Things are indeed to change as the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to hold his Cabinet Lekgotla with his GNU cabinet ministers under the 7th admninistration.
On a media briefing held on the 4th of July 2024, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni emphasized that as head of the National Executive, President Cyril Ramaphosa holds executive authority of the Republic together with other members of the cabinet, and those members consists of only the ministers.
Now a lot has been said on the day after the President announced his cabinet, which consists of 32 positions. The ANC having 20 cabinet portfolios which includes ministries of the presidency such as Police, Defence, Justice, and Finance, while eleven other ministers and 10 deputy ministers in the cabinet are not from the ANC.
As he announced his cabinet on the 30th of June 2024, Ramaphosa said that the GNU would be bound by certain fundamental principles and would undertake a basic minimum programme of priorities as articulated in the statement of intent. The statement of intent being a seven page document that seeks to set out how parties that form part of the Government of National Unity (GNU) will work together.
It might still be a bit too early to say that the future of South Africa is safe because after looking at the political climate of the Republic. I have noticed that we have a long way to go and in as much political parties have their own different agendas, it is with quite uncertainty that they may reach a level of understanding where they could end up forming a relationship of Unity considering that political stunts continue to emerge from different political parties particularly that of the DA on their suspended and sworn member of the parliament, Mr Renaldo Gouws who has been trending for having racist and homophobic remarks. This has put a blemish on the image of the Democratic Alliance, as they have managed to have Gouws as part of their party representative in parliament without first doing a background check on him since he is a public figure and a content creator known to make humorous commentaries that which are alleged to contain racist and homophobic remarks. To make matters worse, Gouws is to face a legal suit against him by the South African Human Rights Commission as per a statement released by SAHRC following the videos showing Gouws uttering racist and homophobic remarks on social media.
Whether the DA will recover from this or not, will be told by time as we are fastening our seatbelts tight and wait for the Political aircraft to set off. The President and his cabinet will be having a Cabinet Lekgotla tomorrow, 11 & 12 July 2024 as said by the Minister in the Presidency, Ms Khumbudzo Ntshavheni who according to the BusinessDay told the media that, the policies adopted at the Lekgotla will set the government's priorities over the next five years. The choice of priorities, which will be prepared for consideration by the various directors-general in departments, will also be guided by the targets set in the government's 2012 blueprint to halve unemployment and boost economic growth, the National Development Plan.
Further will be heard on the Cabinet Lekgotla as to what's the next move from the GNU Cabinet and the President.
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