Following the removal of Trade, Industry and Competition Deputy Minister Andrew Whitfield from Cabinet, ActionSA Parliamentary leader Athol Trollip believes President Cyril Ramaphosa should remove all 42 remaining Deputy Ministers.

The party wants to see “bold reforms” implemented for accountability across Cabinet.

Ramaphosa removed Whitfield from his position with a statement that he will not make “wholesale changes” to his Cabinet.

Trollip says this was a missed opportunity for Ramaphosa to make decisive choices and steer the country in a new direction.

ActionSA noted that South Africa had one of the largest Cabinets in the world and it believes it is deeply “ineffective”.

“The President must seize this moment, as ActionSA has long urged, to right-size the Cabinet and restore effective governance. The President’s first missed opportunity was failing to cut the dead wood and remove those tainted by corruption and mismanagement,” Trollip stated.

He said Cabinet members such as Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane, who is embroiled in questionable dealings with VBS; Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshaveni, currently under investigation by the National Prosecuting Authority; and Higher Education and Training Minister Nobuhle Nkabane, who misled a parliamentary portfolio committee regarding the appointment of sector education and training authority boards should have been removed immediately.

ActionSA has introduced its Enhanced Cut Cabinet Perks Bill to slash Cabinet perks and rein in executive excess.

This Bill is part of the party’s Cabinet Reform Package, which it will table alongside a Constitutional Amendment Bill in Parliament to abolish the position of Deputy Ministers - measures it argues could together conservatively save South Africans R1.5-billion a year.