Ramaphosa to announce Cabinet tonight

President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to announce his new Cabinet on Sunday night, the Presidency has confirmed.

The announcement will be in the form of a televised address to the nation set for 9pm.

“The new national executive will constitute the [seventh] democratic administration as a Government of National Unity [GNU] comprising a diversity of political parties as an outcome of the national and provincial elections held on Wednesday, 29 May 2024,” the Presidency’s statement reads.

GNU nearly collapsed

An agreement between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) on the allocation of Cabinet positions paved the way for Ramaphosa to announce his new executive.

The successful GNU talks came after a dispute, which nearly saw the DA walking away from the negotiating table.

A series of leaked letters between the ANC and DA had indicated that the two parties were struggling to find each other.

It has been widely reported that the ANC had made a final offer of six Cabinet positions, but the DA then demanded two additional posts.

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Now that impasse has been resolved, the DA is reportedly likely to settle with six ministries and several deputy ministries.

The party reportedly gave up its demand for control of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and was given the Agriculture portfolio, without Land Reform, instead.

Alongside the Department of Agriculture, the DA is expected to take up other portfolios including Home Affairs; Basic Education; Public works and Infrastructure; Communications and Digital Technologies as well as Forestry, Fisheries and Environment.

DA leader John Steenhuisen and MPs, Leon Schreiber, Dean Macpherson, Siviwe Gwarube and Solly Malatsi, could reportedly become ministers.

The ANC has been in talks to form the GNU with nine political parties – including the DA, Freedom Front Plus (FF+), Patriotic Alliance (DA), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Rise Mzansi, the United Democratic Movement (UDM), GOOD, Al Jama-ah and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC).

No EFF and MK party in GNU

Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), ActionSA and uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party have declined the ANC‘s invitation to join the GNU.

On Saturday, the EFF expressed its desire to co-govern with the ANC, but only if the party excluded the DA and FF+.

The party’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini told ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, in a letter dated 29 June, that the EFF was proposing that a new agreement or statement of intent between the two parties be drawn up.

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