Ramaphosa reshuffles Cabinet as South Africa battles power crisis

Bloomberg | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a new deputy and electricity czar and replaced several ministers, injecting new blood into a cabinet that’s failed to get to grips with crippling energy shortages and revive a flagging economy.

The shakeup comes more than 2 months after Ramaphosa comfortably won a second term as leader of the governing African National Congress (ANC), a victory that gave him more scope to appoint allies to key posts and sideline his opponents. With elections scheduled for next year and opinion polls showing the ANC risks losing the majority it’s held since apartheid ended in 1994, he needs to improve his administration’s response to rolling blackouts and rampant unemployment to bolster his chances of securing another term.

Paul Mashatile, who succeeded David Mabuza as the ANC’s deputy leader in December, takes over from him as deputy president – a widely anticipated change. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was named minister of electricity, a new post in the presidency. Other ministries that changed hands included tourism, transport, communications and cooperative governance.

“The purpose of these changes is to ensure that government is properly capacitated,” Ramaphosa said in a televised statement on Monday. “The people of South Africa want action, they want solutions and they want government to work for them.”

Africa’s most industrialized economy has been subjected to record blackouts since last year because state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. is unable to meet demand for electricity from its old and poorly maintained plants. The central bank estimates the outages will shave 2 percentage points off output growth this year.

Ramokgopa is a civil engineer who was head of infrastructure and investment in the presidency before being appointed to spearhead the government’s response to the energy crisis. He previously served as mayor of the Tshwane municipality, which includes the capital, Pretoria, and as provincial minister of economic development in the Gauteng province.

“The primary task of the new minister will be to significantly reduce the severity and frequency of load shedding as a matter of urgency,” Ramaphosa said, referring to the local term for power cuts. “The minister will be expected to facilitate the coordination of the numerous departments and entities involved in the crisis response, work with the Eskom leadership to turn around the performance of existing power stations and accelerate the procurement of new generation capacity.”

No Change

The president retained Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe in his post, resisting pressure to split his portfolio, and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, who oversees Eskom. Mantashe has faced criticism for stifling the government’s efforts to transition away from the use of coal, which is used to produce most of the nation’s electricity and buy more green energy from independent producers.

The cabinet overhaul is the most significant Ramaphosa has undertaken since he took office in early 2018. Unlike former leader Jacob Zuma, who frequently reshuffled his executive, the incumbent has used his presidential prerogative to make changes sparingly, resulting in posts standing vacant for months at a time.

The new cabinet is likely to remain in place until the current government’s mandate expires next year. The size of the executive will then be reduced when the next administration takes office, Ramaphosa said.

The rand traded 0.6 percent weaker at 18.2467 per dollar by 9:41 p.m. in Johannesburg, little changed from before the announcement and on Tuesday as of 7a.m.