For the public sector to meet the demand and deliver efficient service delivery to South Africans, they need enough labour. But many vacancies in the public sector remains vacant, and not filled and that affects service delivery. The government will always complain of budget to pay workers, but supricingly the 7th administration on Government of National Unity (GNU) has bloated to 75 cabinet minister. Instead of reducing his cabinet president Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa has increased his cabinet.
This is the question post by General Secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) Zwelinzima Vavi. Vavi asked "Why cant we have bloated public service servants? We have never had bloated public service, despite the current open vacancies throughout the public sector. Why do we have a bloated executive cabinet in the 7th administration? Is the government capable of paying all this ministers? If it can afford why cant it afford to hire more public servants?
During a media briefing after cabinet ministers where sworn, when asked about the bloated cabinet, Minister in presidency Khumbudzo said " It's because of you voters that we have bloated cabinet, you didn't give us the outright winner".
President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a bloated Cabinet and executive to accommodate the 11 parties in the government of national unity (GNU) and balance the different forces in the ANC. The result: a gargantuan government after South Africans voted their unhappiness by not giving any party a majority and when there’s been a lot of support for cutting rather than growing the executive.
Why South Africa needs 43 deputy ministers is perplexing. It’s unclear what most deputy ministers do; now we have more of them than ever. The appointment of two deputies for police — Polly Boshielo and Cassel Mathale — is questionable because the police need less political interference in crime-fighting, not more.
Source:
https://x.com/Zwelinzima1/status/1809106191705842058?t=Hmoic184u400q7a321n0PA&s=19
https://www.iol.co.za/the-star/news/parties-react-to-gnus-bloated-cabinet-daa63b95-ca1e-478c-88f1-164df8758e81