Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has congratulated President Cyril Ramaphosa for achieving the 50/50 gender split in his new Cabinet.
Ramaphosa announced a 28 member cabinet with 34 deputy ministers. Half of the ministers are women.
However, the EFF is angered by the return of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan after the Public Protector found him guilty of misconduct in the 2010 Ivan Pillay pension payout matter.
Malema says Ramaphosa had no choice, but to appease African National Congress (ANC) factions.
“And we have seen the return of Bosasa people like Gwede Mantashe, Thabang Makwetla. Those are the people you don’t need in the so-called new dawn. The only positive thing about the whole cabinet is that we’ve got 50/50 men and women. That’s a positive welcome, but the whole achievement gets undermined by the fact that the Cabinet remains bloated and it’s going to cost South Africans a lot of money. There was no way he was going to reduce Cabinet because he wants to balance factions,” says Malema.
