Meet South Africa’s GNU cabinet

SOUTH Africa officially has a government of national unity (GNU), with President Cyril Ramaphosa finally revealing his new cabinet of ministers for the “7^th Administration” after an almost hour-long delay on Sunday evening.

Ramaphosa said 11 political parties have agreed to be part of the GNU in parliament.

These include the African National Congress (ANC), Democratic Alliance (DA), Patriotic Alliance (PA), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Good Party, Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), Freedom Front Plus (FFP), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Al Jama-ah, Rise Mzansi and the United Africans Transformation.

Ramaphosa affirmed Paul Mashatile as deputy president and appointed DA leader John Steenhuisen as the new Minister of Agriculture.

The DA secured 12 posts – six executive ministerial positions and six deputy minister posts. Other parties securing ministerial posts include the Good Party, the IFP, FFP, PA, PAC, UDM and Al Jama-ah.

“The partnership between the GNU parties is guided by a Statement of Intent, which outlines fundamental principles and a minimum programme of priorities,” said the president.

“All the parties have made a commitment to respect the constitution and to promote an accountable and transparent governance, evidence-based policy and decision-making, the professionalisation of the public service, integrity and good governance.”

Unprecedented 

“The incoming government will prioritise rapid, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and the creation of a more just society by tackling poverty and inequality,” said Ramaphosa.

The establishment of the GNU in its current form “is unprecedented in the history of our democracy” he declared.

Market moves and the rand will be closely watched on Monday. On 18 June, the JSE jumped on GNU optimism, hitting an all-time high of 81 364 points, but closed at 80 714 on the day. The rand also surged, but both the currency and the JSE later weakened as GNU talks dragged on.

On Sunday night, just ahead the GNU cabinet announcement, the rand firmed below the psychological R18 to the US dollar mark – up over 1% on the day.

The rand touched R17.95 against the greenback at 9.15am on Monday, but later lost some ground, trading around R18.13 by 2pm.

In morning trade on Monday, the JSE jumped 700 points by 10am, and was back above the key 80 000 points mark or around 1% firmer.

Redefine Properties, Motus and Remgro were the biggest gainers by the afternoon, all up between 5-6%.  WeBuyCars, Pepkor, Woolies, Netcare and Discovery were all up over 4%.

Ramaphosa opted for stability in some crucial ministries by retaining Enoch Godongwana as Minister of Finance and key ally Kgosientsho Ramokgopa in the electricity portfolio. Ramokgopa is the Minister of a larger ministry of Electricity and Energy.

The energy aspect has been removed from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE). However, Gwede Mantashe is still a minister in cabinet, ‘retaining’ the separate Department of Minerals and Petroleum Resources.

Former Joburg mayor Parks Tau has been appointed as Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, while the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) will be no more.

Discussions around the much-contested Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) ministerial post threatened to scupper GNU talks between the ANC and DA last week, but talks continued into the weekend and agreement was finally reached.

Pravin Gordhan, who headed the DPE, announced before the elections that he would be retiring, while former dtic minister Ebrahim Patel confirmed that he would not be coming back to cabinet.

On Sunday night, Ramaphosa confirmed “there will no longer be a Ministry of Public Enterprises”. He pointed out that “coordination of the relevant public enterprises will be located in the Presidency during the process of implementing a new shareholder model”.

Listen to Jeremy Maggs discussing SA’s new GNU cabinet on Moneyweb@Midday with Busa CEO Cas Coovadia, DA Federal Council chair Helen Zille, and political analyst Sanusha Naidu: 

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

Other ministerial posts include: