Carien Du Plessis and Gaye Davis
29 April 2009
President-elect Jacob Zuma has been locked in talks prior to deciding who will head crucial ministries and fill key government posts in his new administration.
Zuma aide Zizi Kodwa said on Tuesday it was possible the names of Zuma's new cabinet members could be announced on the day he is inaugurated as South Africa's fourth democratically elected president in the Union Buildings on Saturday May 9.
Kodwa said: "Since the announcement (of the elections results), he has been in and out of meetings. One of the things that will define things under (Zuma) is that he wants to get competent people with the capacity to deliver."
In a stark contrast to former president Thabo Mbeki, Zuma has been consulting widely in determining his choices for cabinet and other top government positions.
Kodwa said Zuma was listening to proposals not only from the ANC's alliance partners Cosatu and the SA Communist Party but also the SA National Civics Organisation, business and religious leaders and others.
He said Zuma wanted to ensure he consulted broadly, even if not everyone agreed with his final choices.
The composition of Zuma's cabinet will set the tone for an administration that he has committed to delivering to the country's poor majority.
His decision regarding who will be at the helm of the country's economy - the biggest in Africa - is keenly anticipated by foreign investors, with a question mark over whether long-serving Finance Minister Trevor Manuel will remain at his post for the time being, or be redeployed to another position.
Zuma will on Wednesday attend a meeting of the ANC's national working committee ahead of Thursday's meeting of its leadership collective, the national executive committee.
ANC spokesperson Lindiwe Sisulu said on Tuesday the NWC would determine the agenda for the meeting of the national executive and prepare submissions.
The NEC meeting will see report-backs on the party's elections performance as well as reports from its strategic teams in charge of transitional arrangements and on government departments.
"There is a whole governance process that has to be configured. There is the swearing-in of MPs, the inauguration of the president and issues of deployment," she said.
Also to be decided is the question of who to appoint as premiers to lead eight of the country's nine provinces where the ANC retained its majority in the elections. The Western Cape, won by the opposition DA, will have DA leader Helen Zille as premier.
The ANC's new premiers are expected to be announced this weekend.
In line with a resolution at the party's Polokwane conference in 2007, premiers will be selected by the NEC on the basis of three names put forward by the party's provincial structures.
Several provinces, including KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Free State, Northern and Eastern Cape are set to get new premiers.
In KwaZulu Natal, where the ANC secured an unprecedented outright majority, Zweli Mkhize looks set to take over from Sbu Ndebele.
There were suggestions on Tuesday that Gauteng Premier Paul Mashatile, appointed after Mbhazima Shilowa left to help lead COPE, would not stay on but was destined for higher office, possibly a seat in cabinet.
If this is the case, housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane might then become premier instead.
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