South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa reshuffled his cabinet on Monday after coming to power two weeks ago when scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma resigned under pressure from the ruling African National Congress.
In his speech announcing the changes to the cabinet, Ramaphosa told South Africans that the ministers he has appointed are tasked to ‘ensure that government is better equipped to implement the tasks identified in the State of the Nation Address’.
Below are details of some key ministers:
David Mabuza – Deputy President
ANC deputy president David Mabuza is the new Deputy President of South Africa and premier of Mpumalanga province. He has not served as a cabinet minister before.
Mabuza was an ally of Zuma and was accused of involvement in corruption in awarding tenders. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Mabuza’s influence in Mpumalanga will be significant for Ramaphosa and the ANC in next year’s parliamentary election.
Nhlanhla Nene – Finance minister
Nhlanhla Nene served as finance minister from May 2014 until December 2015, when Zuma fired him and replaced him with unknown parliamentary backbencher Des van Rooyen.
A collapse in the rand currency forced Zuma to sack van Rooyen and reappoint a previous finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, just four days later.
Nene, a veteran civil servant who was keen to rein in government spending, had been reluctant to rubber-stamp an ambitious plan to build a number of nuclear power stations, a project that might cost as much as $100 billion and one which Ramaphosa has frankly said South African cannot afford.
Nene has since taken up roles in the private sector including as a board member at fund manager Allan Gray, resident advisor at investment firm Thebe Investment Corporation and as acting head of a business school in Johannesburg.
Pravin Gordhan – Public Enterprises Minister
A popular figure with investors, Gordhan served as Minister of Finance from 2009 until 2014 and again from 2015 until 2017.
Gordhan has been a critic of the corruption that dogged Zuma’s term and there will be high expectations for him to clean up state-owned firms. His combative style can be divisive.
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – Minister in the Presidency
The former minister and chairwoman of the African Union Commission narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in an ANC leadership election in December and she would have hoped to be naming her own cabinet at this stage.
Dlamini-Zuma was married to former president Zuma for over a decade and has four children with him.
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