Misplaced Pages

Second Mbeki Cabinet
3rd Cabinet of the Republic of South Africa (since the 1994 elections)
2004–2008
President Mbeki in 2008
Date formed	29 April 2004 (2004-04-29)
Date dissolved	24 September 2008 (2008-09-24) (4 years, 4 months and 26 days)
People and organisations
President	Thabo Mbeki
Deputy President	Jacob Zuma (until 2005) Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (from 2005)
No. of ministers	28 ministers
Member party	African National Congress New National Party (until 2005) Azanian People's Organisation
Status in legislature	Majority
Opposition party	Democratic Alliance
Opposition leader	Tony Leon (until 2007) Sandra Botha (from 2007)
History
Election	2004 election
Legislature term	Third Parliament
Predecessor	Mbeki I
Successor	Motlanthe

The second cabinet of Thabo Mbeki was the cabinet of the government of South Africa from 29 April 2004 until 24 September 2008. It was in office for the duration of Mbeki's second term in the South African Presidency, which lasted between the 2004 general election and Mbeki's resignation from office on 24 September 2008.

The cabinet comprised 28 ministers and was reshuffled twice, once in June 2005 and once in May 2006. In addition to members of Mbeki's African National Congress, it included one minister apiece from the New National Party and Azanian People's Organisation.

Cabinet

After the April 2004 general election, Thabo Mbeki was elected to his second and final term as President of South Africa. On 28 April 2004, he announced his new cabinet. Although his political party, the African National Congress (ANC), had won a supermajority in the election, he invited two opposition parties – the New National Party (NNP) and the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) – to fill a cabinet post apiece. The Inkatha Freedom Party was not represented.

About half of the appointments were unchanged from Mbeki's outgoing first-term cabinet, and only six new ministers were appointed. The only major organisational change was Mbeki's decision to sever the Ministry of Arts and Culture from the Ministry of Science and Technology; until then they had been unified as the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The 28-member cabinet included 12 women, an increase from Mbeki's first term.

Reshuffles

The most dramatic change in the cabinet's composition occurred on 14 June 2005, when Mbeki announced his decision to remove Jacob Zuma from the Deputy Presidency. The sacking was the result of developments in ongoing corruption allegations against Zuma. Mbeki appointed Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to succeed Zuma as the Deputy President, and in turn appointed Lindiwe Hendricks to succeed Mlambo-Ngcuka as Minister of Minerals and Energy.

The Minister of Public Works, Stella Sigcau, died less than a year later. In the aftermath of her death, on 22 May 2006, Mbeki announced his most extensive cabinet reshuffle, which resulted in the appointment to cabinet of Lulu Xingwana; it also affected three other ministers.

List of ministers

List of deputy ministers

Although deputy ministers are not members of the South African Cabinet, they are appointed by the president and assist cabinet ministers in the execution of their duties. At the same time as he announced his cabinet on 28 April 2004, Mbeki appointed 21 deputy ministers to serve below the cabinet. For the first time, he appointed two Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs to serve together. Two of the deputy ministers, Gert Oosthuizen of the ANC and Ntopile Kganyago of the opposition United Democratic Movement, were not sworn in until 10 May 2004.

In his minor reshuffle of June 2005, Mbeki appointed two Deputy Ministers of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies and Elizabeth Thabethe; until then there had been only one deputy minister, Lindiwe Hendricks, who was promoted to cabinet in the reshuffle.After this, Mbeki made two further changes to his corps of deputy ministers. First, on 25 January 2006, he announced that Cheryl Gillwald would resign as Deputy Minister of Correctional Services at the end of the month; he appointed Loretta Jacobus to replace her. Second, in a decision that sparked international controversy, he fired Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge as Deputy Minister of Health on 8 August 2007.

Mbeki did not appoint deputy ministers in the Ministries of Housing, Intelligence, Labour, Public Service and Administration, Public Enterprises, Transport, or Water Affairs and Forestry, nor did he appoint a deputy minister in the Presidency. In addition, when Lulu Xingwana was promoted to the cabinet in his May 2006 reshuffle, he did not appoint anybody to replace her as Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy. Likewise, after Madlala-Routledge was dismissed, the position of Deputy Minister of Health remained vacant until the end of the cabinet's term.

References

1. ^ "S. African President Names New Cabinet". Voice of America. 28 April 2004. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
2. "Meet Mbeki's 'delivery' team". IOL. 29 April 2004. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
3. ^ "Mbeki's cabinet list". News24. 28 April 2004. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
4. "Mbeki reaches out with new cabinet". Al Jazeera. 28 April 2004. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
5. "Deputy president sacked". The Mail & Guardian. 14 June 2005. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
6. Vasagar, Jeevan (14 June 2005). "Mbeki fires deputy in corruption scandal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
7. ^ "Statement on Cabinet meeting of 22 June 2005". Government Communication and Information System (GCIS). 22 June 2005. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
8. "T Mbeki announces cabinet appointments". South African Government. 22 May 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
9. ^ "Mbeki reshuffles Cabinet following Sigcau's death". The Mail & Guardian. 22 May 2006. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
10. "Second in command". The Mail & Guardian. 30 April 2004. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
11. ^ Piombo, Jessica; Nijzink, Lia, eds. (2005). Electoral Politics in South Africa: Assessing the First Democratic Decade. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 287. ISBN 978-1-4039-7123-4. OCLC 62118470.
12. "Mbeki welcomes two new deputy ministers". The Mail & Guardian. 10 May 2004. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
13. "Statement on Cabinet meeting of 25 January 2006". Government Communication and Information System (GCIS). 25 January 2006. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
14. "N Balfour on appointment of new Deputy Minister L Jacobus". South African Government. 2 February 2006. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
15. "Prisons gets new deputy". News24. 2 February 2006. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
16. The Lancet (2007). "The unjustifiable firing of Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge". The Lancet. 370 (9587): 540. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)61264-1. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 17707729.
17. Sidley, Pat (18 August 2007). "South African health minister sacked after attending AIDS conference". BMJ. 335 (7615): 321.1–321. doi:10.1136/bmj.39307.658021.DB. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1949473. PMID 17703022.
18. "Madlala-Routledge's dismissal slammed". The Mail & Guardian. 9 August 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
19. Majavu, Anna (26 September 2008). "Winners, losers in cabinet shuffle". The Sowetan. Retrieved 4 July 2024.

• Politics of South Africa
• Cabinets of South Africa
• 2004 establishments in South Africa
• 2008 disestablishments in South Africa
• Cabinets established in 2004
• Cabinets disestablished in 2008