Is cabinet bloated? A look at the size of the national executive under Zuma vs Ramaphosa

Despite adding two new ministries and planning to possibly trim the national executive next year, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet is smaller than the one led by former president Jacob Zuma.  

Ramaphosa on Monday announced a minister in the presidency responsible for planning, monitoring and evaluation, Maropene Ramokgopa, and a minister in the presidency responsible for electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

In total, there were 11 changes to ministers and 12 to deputy ministers.

With the latest additions, Ramaphosa’s cabinet consists of 30 ministers and 36 deputy ministers, while Zuma’s cabinet had 35 ministers and 37 deputy ministers.   

Opposition parties have labelled Ramaphosa’s cabinet as “bloated”.

In his first state of the nation address in 2018 Ramaphosa promised to review the number of government departments amid opposition parties complaining about it being one of the largest cabinets in the world.

“Growth, development and transformation depend on a strong and capable state. It is critical that the structure and size of the state is optimally suited to meet the needs of the people and ensure the most efficient allocation of public resources. We will therefore initiate a process to review the configuration, number and size of national government departments,” Ramaphosa said at the time.

He made a similar promise this week, saying the increase in ministries would be temporary.

“While this [new ministries] will result in an increase in the number of ministries in the short term, as indicated in the state of the nation address I have instructed the Presidency and National Treasury to develop a proposal to rationalise government departments, entities and programmes to ensure greater efficiency.

“This work, which will result in a reduction of the number of ministries, will inform the configuration of government going into the next administration.”

A minister earns more than R2.47m a year and a deputy R2m.

The 30 ministers’ salaries cost taxpayers R74m in a year and the 36 deputy ministers cost about R72m.  

The government also pays for ministers and deputies’ VIP protection, office support staff, accommodation and vehicles. 

DA MP Leon Schreiber was not happy about the introduction of more ministries, citing higher expenses. 

He said the new ministers with support staff and access to state vehicles and protection services would cost about R40m per year. Schreiber said the DA used the ministerial handbook to calculate the costs.

The EFF described the appointment of a minister of electricity as redundant while the same cabinet has minister of energy and mineral resources Gwede Mantashe and minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan. 

Political analyst Prof Dirk Kotze told TimesLIVE though it was important to look into the costs of the cabinet, it was more significant to look at the costs and effectiveness of government departments. He said billions went into the departments to deliver services to residents. 

“The cost of ministers’ salaries do not amount to billions. The focus should be on how many government departments there are and whether they are effective. There are departments that are not delivering the services they should be to residents.

“If the number of ministers is reduced, the cost savings will not be that dramatic when compared to departments.”

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