President Cyril Ramaphosa will announce his new cabinet on Monday, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya announced on Sunday.
Media speculation was rife on Friday that the president had failed to announce the new national executive line-up on Thursday due to illness.
That was not so, the spokesperson said, adding that on the contrary he was busy finalising his reconfiguration of the national executive.
“Furthermore, there were parliamentary processes such as the swearing-in of certain members of parliament that the president needed to take account of while he is finalising the formation of the executive,” Magwenya said.
When asked to comment on why took him so long to make the announcement, Magwenya said there had never been a deadline for the cabinet reshuffle.
“We have, a number of times, clarified that there was never a set date for president to reconfigure his cabinet or a deadline for this,” he said.
He added: “The president needed to take account of the process which included swearing in of MPs. I wouldn’t characterise this as the president being absent.”
NM/jn/APA