Johannesburg/Cape Town/Durban - Half of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet is made up of women, with a significant number of young people and a generational transition aimed at rejuvenating national government.
In appointing his new national executive, Ramaphosa said he had taken a number of considerations into account, among others, generational mix. He also lived up to expectations that his cabinet would be dominated by women.
As a result, he brought in young leaders like Njabulo Nzuza, the secretary general of the ANC youth league, former leaders, Ronald Lamola and Zizi Kodwa. Among the women he appointed is Bavelile Hlongwa, Barbara Creecy, Boitumelo Moloi, Thembi Siweya, Rosemary Capa, Nomafu Cawe, Nomalungelo Gina and Dikeledi Magadzi.
“These men and women we have appointed to the executive are drawn from all corners of our country. For the first time in the history of our country, half of all Ministers are women. We have also included a significant number of young people. This is in fulfillment of our commitment to giving young people roles of responsibility in all sectors of society. This is part of a generational transition in which we are creating a pipeline of leaders to take our country further into the future,” he said about his appointment of youth and women.
Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said understanding the political reality and balancing act Ramaphosa had to do, the cabinet was a decent mixture in terms of gender and youthfulness.
"It is decent mixture as it has some competencies and the shifting of ministers," Fikeni said.
He also said the appointment of Dlamini-Zuma was quite significant and a sign of appointing someone senior to get things done.
"To have youthful people like Ronald Lamola may be a positive posture," Fikeni added.
Commenting on the exclusion of Bathabile Dlamini and the inclusion of Pravin Gordhan, he said Dlamini had been through the courts during the social grant contract debacle.
"It was a long running battle with Sassa on the brink of collapse with possible non-payment of 17 million grant beneficiaries under her watch and questions of performance and legal issues."
ANCYL national spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize said the youth representation in the cabinet was not sufficient as they were hoping for a 20% representation.
“This is what we agreed to at the national elective conference in 2017. We are happy that there has been an increase but we were looking for more young people in Cabinet.”