South Africa’s cabinet with its president, deputy president and ministers is larger than the cabinets of Germany and the UK.

Both these countries have larger populations than South Africa’s 62-million. They also have larger economies: Germany has a GDP of $4.5-trillion and the UK $3.3-trillion. South Africa’s is $377.8-billion, according to World Bank data.

Three countries with bigger cabinets are South Africa’s partners in BRICS –Brazil, India and China. They have much larger economies and populations than South Africa.

In announcing his cabinet on 30 June, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that although he had hoped to reduce the number of portfolios, it had not been possible as he wanted his cabinet to include all the parties in the Government of National Unity.

These are the ANC, DA, PA, IFP, Good, PAC, FF+, UDM, Al Jama-ah, Rise Mzansi and the United Africans Transformation.