South Africa: President Ramaphosa Reshuffles Cabinet with a Minister for Electricity in the offing.
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President Cyril Ramaphosa has reshuffled his cabinet. This comes a week after the country’s deputy president David Mabuza resigned as a member of the National Assembly. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is the minister in the presidency for electricity and Paul Mashatile is the new deputy president that replaces David Mabuza. Mabuza was not re-elected at the ANC’s 55th conference in December 2022, he also no longer occupies a seat in the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), its highest decision-making body between conferences.
Sihle Zikalala is the new minister of public works and infrastructure. The sports, arts, and Culture minister is Zizi Kodwa. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will take over as the minister for women, youth, and people with disabilities. Minister in the presidency is Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, minister in the presidency responsible for performance, monitoring, and evaluation is Maropene Ramakgopa. Patricia de Lille is the new minister of tourism, Noxolo Kiviet will take over the public service and administration ministry while Thembi Nkadiment takes over the cooperative governance and traditional affairs ministry. Ramaphosa fired Nathi Mthethwa, Lindiwe Sisulu, and Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
Ramaphosa had announced that he would appoint the minister of electricity whose sole focus would be to bring the country out of the current energy deficit. He said this during his state of the nation address in February 2023 where he also declared a national State of Disaster as a response to the current energy crisis.
“The minister will be expected to facilitate the coordination of the numerous departments and entities involved in the crisis response. The minister will work with Eskom leadership to turn around the performance of existing power stations, and to accelerate the procurement of new generation capacity working with all colleagues,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africans face rotational periods of power cuts referred to as “load shedding”, in which power is cut off for hours a day because power utility Eskom cannot supply enough electricity to meet the country’s demand.
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