Maimane’s government to trim Cabinet to 10 ministers

BOSA leader Mmusi Maimane says reducing the number of ministers in the Cabinet will make it easier for any president to hold their ministers accountable.

It was currently difficult for the president to hold his ministers accountable due to the bloated Cabinet, he said.

“The dilemma we face at the moment is that there are too many ministries that are not accountable to anyone. And the incumbent of the Union Buildings, instead of holding people to account, went out of his way to make sure that he builds a super presidency that ultimately manages everything without holding respective leaders to account.”

The Bosa leader said this on Wednesday outside the Union Buildings where he was tabling his party’s plan in building a capable state.

Maimane said his government would subject his ministers to forensic lifestyle audits via an Ethics Ombudsman for all politicians and senior government officials.

“This will look into bank accounts, debit payments, school fee payments, trust accounts, and all money that changed hands with politicians,” he said.

AS part of holding ministers accountable, Maimane said his Cabinet members would be required to sign performance contracts together with senior government employees, managed by a service provider from outside the government.

Maimane said the appointment of Cabinet ministers would not only be reduced to Parliamentarians, as they plan to widen the pool by opening up the process to be outside Parliament to select the best candidate for the job.

“Open up the appointment process for Cabinet positions in order for the president to appoint the best candidates to the Cabinet, not only Members of Parliament.”

To tighten the screws on corruption, Bosa pledged to increase the minimum sentence for corruption to 15 years’ jail time, for those found guilty of corruption.

Maimane said the first thing that needed to be done before even changing policies was to fix what he termed the “state of the state”.

“It is not the goals that help you win, but rather the systems of governance you put in place. Building the house is important, but the foundation is critical; without it, all else collapses.

“Our candidates will be working hard for the next 22 days, taking our offer from community to community in a bid to build a fairer, inclusive and more equal South Africa where there is a job in every home.”

In 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ticket to the presidency was that he was going to trim the national executive to save the government money.

However, upon appointing his Cabinet, it was clear that it was not significantly smaller than that of former president Jacob Zuma’s team.

The Star

sipho.jack@inl.co.za