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Mail & Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
GNU cabinet: Too many chiefs, not enough service
DA leader John Steenhuisen and ANC leader and South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa. The government of national unity has 43 deputy ministers. If that number was trimmed, R100 million a year could be saved. Photo: GCIS In a time of service delivery failures, South Africa must take a hard look at its executive. Not just the quality of leadership but the sheer quantity of members. At a time when citizens are told to tighten their belts, and government departments are urged to cut spending, the executive branch remains bloated, inefficient and largely shielded from scrutiny. With the Each deputy minister earns more than R2 million a year, plus travel allowances, housing and VIP protection, yet they carry no constitutional executive authority. They are not members of the cabinet and cannot stand in for ministers unless the president appoints a sitting minister to act in a colleague's absence. The constitutional provision (section 93) clearly states that deputy ministers exist only to assist ministers — which often means reading speeches, attending ceremonial events and occupying symbolic roles during outreach initiatives. This raises the question — why are South Africans paying The cabinet appointments have amplified this contradiction. Many of the 43 deputies appointed in July 2024 are not technocrats but rather political appointees, placed to appease alliance partners and opposition factions — not to drive service delivery. The minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, for instance, now has two deputies, despite municipalities being largely in financial ruin, with 66 out of 257 municipalities deemed dysfunctional by the auditor general. This redundancy of roles is not only expensive, it is unjustifiable in the face of mounting austerity. The auditor general's 2023-24 Municipal Finance Management Act report highlights R22 billion in irregular expenditure, most of it from departments overseen by ministers with deputies. If anything, the proliferation of deputies has correlated with increased mismanagement, not improved outcomes. This is not an isolated critique. In 2015, then president Jacob Zuma appointed a similarly oversized cabinet — 35 ministers and 37 deputy ministers — attracting widespread criticism. Even then, commentators noted that countries with larger populations and GDPs, such as China (20 ministers) and Russia (23 ministers), operated more efficiently with leaner executives. So what exactly do South African deputy ministers do? There is no legally binding list of responsibilities for deputy ministers. They are not assigned key performance indicators in the same way that In fact, many remain largely invisible until public scandals or parliamentary debates put them in the spotlight. One notorious example was the 2013 revelation that then deputy minister of agriculture, Bheki Cele, had racked up hundreds of thousands in travel claims without attending a single provincial outreach session. And when they're not invisible, they're interchangeable. Deputy ministers are reshuffled frequently — with few, if any, consequences tied to performance. In the July 2024 cabinet reshuffle, more than a dozen deputy ministers were retained or reappointed despite having little public record of being effective. This creates deadweight politics — where individuals are paid handsomely to exist in government without contributing meaningfully to its function. It's not that all deputy ministers are ineffectual. Some work hard behind the scenes. But without transparency, reporting or structured oversight, we cannot separate the active from the idle. The National Development Plan calls for a professionalised public service, where merit and delivery are prioritised over political accommodation. The current system of deputy ministers flies in the face of this ideal. Moreover, at the provincial level, governments function without deputy members of executive councils. Departments are managed by one MEC and a team of civil servants. So why not replicate this model nationally? The government's own spending reviews have previously flagged the costs of the executive. In 2020, the Cutting deputy ministers might not fix South Africa's budget deficit overnight, but it sends a powerful signal — we are serious about governance reform. We are serious about performance. We are serious about value for money. It would also strengthen the credibility of the government in the eyes of citizens, who are increasingly disillusioned. According to the 2023 Afrobarometer survey, only 23% of South Africans trust the president to do what is right. Among young people, this number is even lower. When people protest over poor service delivery, they don't demand more deputies. They demand water, sanitation, jobs — and leaders who show up, account and deliver. The existence of 43 deputy ministers, many of whom are redundant, sends a clear message — the state exists to serve political interests first, public interests second. It doesn't have to be this way. The Constitution gives the president full discretion over whether to appoint deputy ministers. There is no legal obligation to do so. If President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to lead a truly efficient and ethical GNU, he must start by trimming the fat. A smaller, smarter cabinet is not a political risk, it's a governance necessity. Cutting down on deputy ministers is not just about saving R100 million annually, it's about restoring the integrity of the executive. It's about showing citizens that the government will lead by example. It's about building a leaner state capable of delivery, not just diplomacy. South Africa deserves a cabinet that works — not one that coasts. Dr Lesedi Senamele Matlala is a public policy and digital governance lecturer at the University of Johannesburg, at the School of Public Management, Governance and Public Policy.
