Minister in The Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni. Picture: GCIS
Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says there are mechanisms in place to resolve any deadlocks in Cabinet.
The seventh administration’s new Cabinet members were sworn in on Wednesday, a few days after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the national executive.
The new executive consists of 77 members, including 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers (who are not part of the Cabinet), representing nine different political parties.
A total of 11 parties are signatories to the government of national unity (GNU).
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Ntshavheni assured that disagreements among Cabinet members will not obstruct the decision-making process.
She ruled out the use of a voting process for cabinet decisions.
“There has not been a cabinet decision by voting and it did not mean that even when it was an ANC Cabinet, we didn’t differ. We differed very vehemently on issues, but there was a solution found,” she told journalists.
The minister pointed out that cabinet decisions are not made spontaneously.
She stated that there are established processes in place before issues, such as policy, reach the 34-member Cabinet, which includes Ramaphosa and his deputy, Paul Mashatile.
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Ntshavheni explained that issues must first be reviewed by technical clusters, which consist of director-generals from various government departments.
Thereafter, these matters are then discussed in the Forum of South African Directors-General (Fosad) before proceeding to the ministerial clusters.
Finally, the discussions and recommendations are forwarded to a Cabinet committee.
“From that Cabinet committee, they get processed to Cabinet. So the Cabinet is the final arbiter on matters, but most issues that are not agreed at cluster level, they don’t find their way into the Cabinet committee,” she said.
The minister stated that if an issue does not reach the Cabinet committee and a minister is not satisfied, they can request direct access to the Cabinet through the president.
“If you have to ask for direct access to Cabinet then there will be special circumstances for them to go there. We have not anticipated any deadlock because the mechanisms of resolving deadlock are in place,” the minister continued.
Ntshavheni backed Ramaphosa in resolving the “different views” within the Cabinet.
“As the head of that Cabinet, he is going to make sure that Cabinet functions,” said Ntshavheni.
She further stated that political or ideological issues were not within the purview of the Cabinet.
“They are matters of the political parties,” she added.
Earlier, Ntshavheni outlined how government policy will be developed and implemented for the next five years by the GNU.
The minister emphasised that the president and ministers are duty-bound to ensure that policy and financial decisions concerning departments are first referred to the Cabinet, including decisions made by the Cabinet itself.
She noted that failing to follow this procedure could undermine the validity of such decisions.
“So there is no single minister who can expropriate a decision of Cabinet or a policy decision to themselves because then that policy will not be valid in terms of the laws of the republic,” Ntshavheni said.
Ntshavheni indicated that the government’s priorities and programme of action would be detailed in the medium-term strategic framework (MTSF).
She explained that the GNU will strive to meet the objectives of the National Development Plan (NDP), which was adopted by Parliament in 2012, along with the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals, using the parties’ manifestos as a guide.
The minister revealed that the Forum of South African Directors-General (Fosad) would analyse all manifestos of the parties in the GNU to give effect to the statement of intent.
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The forum will then submit a proposal for consideration and adoption at the two-day Cabinet lekgotla scheduled for next Thursday and Friday.
“The adopted programme of action, which will be the MTSF, will be announced by the president at the opening of Parliament on 18 July.
“After the adoption of the MTSF, the individual departments will then develop strategic plans and the annual performance plans for implementation of both the strategic plans and MTFS targets.”
The plans will have to be presented to Parliament by the departments for oversight, according to the minister.
“The National Treasury will fund the implementation of the MTFS through the national budget that is also table and approved by Parliament.”
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation would be responsible for overseeing and reporting on the implementation of the MTFS to the Cabinet.
Ntshavheni added that government’s programme of action won’t be aligned with any other party in the GNU.
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