President Cyril Ramaphosa says his 43 deputy ministers who cost the fiscus more than R94m per year in salaries alone are staying put and going nowhere.
Despite calls for a revision of the “bloated cabinet” contributing to the country's overburdened fiscus, the president insists his deputy ministers are useful.
“The deputy ministers appointed in June 2024 continue to add value to the work of government and to support in a meaningful way the implementation of the priorities of the seventh democratic administration,” he said.
Some departments, such as trade and industry, police and water and sanitation having have more than one deputy minister.
They each earn an annual salary of R2.2m, or a cumulative R94.6m yearly. Moreover, each one is allocated two official residences, in Cape Town and Pretoria, as well as a vehicle for each of the two capital cities.
They are also allowed to hire support staff such as a chief of staff, a media liaison officer and community outreach officers.
Parties such as Mmusi Maimane’s Bosa have argued that doing away with deputy ministers’ positions could be targeted as one of the spending cuts as the debate over the budget rages on.
Maimane on Tuesday said “downsizing cabinet and eliminating deputy minister positions” would save at least R3.9bn per year.
The deputy minister positions have long been criticised as unnecessary as they do not have any legislative powers and do not sit in cabinet, with their duties and functions only determined by their ministers.
However, responding to a written parliamentary question from EFF MP Omphile Maotwe, Ramaphosa maintained that the role of deputy ministers remained “necessary” in government and would not be scrapped any time soon.
Maotwe questioned the purpose of retaining deputy ministers in the face of prevailing fiscal pressures.
The president believes deputy ministers have played an important role in assisting ministers in the performance of their functions and responsibilities since the advent of democracy in 1994.
He also mentioned that their inclusion was to consider the demographics of the country.
“We have sought to ensure that the national executive is representative of the people of South Africa, giving due consideration to gender, youth, demographics and regional distribution.”
Recently, there have been growing concerns over the size of public representatives and the wage bill and perks allocated to them in a government that preaches austerity.
However, Ramaphosa showed no intention to reduce the size of cabinet nor eliminate the deputy posts as probed by the MP, saying they are crucial to supplementing the work done by ministers.
“In portfolios with a wide range of responsibilities, deputy ministers are given responsibility for certain areas of work in terms of departments’ annual performance plans, ensuring there is consistent political attention and oversight.”
Instead, the president said it was the outcome of last year’s elections that further forced his hand in pushing the envelope by appointing more ministers and deputies than before.
He had previously undertaken to reduce the size of his cabinet, but the formation of the GNU prevented him from doing so.
“In announcing appointments to the national executive following the May 2024 elections, I indicated that due to the need to ensure that the national executive is inclusive of all the parties to the GNU, it was not possible to reduce the number of portfolios in the national executive.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.