Cape Town – Newly-elected ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula says he believes that President Cyril Ramaphosa is considering changes to his cabinet after the party’s national elective conference.
Mbalula said this on Tuesday during a media briefing at Luthuli House ahead of the party’s national conference this week in Mangaung in the Free State.
The conference is set to take place on January 8.
MEDIA BRIEFING: State of Readiness for January 8th and the conclusion of the National Conference. https://t.co/2pPHXRkxsQ
— Cde Fikile Mbalula | ANC SG (@MbalulaFikile) January 3, 2023
There have been growing calls for Ramaphosa to reshuffle his cabinet, with the newly-elected ANC top seven saying that they will respect the decision made by the president regarding his national executive.
According to The Citizen, the looming cabinet reshuffle was among the questions asked by journalists now that Ramaphosa received a fresh mandate from ANC branches to lead the party after his re-election for a second term at the ANC’s 55th national conference in December.
“There are a number of issues the president has got to consider as the head of cabinet. He doesn’t have to go on a full-blown reshuffle or whatever. At the end, the decision is his,” Mbalula said.
As reported by TimesLive, Mbalula said that those in cabinet reaching retirement age needed to be axed and that “the time for “old people”, often caught on parliament TV taking naps, was over.”
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Mbalula encouraged Ramaphosa to make efforts to appoint younger members to the cabinet who will deliver and do a competent job.
“What we do not want is people who are not going to deliver. We do not want incompetence — that is non-negotiable. We want people who are going to do the work. We want a gender-sensitive government, a government that is youthful, that is running,” he said.
He added that: “We do not want people sleeping on the job. If the president is going to come with sleepers, he must forget [about] our support. There we are not going to agree.”
@MYANC President @CyrilRamaphosa to deliver the ANC 111th Anniversary NEC statement at the Dr Molemela Stadium in Bloemfontein, Free State on Sunday, 8 January 2023 #ANC111 pic.twitter.com/LfnZFJ9U4x
— African National Congress #ANC111 (@MYANC) December 27, 2022
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
