President Should Not Remove Just One Deputy Minister – He Must Remove Them All
Press Statement by Athol Trollip MP
ActionSA Parliamentary Leader
ActionSA notes the dismissal of the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition but believes that the President must remove all 42 remaining Deputy Ministers and implement bold reforms that deliver real accountability across his entire Cabinet for incompetence, underperformance and impropriety.
President Ramaphosa’s Cabinet is not only one of the largest in the world but also deeply ineffective with worsening socio-economic indicators reflecting a failure rooted in absent reforms. The President must seize this moment, as ActionSA has long urged, to right-size the Cabinet and restore effective governance. Regrettably, while the President has indicated that he has no intention of making wholesale changes to his cabinet, ActionSA believes that this was a missed opportunity to make decisive choices and steer the country in a new direction.
The President’s first missed opportunity was failing to cut the dead wood and remove those tainted by corruption and mismanagement. Figures such as Minister Simelane, embroiled in questionable dealings with VBS; Ntshaveni, currently under investigation by the NPA; and Minister Nkabane, who blatantly misled a parliamentary portfolio committee regarding the appointment of SETA boards, should have been removed immediately. Instead, they remain firmly in place.
While the President inevitably pursues inaction, ActionSA is proud to have introduced our Enhanced Cut Cabinet Perks Bill to slash cabinet perks and rein in executive excess. This Bill is part of our Cabinet Reform Package, which will soon see us table a Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament to abolish the position of Deputy Ministers altogether, measures that together could conservatively save South Africans R1.5 billion a year.
ActionSA believes that South Africans deserve leadership that serves them, not bloated bureaucracies that serve only themselves.
President Should Not Remove Just One Deputy Minister – He Must Remove Them All
ActionSA notes the dismissal of the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition but believes that the President must remove all 42 remaining Deputy Ministers and implement bold reforms that deliver real accountability across his entire Cabinet for incompetence, underperformance and impropriety.
President Ramaphosa’s Cabinet is not only one of the largest in the world but also deeply ineffective with worsening socio-economic indicators reflecting a failure rooted in absent reforms. The President must seize this moment, as ActionSA has long urged, to right-size the Cabinet and restore effective governance. Regrettably, while the President has indicated that he has no intention of making wholesale changes to his cabinet, ActionSA believes that this was a missed opportunity to make decisive choices and steer the country in a new direction.
The President’s first missed opportunity was failing to cut the dead wood and remove those tainted by corruption and mismanagement. Figures such as Minister Simelane, embroiled in questionable dealings with VBS; Ntshaveni, currently under investigation by the NPA; and Minister Nkabane, who blatantly misled a parliamentary portfolio committee regarding the appointment of SETA boards, should have been removed immediately. Instead, they remain firmly in place.
While the President inevitably pursues inaction, ActionSA is proud to have introduced our Enhanced Cut Cabinet Perks Bill to slash cabinet perks and rein in executive excess. This Bill is part of our Cabinet Reform Package, which will soon see us table a Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament to abolish the position of Deputy Ministers altogether, measures that together could conservatively save South Africans R1.5 billion a year.
ActionSA believes that South Africans deserve leadership that serves them, not bloated bureaucracies that serve only themselves.