{"id":89427,"date":"2025-09-09T17:13:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government"},"modified":"2025-09-09T17:34:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:34:39","slug":"ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa Defends Role of Deputy Ministers in Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the retention of deputy ministers as part of the executive despite calls for their abolishment.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa said that deputy ministers served an important role in assisting ministers to perform their duties.<\/p>\n<p>The president was answering questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon on several issues for the first time in the new term.<\/p>\n<p>The role and financial costs of deputy ministers has been a point of discussion for years, with calls for their abolishment from parties.<\/p>\n<p>There is also a constitutional amendment bill by ActionSA to abolish deputy ministers currently before Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>But President Ramaphosa said deputy ministers who don\u2019t hold executive authority and aren\u2019t legally empowered to act on behalf of ministers, still have a lot to offer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Deputy ministers continue to play a critical role in our government. They are members of the executive, participate in Cabinet committee discussions. I\u2019d like to believe that we have a very wonderful system that functions so well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Ramaphosa said he would have preferred a smaller executive, but putting together a Government of National Unity meant he had to cater for more parties.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the retention of deputy ministers as part of the executive despite calls for their abolishment. Ramaphosa said that deputy ministers served an important role in assisting ministers to perform their duties. The president was answering questions in the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon on several issues for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-89427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ramaphosa Defends Role of Deputy Ministers in Government - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the retention of deputy ministers as part of the executive despite calls for thei ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ramaphosa Defends Role of Deputy Ministers in Government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Cyril Ramaphosa has defended the retention of deputy ministers as part of the executive despite calls for thei ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-09T17:13:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-09T17:34:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757426331.806508.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ramaphosa Defends Role of Deputy Ministers in Government\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-09T17:13:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-09T17:34:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government\"},\"wordCount\":211,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757426331.806508.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-defends-role-of-deputy-ministers-in-government\",\"name\":\"Ramaphosa Defends Role of Deputy Ministers in Government - 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