COSATU statement on the Cabinet Reshuffle

22 November 2018

The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted the cabinet reshuffle announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa today. We welcome the reshuffle and note that the president is gradually fixing and cleaning up his inherited executive that for a long time has been plagued by scandals and controversies. We wish all the new ministers well in their new portfolios and we hope that they will view this as an opportunity to serve the people and not themselves and their narrow interests.

We feel that it was indeed prudent for the President to fill the cabinet vacancies that have opened up, as a way of making sure that we have political principals that are permanently appointed and who will account for what is happening in these affected departments. The merger of Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services is a good decision but we hope that no worker will lose his or her job as a result of this decision.  

We commend the president for leading by example when it comes to appointing women in his cabinet.

In our engagements with the president on this reshuffle; we reiterated our longstanding position that people like Mama Bathabile Dlamini and Mama Nomvula Mokonyane should be amongst those who are released from government, when considering their questionable actions in their previous positions.

We reminded the president that these compromised characters will continue to remain an albatross around his neck as long as they continue to serve under his leadership and will haunt his executive until he acts.  

Despite all of this, we also understand that the president is finishing President Zuma’s term and he has done a lot to clean up this inherited executive while also managing the political contradictions that go with it.

It is no small feat that he has managed to remove over 12 ministers since taking over. We commend him for introducing a culture of accountability and also for signing the Public Audit Act into law. This law will empower the Auditor General to pursue all those officials responsible for irregular expenditure and will go a long way in his effort to clean up government.

Issued by Sizwe Pamla, National Spokesperson, COSATU, 22 November 2018