Asharq Al-Awsat
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
White House Slashing Staff in Major Overhaul of National Security Council
President Donald Trump is ordering a major overhaul of the National Security Council that will shrink its size, lead to the ouster of some political appointees and return many career government employees back to their home agencies, according to two US officials and one person familiar with the reorganization. The number of staff at the NSC is expected to be significantly reduced, according to the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel matter. The shake-up is just the latest shoe to drop at the NSC, which is being dramatically made over after the ouster early this month of Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz, who in many ways had hewed to traditional Republican foreign policy, The Associated Press said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as national security adviser since the ouster of Waltz, who was nominated to serve as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations. The move is expected to elevate the importance of the State Department and Pentagon in advising Trump on important foreign policy moves. But, ultimately, Trump relies on his own instincts above all else when making decisions. The NSC, created during the Truman administration, is an arm of the White House tasked with advising and assisting the president on national security and foreign policy and coordinating among various government agencies. Trump was frustrated in his first term by political appointees and advisers who he felt gummed up his 'America First' agenda. There were roughly 395 people working at the NSC, including about 180 support staff, according to one official. About 90 to 95 of those being ousted are policy or subject-matter experts seconded from other government agencies. They will be given an opportunity to return to their home agencies if they want. Many of the political appointees will also be given positions elsewhere in the administration, the official said. The NSC has been in a continual state of tumult during the early going of Trump's second go-around in the White House. Waltz was ousted weeks after Trump fired several NSC officials, just a day after the influential far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty. Loomer has in the past spread 9/11 conspiracy theories and promoted QAnon, an apocalyptic and convoluted conspiracy theory centered on the belief that Trump is fighting the 'deep state,' and took credit for the ouster of the NSC officials that she argued were disloyal. And the White House, days into the administration, sidelined about 160 NSC aides, sending them home while the administration reviewed staffing and tried to align it with Trump's agenda. The aides were career government employees, commonly referred to as detailees. This latest shake-up amounts to a 'liquidation' of NSC staffing, with both career government detailees on assignment to the NSC being sent back to their home agencies and several political appointees being pushed out of their positions, according to the person familiar with the decision. A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the overhaul, first reported by Axios, was underway. Andy Baker, the national security adviser to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, an assistant to the president for policy, will serve as deputy national security advisers, according to the White House official. Waltz, during his short tenure heading the NSC, came under searing criticism in March after revelations that he added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a private text chain on an encrypted messaging app that was used to discuss planning for a sensitive military operation against Houthi militants in Yemen. Waltz has taken responsibility for building the text chain but has said he does not know how Goldberg ended up being included. Loomer had encouraged Trump to purge aides who she believes are insufficiently loyal to the 'Make America Great Again' agenda. She also complained to sympathetic administration officials that Waltz was too reliant on 'neocons' — shorthand for the more hawkish neoconservatives within the Republican Party — as well as what she perceived as 'not-MAGA-enough' types, the person said. It wasn't just Loomer who viewed Waltz suspiciously. He was viewed with a measure of skepticism by some in the MAGA world who saw the former Army Green Beret and three-term congressman as too tied to Washington's foreign policy establishment. On Russia, Waltz shared Trump's concerns about the high price tag of extensive US military aid to Ukraine. But Waltz also advocated for further diplomatically isolating President Vladimir Putin — a position that was out of step with Trump, who has viewed the Russian leader, at moments, with admiration for his cunning in dealings with Trump's predecessors. His more hawkish rhetoric on Iran and China, including US policy toward Taiwan, seemed increasingly out of step with Trump, who — setting aside belligerent rhetoric about taking over Greenland from Denmark — has tilted more toward military restraint and diplomacy in facing some of the United States' most challenging issues with adversaries.
