The new faces in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national executive have been sworn in after the president announced the changes on Monday.
The swearing ceremony, which was presided by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, took place at Tuynhuys in Cape Town on Tuesday evening.
A total of 13 ANC national leaders joined Ramaphosa’s national executive on Monday, including ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile.
The other new members of cabinet are Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, and Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Youth, and People with Disabilities, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Maropene Ramokgopa is minister in the presidency in charge of planning, monitoring, and evaluation, and Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was appointed as the new minister in charge of electricity.
The primary job of Ramokgopa will be to reduce the severity and frequency of loadshedding.
“To effectively oversee the electricity crisis response, the appointed minister will have political responsibility, authority, and control over all critical aspects of the energy action plan,” Ramaphosa said.
“This will help to deal with the challenge of fragmentation of responsibility across various departments and ministers which, while appropriate under normal circumstances, is not conducive to a crisis response.”
Ramokgopa said Ramokgopa “will be expected to facilitate the coordination of numerous departments and entities involved in the crisis response, work with the Eskom leadership to turn around the performance of existing power stations, and accelerate the procurement of new generation capacity”.
Other appointments included Mondli Gungubele as minister of communications and digital technologies. Thembi Nkadimeng took over as minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, and Noxolo Kiviet became the minister of public service and administration.
Also, Sihle Zikalala is the new public works and infrastructure minister while Zizi Kodwa got the sports, arts, and culture ministry. Patricia de Lille is now in charge of the tourism ministry and Sindisiwe Chikunga got the transport ministry.
Nomasonto Motaung and Kenneth Morolong are the new deputy ministers in the Presidency, Sisisi Tolashe is the new deputy minister for women, youth, and disabilities, and Pinky Kekana is the new deputy minister for planning, monitoring, and evaluation.
The deputy ministers for cooperative governance and traditional affairs are Parks Tau and Zolile Burns-Ncamashe, Ramaphosa said, while David Mahlobo and Judith Tshabalala are deputy ministers for water and sanitation.
Bernice Swarts was picked as deputy minister of public works, Dipuo Peters as deputy minister of small business development, Obed Bapela as deputy minister of public enterprises, and Lisa Mangcu became deputy minister of transport.
Ramaphosa said he “sought to balance the need for new skills and capabilities to drive the agenda that we outlined in the State of the Nation Address with the important task of ensuring stability and continuity in the work of government”.
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