The First Cabinet of Cyril Ramaphosa was the cabinet of the government of South Africa between 27 February 2018 and 29 May 2019. It was formed by Ramaphosa after he won a midterm election to succeed Jacob Zuma as President of South Africa. It comprised 33 ministers and served until the 2019 general election.
During this first term, Ramaphosa did not make structural changes to the cabinet, with the sole exception of a merger between the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services. He effected a single cabinet reshuffle on 22 November 2018.
President Jacob Zuma resigned as President of the Republic of South Africa on 14 February 2018, and President Cyril Ramaphosa became his successor after a midterm election in the National Assembly. He was inaugurated as president on 15 February 2018 and retained Zuma's cabinet for 10 days before announcing his cabinet in a televised address on 26 February 2018.[1]
Although he retained many of Zuma's ministers, Ramaphosa reversed some of Zuma's most controversial appointments in economic ministries.[2][3] The ministers whom he sacked included Fikile Mbalula, Lynne Brown, Faith Muthambi, Hlengiwe Mkhize, Des van Rooyen, Mosebenzi Zwane, and David Mahlobo.[2]
On 9 October 2018, Ramaphosa announced that Nhlanhla Nene had resigned as Minister of Finance and would be replaced by Tito Mboweni with immediate effect.[4][5]
On 22 November 2018, he announced a more comprehensive cabinet reshuffle, occasioned by the death of Minister Edna Molewa and the resignation of Malusi Gigaba.[6] In the reshuffle he made new appointments to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Environmental Affairs, and the Ministry of Communications. He also announced that the latter ministry would absorb the former Ministry of Telecommunications and Postal Services.[7]
Although deputy ministers are not members of the cabinet, they are appointed by the president and assist cabinet ministers in the execution of their duties. Ramaphosa made certain new deputy ministerial appointments in February 2018, marked with an asterisk below.[3] After that, however, he did not reshuffle the deputy ministers at any point during his cabinet's term.