GOVERNMENT ground to a halt — literally — on Thursday when five cabinet ministers were trapped in a parliamentary lift for almost half-an-hour. One, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi, recently suffered a similar ordeal and was jokingly blamed for the latest mishap by his colleagues. Buthelezi, who around a month ago was trapped with some officials and bodyguards in the same lift for an hour, this time shared his temporary confinement with Intelligence Minister Joe Nhlanhla, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, and Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana. However, they did not use the opportunity to hold an impromptu cabinet meeting in the lift, Nhlanhla said. “There were some nice jokes. Someone said: ‘The next time I get into a lift and I see Minister Buthelezi going in, I’m not going in as well’,” he said.