'I Don't Want Race Or Gender Bean-Counting'

Democratic Alliance leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has defended her appointment of an all-male, mostly white, provincial government executive.

"I have to draw the cabinet from the list of elected representatives. I do not have discretion to bring in people from outside. Any premier must play the cards that are dealt in the list. Fortunately, we have excellent skills on the list," Zille said yesterday.

Zille said a lot of time had been spent on matching the skills available to the various positions.

"You must look at the entire government. Include the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker and you will see that the picture is different. The speaker is Sheikh Shahid Esau, the deputy speaker is Richard Majola.

"The chief whip is a woman but generally I don't go for race and gender bean-counting. I ask myself 'what will this job require? Who is best to meet the requirements of the job?' If you're not guided by these questions you end up with goal displacement and poor governance."

While her choice of DA provincial leader Theuns Botha as health MEC was due to his strong managerial skills and understanding the need for public-private partnership, finance MEC Alan Winde's appointment was because of skills in this area, Zille said.

"Alan has also been our spokesman on finance and economic development. That's where his strong skills lie, although his passion is also the environment. I didn't want to start juggling the structure of departments so I left environment with local government and planning at this stage.

"The structure is not cast in stone. We will see how things go but I don't like moving in and making wholesale changes before I have a feel of how things work," she said.

Zille said that while standing committees would also be chaired by people best-skilled for the positions, all DA caucus members would have positions of responsibility.

Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich lamented the all-male cabinet and said the union federation challenged its members to a public debate on their expertise.

"I doubt very much if there is anything to do with capability in this group, as I know them to not be the sharpest knives in the drawer," Ehrenreich said.