First lekgotla of new cabinet will chart way for GNU

The first biannual planning meeting of SA’s new executive, which will be attended by ministers, deputy ministers and directors-general, will consider how to collate various party manifestos into coherent government policy. 

The cabinet lekgotla, scheduled over two days from next Thursday, will be the first meeting of the newly reconfigured cabinet, which includes ministers from parties that are signatories to the government of national unity (GNU). 

Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni says the policies adopted at the lekgotla will set the government’s priorities over the next five years. The choice of priorities, which will be prepared for consideration by the various directors- general in departments, will be guided by the targets set in the government’s 2012 blueprint to halve unemployment and boost economic growth, the National Development Plan. 

The outcomes of the meeting will be announced by president Cyril Ramaphosa on July 18 during the opening of the seventh parliament. 

“To give effect to the signed Statement of Intent as signed by parties to the GNU, the Forum of SA Directors-General (Fosad), which is chaired by the director-general in The Presidency, has undertaken the work of analysing the manifestos of parties to the GNU and will submit a proposal for consideration and adoption at the Cabinet lekgotla,” Ntshavheni said during a media briefing . 

Members of the new executive, which includes 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers, took their respective oaths of office on Wednesday after Ramaphosa announced their appointments on Sunday. 

Various newly appointed ministers have already made public statements regarding the policy positions that their departments would prioritise. However, Ntshavheni said that that was incorrect as any new policy priorities needed to be rubber stamped by the cabinet. 

“So no minister of the sixth administration will make a pronouncement or a commitment or sign anything after the oath of office. Similarly, the seventh administration only assumed office [on July 3], when they took their oath of office. Consequently, the priorities are only going to be adopted at a scheduled lekgotla next week Thursday and Friday,” she said. 

Despite criticism that the new constituted executive was excessive and countered the commitment made by Ramaphosa in 2019 to reduce the number of portfolios, Ntshavheni said the election outcomes necessitated it.

“Given the electoral outcome and the agreement to form a government of national unity, it was therefore no longer possible for the president to fulfil the undertaking he had previously made to reduce the number of the portfolios in the national executive. 

maekot@businesslive.co.za