Trollip says ActionSA aware uphill battle in efforts to scrap deputy ministers ahead
The party has announced the Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill, seeking to overhaul the size of the country's executive.
ActionSA leader, Herman Mashaba (right), and members of its parliamentary caucus on 3 March 2025 introduced the new bills that they plan to table in Parliament. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/EWN
CAPE TOWN - ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said the party understands it will face an uphill battle in its efforts to have deputy ministers scrapped from Cabinet.
The party has announced the Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment Bill, seeking to overhaul the size of the country's executive.
ALSO READ: ActionSA's Trollip: Deputy ministers are redundant doormen and doorwomen for their ministers
ActionSA said the Cabinet is bloated with 32 Ministers and 43 Deputy Ministers.
This follows President Cyril Ramaphosa's appointment of Professor Firoz Cachalia as acting minister, an outsider, despite there being two deputy ministers in the ministry.
Trollip said they have a big mountain to climb trying to pass the bill.
"We will have to get 2/3 support in Parliament, and it's obvious that parties that are in the GNU [Government of National Unity] that are benefitting from Cabinet posts and deputy minister positions are unlikely to support it. But we will remind a number of those parties that when we were in opposition, they were very much pro in getting rid of deputy ministers and cutting the size of the Cabinet."
He added that deputy ministers are a waste of taxpayers’ money.
"Also, we've looked at other countries with much bigger populations and much bigger economies where they run the country with no deputy ministers and 20 Cabinet ministers. So, we believe that we can run this country or should be running this country with 20 cabinet ministers and no deputy ministers."