Cosatu Deputy General Secretary Gerald Twala revealed to Daily Maverick on Friday 24 February that President Cyril Ramaphosa had reached out to the trade union federation for talks surrounding the reshuffle. 

“I can confirm that we received an invitation from the President to consult with us about a possible cabinet reshuffle, which we have given to the leadership of Cosatu, particularly the president [Zingiswa Losi]and general secretary [Solly Phetoe], to indeed meet with the President. The appointment was for today and we think the meeting might be underway,” he said. 

Twala was speaking on the sidelines of an event where the Tripartite Alliance was hosting the Cuban delegation from Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos (ICAP). The gathering was at the ANC’s headquarters in Johannesburg CBD.

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Twala believes it is necessary that changes be made to the current cabinet. 

“Given the challenges that the country is currently going through, we are expecting the president to come up with a cabinet that is balanced in terms of bringing in new ideas. As you know, there are ministers who have been in Cabinet since 1994, we do not think that is the way to go. They have been there for a very long time. 

“We need new and young people to take over, but we need those who will understand the plight of South African workers, as we are going through economic hardships at the current moment,” he reiterated. 

The ANC has sworn in four new MPs earlier this month, namely party Deputy President Paul Mashatile, Second Secretary-General Maropene Ramokgopa, KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance MEC Sihle Zikalala, and former Gauteng Economic Development MEC Parks Tau. 

Mashatile will replace deputy David Mabuza as Deputy President of South Africa, while there is no clear indication of the departments Zikalala, Ramokgopa and Tau will be deployed to.

Paul Mashatile is sworn in as an MP in a  ceremony at Parliament on 6 February 2023. (Photo: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach)

Three Cabinet vacancies

For now, there are three vacancies in the cabinet. ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula will no longer be the Transport Minister, as his new position at Luthuli House is full-time. 

The ministerial post in the Department of Public Service and administration has been vacant since the departure of Ayanda Dlodlo in 2022, who is now working for the World Bank.

Ramaphosa made the announcement about the new ministry during the State of the Nation Address on 9th February. The role of the minister was designed for taking full responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the electricity crisis response, including the work of the National Energy Crisis Committee.

Reports state that Head of Infrastructure at the presidency Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is the frontrunner for the position. 

Head of infrastructure investment in the Presidency Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Vathiswa Ruselo)

Read in Daily Maverick: “Ramaphosa to go for Cabinet reshuffle lite — the power lies in his super Presidency”

Both Cosatu and the SACP are against the introduction of a Minister of Electricity in the Presidency. The ANC alliance partners believe there is already sufficient capacity to deal with the country’s power crisis. 

“We rejected the creation of the Minister of Electricity in the presidency, and our view is that there is a resolution from the 55th National Congress of the ANC that the issues of electricity must be allocated to the Department of Mineral Resources. We do not see the need for that particular ministry when there is a ministry that exists,” Twala said. 

SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila said while they do not believe in setting up a new ministry to deal solely with the rolling blackouts crisis, they respect Ramaphosa’s intervention.

“There was no engagement with us before, but we are now finding time to discuss. Because firstly, South Africa is facing a huge energy crisis. On that basis, bringing someone who, on a daily basis, focuses on this, becomes an important intervention.

“There are ongoing discussions [about the cabinet reshuffle] as the alliance, but we are focusing on the performance of the government and the principles underlying that. Later on the President will then take into consideration our ideas where we think we should take interventions, and then express it to the public based on his constitutional mandate,” said Mapaila. DM