Images: IAEA Imagebank [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons; GovernmentZA [CC BY-ND 2.0], via Flickr
Cabinet newcomer Nobuhle Nkabane given higher education portfolio, while Blade Nzimande keeps science
South Africa has separate ministers for science and higher education once more, after president Cyril Ramaphosa announced his long-awaited coalition cabinet late on Sunday 30 July.
The announcement at the Union Buildings in Pretoria follows weeks of tense coalition negotiations after Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) lost its absolute parliamentary majority in the country’s 29 May election.
Long-serving higher education minister Blade Nzimande (pictured, right) stays in charge of science, technology and innovation—a brief he headed after the higher education and science departments were merged in 2019 in an attempt to rein in government spending.
The much larger (in terms of budget) higher education portfolio has been given to cabinet newcomer Nobuhle Nkabane (pictured, left), who has served as deputy minister of energy and mineral resources since 2021.
Coalition nation
Ramaphosa’s appointments have been widely criticised for reneging on his promise, made earlier this year, to reduce the size of South Africa’s bloated executive. His cabinet has grown from 30 to 32 ministers, and there are 43 deputy ministers after several departments got two.
The additional appointments were necessary “due to the need to ensure that the National Executive is inclusive of all the parties to the Government of National Unity”, he said in his late-night televised address.
But balancing the coalition was not the only reason to split some ministries, Ramaphosa added. “In some instances, we have considered it necessary to separate certain portfolios to ensure that there is sufficient focus on key issues.”
While Nzimande and Nkabane both hail from the ANC, one of Nkabane’s deputies comes from the Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s second-largest party in parliament, which has six ministers and six deputy posts in the coalition.
Nkabane will be supported by two deputies: Nzimande’s former deputy Buti Manamela, from the ANC, and Mimmy Gondwe from the DA. Gondwe has held several shadow deputy ministerial roles, including for public enterprises, state security and public service and administration.
Nzimande just has one deputy, Nomalungelo Gina, also from the ANC. She was deputy minister of trade and industry in the last government.