Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool on Friday named a male-dominated 10-person cabinet, a team which he said was "destined to deliver" to the people of the province.
"Our goals are clear: our mandate is decisive," he said. "There is much to celebrate. But the work starts immediately."
The cabinet includes two members of the New National Party, with which Rasool's African National Congress has a co-operation agreement.
Pierre Uys, who was the NNP deputy mayor of Cape Town, takes over the health portfolio, while his party colleague Cobus Dowry moves from the local government portfolio to agriculture.
Rasool said Uys was appointed to his post not only because of the cooperation agreement, but because of his management skills and ability to understand and move budgets.
Dowry's appointment, he said, represented a first for the province: a person of colour looking after agriculture.
ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha got public works and transport; Leonard Ramatlakane was retained in community safety, and provincial speaker Lynne Brown, one of three women in the cabinet, got Rasool's former portfolio of finance, economic development and tourism.
Marius Fransman moved from the social services slot to local government; Tasneem Essop moved from transport to environmental affairs and development planning; MPL Kholeka Mqulwana got social services; MPL Cameron Dugmore was given the thorny education portfolio; and another MPL, Chris Stali, took on sports and culture.
Addressing them, Rasool said he had promised the people of the Western Cape an end to the embarrassment of being the laughing stock of other provincial governments.
"And I now transfer the responsibility to end that circus to all of you as well."
Earlier, when he himself was sworn in by Cape judge president John Hlophe, Rasool nearly took the oath as an ordinary member of his cabinet rather than as premier.
Apparently reading from the incorrect oath, he said: "I undertake to hold my office as provincial minister," then corrected himself " as provincial premier of the Western Cape."
Then, as he was about to sit down to sign the proper oath, the chair, which was on rollers, teetered backwards and threatened to fall over into a fireplace.
"Even the chairs were unstable," joked Rasool, who has made a point of his desire to restore stability to the provincial government.
After all the oath-taking was completed, Hlophe, who has seen a succession of premiers come and go in the past few years, told the assembled politicians he was very happy to come and swear them in.
"But if I'm called before five years have expired, I will have to swear at people," he joked. - Sapa