President Ramkalawan unveils new cabinet |04 November 2020

President Ramkalawan and the new ministers during their first special meeting at State House (Photo: Jude Morel)

President Wavel Ramkalawan yesterday unveiled his new cabinet which is composed of 13 ministers.

After 11 of the ministers were sworn in, they were convened for a first special meeting with President Ramkalawan and Vice-President Ahmed Afif.

For this first special meeting, the press were given permission to attend the proceedings.

After greeting and congratulating the ministers, President Ramkalawan seized the opportunity to address them a few words. “Let me say right at the onset, you can rely on me and my full support for you to do your work. Do not hesitate to come forward and meet me in my office. I have adopted an open door policy and I will make myself available to meet with you. We have a huge responsibility ahead of us and this is why we should work shoulder to shoulder to support the work of each other. As a team, hard work starts with us here. I have no doubt that each one of you will do the job. There will be a transformation period that will follow and it entails pain. I urge you all to make the transformation possible in a gentle and good way so that all Seychellois feel that their contribution is being valued.”

President Ramkalawan noted that together with his vice-president they are not taking on any ministry but will be busy overlooking the affairs of the government as a whole.

He also stated that already he has been working closely with the vice-president and now they are consulting even more on various subjects.

To the ministers, President Ramkalawan said “there will be a lot of responsibility placed on you. When you feel you need us, we will be there for you. As from next week, we will be visiting your ministries to talk to your staff. We already started our tour with the Central Bank of Seychelles, the police, Ministry of Finance and tomorrow (today) I will be visiting the army camp as commander in chief. Military has an important role in our society. On Thursday we will visit the Ministry of Health where we will meet Dr (Jude) Gédéon (Public Health Commissioner) and his team to get an overview of Covid-19 in the country and on Friday I will have a first meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly, the leader of government affairs and the leader of opposition. This will be the time for us to see how the Executive will work with the Legislative.”

Addressing the cabinet and the media, President Ramkalawan announced that the Ministry of Finance already informed them that a supplementary budget has to be discussed upon and approved and secondly the 2021 Budget will not be presented this year as usual. It will be presented in January 2021 and the State of the Nation address will also be presented in January 2021.

“Before the year ends, the Assembly will look into the supplementary budget suggested by the Ministry of Finance in order for us to function.”

In his first meeting with his ministers, the President also had a few words for the friendly states who are always beside Seychelles. “We already have a good relation with our friendly states. These countries are expressing their solidarity towards us and I am sure they will help us overcome this difficult period. It will also depend a lot on our Seychellois. In a recent conversation I had with the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, he noted that Mauritius will help us in whatever way it can. My intention as President will be to first visit Mauritius. Regional cooperation comes first then we will keep boosting our relations with other countries already assisting us.”

President Ramkalawan also mentioned that several announcements will be made in the coming weeks and things will be clearer.

“I once again make a direct call to all who are involved in drug trafficking, to please stop. Stop poisoning our youth because we will not take this lightly. As a government we have a responsibility to free the 10% of our population from the clutches of drugs. We want our youth to be revitalised and we want a clean Seychelles. Another major and crucial task is to look into the young people who completed their A Level and have to go for further studies. I am excited with what is happening. Napa plas pour politik dan gouvernman! Anyone trying to put politics in the government will be call to task. There is no place for bureaucracy right now. I want you all to have a good pair of scissors and cut off bureaucracy in your ministry. If I come by, I still see bureaucracy, I will use the scissors! We are here to work for the country and I invite all Seychellois to participate in this venture!” noted President Ramkalawan.

He concluded his remarks by asking the press to feel free to ask questions to the ministers and the ministers should also feel free to answer the questions.

“We want the press to accompany us in this process and have a changed media. I want to inform all the Seychellois that the staff at the President’s Office are working to the best of their abilities and rumours that staff from State house have been made redundant are completely false. When President Faure left office, some of the staff went with him. My approach is different and I talk to everybody. I will stay the way I am.”

The cabinet of ministers will have their first official meeting today at 9am.

Below is the official list of the new portfolios of the ministers:

Vidya Gappy