JOHANNESBURG. – President Cyril Ramaphosa has made big changes to his cabinet, the first time since appointing his executive in February when he took over as South Africa’s head of state.

On Thursday he announced that Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams will head up the communications ministry, as well as oversee the department of telecommunications.

President Ramaphosa says the two departments will be merged after the 2019 elections. Ndabeni-Abrahams was the deputy minister of telecommunications.

Nomvula Mokonyane, who was the minister of communications, is now the minister of Environmental Affairs.

The former minister of telecommunications Siyabonga Cwele is the new minister of Home Affairs.

The changes to President Ramaphosa’s executive happen on the day where he was due to reply to an application, brought against him by the DA.

The opposition party went to court to challenge his appointment of Bathabile Dlamini as the Minister in the presidency and Malusi Gigaba into the Home Affairs ministry.

Dlamini, however, has survived the changes to President Ramaphosa’s cabinet.

President Ramaphosa had two vacancies to fill, following the death of Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and the resignation of Malusi Gigaba from his role as Minister of Home Affairs.

Molewa died on September 22. A month later President Ramaphosa appointed former Reserve bank governor Tito Mboweni as finance minister, after accepting the resignation of Nhlanhla Nene.

Nene’s resignation came after it was revealed during his testimony at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture that he lied about meeting the controversial Gupta family, which is at the centre of allegations into large-scale looting in government.

In November Gigaba, after attempting to stage a fight to keep his job amid calls to step down, resigned a day before Ramaphosa was due to take “appropriate action” against him as per the recommendations made by Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

The Public Protector’s investigation had found he had lied in court, violating the Executive Members’ Ethics Act. This was in relation to the Fireblade aviation saga.

Both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court also upheld an earlier finding that Gigaba had lied to the High Court.

Earlier this year President Ramaphosa indicated during his maiden state of the nation address that he was not happy with the size of his cabinet and would seek to reduce its size, merging some departments in the future.

Political analysts have however said the reshuffle has not met the country’s expectations.

“I don’t think it was a reshuffle … The reshuffle didn’t signal a major exit which was expected in the country.”

Ralph Mathekga said there was nothing significant about President Ramaphosa’s reshuffle.

“The biggest entry was Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams. It is very interesting that people like Nomvula (Mokonyane) are staying in Cabinet. People wanted to see Minister Bathabile (Dlamini) out of the Cabinet.”

“Minister Bathabile Dlamini didn’t perform well in her portfolio. She has demonstrated peculiar capabilities,” he said.

Another political analyst, Levy Ndou said the removal or reshuffling of Dlamini would have sparked outrage against President Ramaphosa within the ANC.

Ndou claimed the president would probably not have made any changes had it not been for the death of Molewa and the recent resignation of former Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba.

“If this was a football game, the reshuffle would have been called a forced replacement. When (Edna) Molewa died, there was no replacement. Gigaba resigned, President Ramaphosa could not leave the home affairs department vacant.

“He had no other choice but to ensure that Gigaba is politically replaced. Other than that, the president would not have acted.”

Many people were expecting Dlamini to face the chop, but this was a “forced reshuffle”, Ndou continued.

– News24