Mapaballo Borotho

President Cyril Ramaphosa has removed the Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Andrew Whitfield, from his cabinet.
Whitfield, who is the DA’s member of parliament, was serving in Ramaphosa’s Government of National Unity (GNU).
The Presidency released a statement thanking him for his service but gave no reason for his dismissal.
‼️ CONFIRMATION ON CABINET RESHUFFLE
— Khumbudzo Ntshavheni (@Khu_Ntshavheni) June 26, 2025
The Presidency can confirm that in terms of Section 93(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, President Cyril Ramaphosa has removed the Hon.
Andrew Whitfield, MP from the position of Deputy Minister for Trade,… pic.twitter.com/OIa4ThAP7i
As much as Ramaphosa has not indicated whether he’s going to reshuffle the whole cabinet, ActionSA has called on him to relieve all the deputy ministers of their duties.
“President Cyril Ramaphosa must remove all 42 remaining Deputy Ministers and implement bold reforms that deliver real accountability across his entire Cabinet for incompetence, underperformance, and impropriety”.
The party says the president’s cabinet is ineffective, with socio-economic ills reflecting a failure rooted in absent reforms.
“Regrettably, while the President has indicated that he has no intention of making wholesale changes to his cabinet, ActionSA believes that this was a missed opportunity to make decisive choices and steer the country in a new direction,” the party wrote.
Meanwhile, the DA’s federal council chairperson, Helen Zille, has reportedly announced she had convened an urgent meeting of the DA’s federal executive on Thursday, following “the actions of President Cyril Ramaphosa around the composition of the national executive of the government of national unity”.
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