Western Cape Premier Helen Zille on Friday named 10 appointees to her provincial Cabinet, including one from the Independent Democrats (ID).
ID provincial chairperson Sakkie Jenner has been given responsibility for cultural affairs and sport.
Democratic Alliance (DA) provincial leader Theuns Botha has been allocated the health portfolio.
Zille said her choices — all male — represented ”the best fitness-for-purpose match I could find”.
”We have included Sakkie Jenner on the basis of our drive towards inclusivity and realigning politics in South Africa over the next five years,” she said.
Jenner said he had accepted because the ID’s mantra in the recent election campaign had been that its members should be ”part of the solution”.
”That is the basis of this decision,” he said. ”I have come here to make a difference.”
Zille said she had also talked to the Congress of the People (Cope) about a possible post, but the party had indicated it wanted to remain independent ”at this stage”.
The DA, which Zille leads, won a clear majority in the 42-member legislature in the elections, and does not need to enter into alliances to govern.
The other members of the Cabinet, which was sworn in by Constitutional Court judge Yvonne Mokgoro, were: agriculture, Gerrit van Rensburg; safety, former provincial police commissioner Lennit Max; transport and public works, Robin Carlisle; social development, Ivan Meyer; finance, Alan Winde; local government, former mayor of the award-winning Swartland municipality Anton Bredell; housing, Bonginkosi Madikizela; and education, Donald Grant.
All of them were drawn from the DA.
Grant, a former Bitou (Plettenberg Bay) local councillor, said it had been ”with shock” that he got the call from Zille on Thursday offering him the post.
”I did a crash course on the internet last night to check up on what the DA’s education policy is,” he admitted, to laughter from his colleagues.
”Fortunately there is a wonderful roadmap.”
Responding to a reporter who said he was unable to see a single female in the Cabinet, Zille, who will head the body, replied with a grin: ”Last time I looked I was a female.”
However, she added that the question was fair and valid.
”There are lots of positions the DA has to fill in this government, and I may have not got the fit perfect in terms of other peoples’ analysis.
”But in terms of my analysis, for what is needed I’ve got the best fit with the jobs and the people that I could.”
She said the gender ratio could well swing in the other direction with DA office-holders in other spheres of government.
Zille said her Cabinet faced a huge challenge in governing the province.
”We’re going to, I hope, listen more than we speak, because we learn a lot from people who tell us how our policies are being implemented on the ground and whether they are working or not.”
She pledged the same principles of transparency that the DA introduced in the City of Cape Town, where the adjudication of tenders has been made a public process.
The DA had no intention of purging officials in the provincial administration as long as they were able to fulfil the purpose of their jobs, recognised the distinction between party and state, and were prepared to implement DA policy. — Sapa