POLITICS

Ramaphosa forms equal gender cabinet

&NewLine;<p>Trade unionist and skillful ANC&&num;8217&semi;s Chief negotiator during South Africa&&num;8217&semi;s&nbsp&semi;transition to democracy&comma; &nbsp&semi;Cyril&nbsp&semi;Ramaphosa&comma; who won &nbsp&semi;South Africa Presidential election on May 11 with 57 percent of the total vote cast and sworn in as President on May 25 has named his cabinet — just about 96 hours after&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>What&NewLine;is interesting is not just about the swiftness but &nbsp&semi;Ramaphosa has&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;become the third president on the continent to have a gender-balanced&NewLine;cabinet&comma; after Rwanda and Ethiopia and indeed&comma; the first gender balanced&NewLine;cabinet in South Africa&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While&NewLine;addressing the press on Wednesday evening&nbsp&semi;at the&nbsp&semi;Union&NewLine;Buildings&nbsp&semi;in the capital city of Tshwane&comma; Ramaphosa revealed that he&NewLine;had&nbsp&semi;cut cabinet down&nbsp&semi;the number of ministries in the country from 36&NewLine;to 28&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;cabinet announced by the 66-year-old president had 14 men and 14 women to&NewLine;achieve gender parity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;To&NewLine;promote greater coherence&comma; better coordination and improved efficiency&comma; we&NewLine;reduced the number of ministers from 36 to 28&comma;” Ramaphosa said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This&NewLine;is a significant move of downscaling our state&period; Many people believed our&NewLine;government was bloated and this was agreed right across the board&period; All South&NewLine;Africans are acutely aware of the great economic difficulties our country has been&NewLine;experiencing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It&NewLine;is therefore imperative&comma; we place priority on revitalising our economy while&NewLine;exercising the greatest care in the use of public funds&period; For the first time in&NewLine;the history of our country&comma; half of all ministers are women&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Patricia&NewLine;De Lille&comma; the leader of an opposition party and former mayor of Cape Town&comma; was&NewLine;also named as minister of public works and infrastructure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Reacting&NewLine;to her appointment&comma; De Lille said&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I am deeply honoured and humbled to have&NewLine;received the call to serve as a Minister of South Africa’s new cabinet&period; I have&NewLine;fought for justice in our country for more than 40 years and have no plans to&NewLine;give up fighting&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;South African rand reacted positively to Ramaphosa’s cabinet&comma; strengthening by&NewLine;0&period;5 percent&comma; after an initial loss of one percent before he named the&NewLine;ministers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Born November 17&comma; 1952&comma; Ramaphosa &nbsp&semi;is a&nbsp&semi;South African politician and the&NewLine;fifth and current&nbsp&semi;President of South Africa&period; He became President following&NewLine;the&nbsp&semi;resignation&nbsp&semi;of&nbsp&semi;Jacob Zuma&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Previously an&nbsp&semi;anti-apartheid&NewLine;activist&comma;&nbsp&semi;trade union&nbsp&semi;leader and businessman&comma; Ramaphosa served as&NewLine;the&nbsp&semi;Deputy President of South Africa&nbsp&semi;from 2014 to 2018&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He was elected President of the&nbsp&semi;African&NewLine;National Congress&nbsp&semi;&lpar;ANC&rpar; at the&nbsp&semi;ANC National Conference&nbsp&semi;in&NewLine;December 2017&period; He is also the former Chairman of the&nbsp&semi;National Planning&NewLine;Commission&comma;which is responsible for&nbsp&semi;strategic planning&nbsp&semi;for the future&NewLine;of the country&comma; with the goal of rallying South Africa &&num;8220&semi;around a common&NewLine;set of objectives and priorities to drive development over the longer term&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Ramaphosa is well known as a&NewLine;businessman&comma; and his estimated&nbsp&semi;net worth&nbsp&semi;is over R6&period;4&nbsp&semi;billion&NewLine;&lpar;&dollar;550&nbsp&semi;million&rpar; as of 2018&comma;with 31 propertiesand&NewLine;previously-held notable ownership in companies such as&nbsp&semi;McDonald&&num;8217&semi;s&nbsp&semi;South&NewLine;Africa&comma; chair of the board for&nbsp&semi;MTN&nbsp&semi;and member of the board for Lonmin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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