Cyril toes party line
Analysts last night slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa after he first delayed announcing the highly anticipated cabinet reshuffle and then retained some very questionable characters. He is not pulling the strings, they say, but is following orders.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane last night tore into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s new Cabinet, saying it’s just more of the same.
“The ministers who make up Ramaphosa’s compromised and partially captured Cabinet show what we’ve known all along – it’s about the ANC and connected cadres first, and the interests of South Africa second,” Maimane said.
He bemoaned Ramaphosa’s decision to not trim the size of Cabinet and said if he had, billions of rands would have been saved and the impending VAT hike could have been avoided altogether.
“Tonight we saw the fatal compromise Cyril Ramaphosa made at Nasrec, exposed for all to see, as David Mabuza will be sworn in as the deputy president of South Af- rica. Ramaphosa’s decision to side with scandal-ridden Mabuza undermines the integrity of his stated commitment to fight corruption and rebuild from the tatters of the Zuma decade,” Maimane said.
“The retention of Bathabile Dlamini in cabinet as Minister of Women in the Presidency is an insult to the 17 million South Africans whose livelihood was, and still is, at risk due to her bungling of the Sassa social grants crisis. It is also an insult to the women of South Africa.”
Maimane welcomed the appointment of Pravin Gordhan as Minister of Public Enterprises and said he hoped he “will lead the charge in rooting out the rot within state-owned entities (SOEs)”.
“Nhlanhla Nene’s return as finance minister must be welcomed. Nene’s first action as finance minister must be to reverse the increase in VAT and transport levies and introduce a range of spending cuts to plug the deficit in our public finances.”
The cabinet remains filled with compromised ministers, Gupta loyalists, and corruption accused. The quicker we remove the ANC from government, the quicker our nation will reach its true potential.