South Africa’s bloated cabinet size – How it compares with top countries
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his new cabinet yesterday, which include many familiar names and a few surprises.
Apart from the ministers which have been appointed, there was a lot of interest in the number of ministries in Ramaphosa’s cabinet.
Many South Africans have called on Ramaphosa to cut the size of his cabinet and remove incompetent and corrupt ministers.
This has been done to a degree, with the number of ministers reduced to 28. However, certain departments have been given two deputy ministers.
While reducing the number of ministries is a positive move, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
The country still has a bloated cabinet which exceeds those of many developed countries like the United States, China, Germany and Japan.
Many South African ministries can be combined, which would reduce costs and possibly improve efficiencies.
Ramaphosa’s cabinet versus global cabinet sizes
A comparison of cabinet sizes of some of the world’s largest economies reveal that South Africa still has an excessively-large cabinet.
In many advanced economies, a single minister can be in charge of more than one ministerial portfolio. This significantly cuts down on the number of ministers.
Despite having far more people and much larger economies, the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom have smaller cabinets than South Africa.
The infographic below shows how President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet stacks up against prominent countries.
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