On 30 June 2024, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his new cabinet after forming a government of national unity (GNU).
What stood out about his new national executive, apart from including numerous GNU partners, is the high number of ministers and deputy ministers.
Ramaphosa added two ministers and seven deputy ministers, increasing the cabinet size to 75. It is the largest cabinet the country has ever had.
He previously promised to reduce the number of portfolios in the national executive, and, therefore, the number of ministers and deputy ministers.
However, he said it was not possible because the new cabinet had to include all the parties to the government of national unity.
It is also against the DA’s 2029 vision, which provided a new configuration for South Africa’s executive with only 15 ministries.
The bloated cabinet has drawn widespread criticism as it will make governing less effective and more costly.
Marius Roodt, an analyst at the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), described Ramaphosa’s cabinet as bloated.
“The cabinet could be reduced to ten portfolios. The cabinet must have a laser-like focus on one thing: economic growth,” he said.
He said the new cabinet means almost one in every five members of parliament is either a minister or a deputy minister.
Ministerial salaries cost South Africa close to R200 million a year. This does not include the value of other perks that cabinet ministers and their deputies receive.
The Free Market Foundation (FMF) has also called for reducing the South African cabinet to ten ministries.
“The size of the cabinet, in particular, the large bureaucracy and contingent of civil servants represented by each portfolio, is a significant burden on the economy,” the FNF said.
“Consequently, reducing the size of government is more important than which particular party controls a department at any given time.”
An analysis of South Africa’s cabinet size
The Outlier has analysed Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2024 cabinet, which shows it is significantly larger than many developed countries.
The new national executive of 75 ministers and their deputies has eleven parties represented in the newly formed coalition government.
It is the largest cabinet South Africa has ever had. The second-biggest was ten years ago under then-president Jacob Zuma, when there were 72 ministers and deputies.
The chart below, courtesy of The Outlier, shows how the size of South Africa’s cabinet changed over the last 30 years.
The Outlier compared Cyril Rrmaphosa’s 2024 cabinet size with that of other countries, like Germany, the UK, China, Brazil, and India.
The analysis shows that South Africa’s cabinet is double the size of Germany’s. Germany, with 17 portfolios, is the smallest of the countries in the comparison.
South Africa has a bigger cabinet but a smaller population and economy than Germany. The latter has a population of 84 million, much larger than South Africa’s 60 million.
South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) of $405 billion is 90% smaller than Germany’s $4 trillion.
However, South Africa’s cabinet is smaller than China, Brazil, and India. It should be noted that they have far larger populations and economies.
Read: Alarm bells are ringing for South Africa’s coalition era
