Controversial North West agriculture MEC Ndleleni Duma has retained his job in the provincial executive reshuffle, despite allegations that he has not spent the department's budget on struggling farmers.
Duma has been in and out of court over allegations of drunken driving and has been described by the opposition as an embarrassment to the provincial government.
He has been moved to the portfolio of arts, culture and sports.
Duma was one of the MECs who were "redeployed" when Premier Edna Molewa reshuffled her cabinet on Tuesday.
Molewa said she had been monitoring and evaluating the performance of the executive to see if it was delivering on its mandate.
She said she had also been monitoring the pace and quality of service delivery.
Having reflected on the performance of the executive over the past year, Molewa said she came to a conclusion that changes relating to the configuration of the departments and deployment of the members of the executive council had become necessary.
Molewa said the weakest link in the executive had been agriculture, since farmers had not been assisted as planned.
But Molewa said she did not doubt Duma's ability. She said that since his drunken driving case was withdrawn last week, he deserved to be given a chance in another department.
Duma's department of agriculture, conservation and environment has been given to Mandlenkosi Mayisela, who was moved from health. He will be replaced by Nomonde Rasmeni, who is moving from social development.
The new social development MEC is Nikiwe Num from arts, culture and sports.
Safety and liaison was added to Jerry Thibedi's transport and roads portfolio, with Maureen Modiselle (formerly safety and liaison) taking finance from Darkey Africa.
Africa has remained with economic development. He now has tourism as an added responsibility.
Only three departments were left unchanged.
The Reverend Johannes Tselapedi remained with education, Howard Yawa with public works and Frans Vilakazi with local government and housing.
Molewa said she was confident that these changes would improve both pace and quality of service delivery in the province.
She said there were still challenges in the provision of health facilities and this would receive attention from the government.
Chris Hatting, the Democratic Alliance spokesperson in the North West, said he was shocked that Molewa had retained Duma.
Hatting said Duma deserved to be kicked out of government as no one was benefiting from his being there.