Ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa's anticipated Cabinet announcement, ActionSA is urging the governing coalition to realign its priorities with the needs and interests of South Africans and not with “their own parochial needs”.

ActionSA Parliamentary Caucus leader Athol Trollip said his party was concerned that while negotiations for “cushy” ministerial positions continued, ordinary South Africans wait to see when their interests will take centre stage over the “endless party-political horse-trading.”

Negotiations are underway among the parties in the Government of National Unity (GNU) over Cabinet positions, the talks for which stalled after the Democratic Alliance (DA) sent a letter to the African National Congress (ANC) with a list of departments it wants to oversee.

Trollip said ongoing negotiations had featured a phenomenon where critical issues, such as the size of an "already bloated Cabinet" and executive accountability, are apparently being “negotiated away in opaque discussions”, parts of which are only known to citizens through “strategically curated leaks”.

“In the absence of any ambiguity that the business of government is being delayed by the intense jockeying for positions by parties in the African National Congress/Democratic Alliance+ coalition, ActionSA believes that this disservice hampers the significant work that the seventh administration must undertake to address the many pressing issues facing communities across South Africa,” he said.

He said the leaked letter from the DA to the ANC showed an attempt to politically ringfence the appointment of directors-general, calling it a notably worrying development that he said would deepen partisanship and patronage within the public service.

“Beyond the troubling resemblance to the ANC's disastrous cadre deployment policy, this is further evidence that the ANC/DA+ coalition arrangement continues to prioritise compromise over principles and commitments to advancing the interests of South Africans and ensuring good governance,” said Trollip.