South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced his lean and mean new Cabinet. The number of ministers was reduced from 36 in the earlier cabinet to 28 now. The cabinet includes two ministers of Indian-origin. Cyril Ramaphosa was sworn in at a stadium in the capital Pretoria yesterday in front of a huge gathering. Significantly, half of the ministers in the new cabinet are women qualifying South Africa as one of the world’s few gender-balanced governments. Underscoring the vision of the new government, in an address to the nation, the president said that he would act with greater urgency to tackle poverty, improve government services, fight corruption and end state capture. He added that the present government is capable, efficient, ethical and has gender equity. Two Indian-origin ministers who have sworn in are Pravin Gordhan, who received the Padma Bhushan for distinguished service in January this year from the Indian government (a coveted title to honor a person to recognize his reputation and services to humanity bestowed by the Government of India) and Ebrahim Patel, who has achieved success as Minster of Economic Affairs. Both the ministers were there in the earlier government. More than 30,000 people gathered to witness the swearing in ceremony of Ramaphosa at a stadium in the capital Pretoria. The business leaders welcomed the president’s announcement of a balanced ministry retaining the best performed ministers from the earlier dispensation and adding new faces with proven track record. The business leaders , however, stressed that against the backdrop of huge challenges being faced by the new government, particularly in taking forward the reform process, there should be benchmark for deliverables. It is also important for the new dispensation to create new jobs to absorb teeming thousands in gainful employment.
