Reshuffle now imminent
JOHANNESBURG - President Cyril Ramaphosa has completed his consultations with the ANC’s alliance partners on the Cabinet reshuffle, after meetings with COSATU and the SA Communist Party (SACP) this weekend. Sources told City Press that he was expected to announce his new Cabinet very soon.
City Press understands that Ramaphosa had been engaging with the alliance partners since he hinted about the reconfiguration and realignment of government a few weeks ago.
Ramaphosa had one-on-one consultative meetings with COSATU and SACP leaders on Friday regarding the imminent Cabinet reshuffle, according to sources.
Ramaphosa met with COSATU General Secretary Solly Phetoe and his SACP counterpart Solly Mapaila separately to discuss his intentions.
On Tuesday, ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula told the media that, although Ramaphosa would use his prerogative in his Cabinet reshuffle, he would consult with the governing party and its alliance partners before making the announcement.
The president is expected to also announce the new minister in the presidency responsible for electricity.
Ramaphosa announced during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on February 9 that he intended to appoint a minister of electricity to urgently deal with the country’s energy crisis.
Since then, the president has been severely criticised by various sectors for delaying that appointment while the rolling blackouts have escalated from stage four to stage six.
COSATU Spokesperson Sizwe Pamla confirmed the meeting between Ramaphosa and Phetoe. City Press has seen a video clip in which Mapaila confirmed that they have been in consultations with the ANC, a process he said was ongoing.
He said they discussed the Cabinet reshuffle in principle and the focus was on government’s performance.
Mapaila said they had made suggestions to Ramaphosa on what changes to take into consideration. “We hope the president will take our ideas and suggestions (we made to him), which we think need interventions, based on his constitutional mandate.”
Regarding the minister of electricity, Mapaila said there was no engagement before Ramaphosa’s SONA, but they had discussed the issue afterwards.
“Firstly, South Africa is facing a huge electricity crisis and, on that basis, bringing in someone who will focus on that on a daily basis ... to solve this problem becomes an important intervention.’’
He said what the SACP wanted was the resolution of the electricity crisis South Africa was facing.
“Overall, we want the electricity and energy systems to work so that we can go back to normal and have energy available in our country,” he said.
Mapaila also said the SACP did not expect excuses such as those given by former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter after his failure to fix the power utility.
“He (De Ruyter) could not even take responsibility (for his failure), but felt he needed to blame it on someone when he was given a full mandate (to fix Eskom).
“He could have just come out and said the job was too big for him,” said Mapaila.
He said De Ruyter, who left the power utility abruptly this week, had presided over a declining Eskom and led it further down to where it was today.