequality. South Africa’s unemployment rate stands at 32.9%, according to Statistics South Africa, not including those who have given up looking for work.
