Cabinet reshuffle issues to be ‘wrapped up’ by the end of February, says Mbalula

Secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC) Fikile Mbalula has confirmed that Cabinet reshuffle issues will be “wrapped up” by the end of February.

Mbalula said this during the ANC’s media briefing on Tuesday following the party’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting.

Mbalula defended President Cyril Ramaphosa against those who have criticised him for “taking too long” to reshuffle his Cabinet, saying the party had been busy with other matters.

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“There is no delay in terms of reshuffle or anything. We have been dealing with January 8, we have produced January 8, we have finalised our resolutions and we have reconfigured ourselves in terms of the NEC,” said Mbalula.

“We have finalised the resolutions of the conference, they are ready to be printed. Now we are developing the programme of action. That’s what we’re doing.

“And then, from there In government, we had the State of the Nation Address (Sona), we have the budget and then from there all of these issues obviously we’ve got to have answers and they’ll be closed.

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“We can’t have a situation where the leading government and the ruling party is hanging on something that never has a conclusion. All these things, we’ve envisioned they will be wrapped up in the month of February.”

Mbalula said Ramaphosa was applying his mind on “a lot of issues”.

‘Deputy president’ Paul Mashatile

Mbalula further said though South Africans were not wrong to assume ANC deputy president Paul Mashatile would automatically become the country’s deputy president, Ramaphosa could take a different route.

“Our people expect that Paul Mashatile will fill the position of deputy president, but that prerogative remains of the president’s. If the president comes tomorrow and say something different, he will explain to the ANC, why something different and not this way.

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“There is no ulterior motive to undermine anyone including the deputy president of the ANC Paul Mashatile. But neither do our processes say that when you are deputy president of the ANC, you will be deputy president of the country.

“In terms of decorum and stability in the organisation, we have not had something different over the years, so your expectation that Mashatile will occupy that position are not far-fetched, unless something happens. It has happed before. It’s not a tradition, it’s a convention – an unwritten law.”

Mashatile was sworn in as a Member of Parliament (MP) earlier this month, after being nominated by the ruling party to fill the seat of former ANC MP Tshilidzi Munyai, who tendered his resignation late last month.

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